College list ideas

College Majors Business Major
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Hi - junior son building out his list of schools. Thinking business. Richmond seems like a great target for him but looking for other ideas. Wake Forest feels too competitive to him. Other ideas? Older siblings at Wash U Olin and UMiami - not in the least interested in either!

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You gave no info - so this could be most any college in the country that offers business.

What is he looking for - size wise (seems small-medium), geography. Sports or no sports. Greek or not greek. Urban, suburban.

What are his grades / GPA. What’s his test score if he has one - SAT/ACT. Extra curriculars?

What’s your budget? Will you qualify for aid ? Look at Wake Forest or Miami and run their net price calculators to see.

Basically - you said - what are the names of some business schools :slight_smile: You can do better to help us help you.

Thanks

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I thought the target of Richmond would give a decent anchor for a few key elements – basically a 3.9-4.0 UW - though on a 4.1 this year. He’s doing the full IB diploma. Not sat ACT but aiming for 33+. Extra Curricular - Varsity soccer (d potentially div 3 recruit), lax (potential div 3 recruit) – but not set on playing sports in college, manager of sports team, Decca, model UN, chorus. Budget not driving decision at this point and looking to find schools for him to potentially visit and get excited about. Richmond hits the bill as a bit smaller, good school spirit, smaller city but has an airport, collaborative culture, campus school. Feels State schools are too big. Does not want aggressive academic culture and not hard core party school.

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I would take a list at this list to see if there are any schools that spark your interest. Where in the country would your son like to go to college? Where would he like to live after graduation?

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OK - that gives some context (as we can’t read minds) - here’s some maybe to look at and it seems like your family likes privates - but will mix some publics - Richmond isn’t D3 so i’ll skip that.

btw - budget SHOULD ALWAYS weigh because there’s no point in considering what you can’t or don’t want to afford.

Is there an area of business that’s of interest - because some schools might excel in an area - but not in others. So for entreneurship it may be a Babson, etc.

Some off top of mind that are in cities with access to airports:

American, Babson, Bentley, Butler, Case Western, College of Charleston (downtown, but small city), Denver, Lehigh, Rochester, SMU, Tulane, TCU, William & Mary (between two airports)

That’s a start - and a mix of reach, target, and likely (C of C and Denver likely safety).

Good luck.

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Villanova, Lehigh, Bucknell and Miami FL
came to mind. I wouldn’t rule WF out of the mix. Fordham would be similar if he would consider urban environments.

I would have him visit a public school just for comparison. A school like Pitt might work. Under 19k undergrads. Not directly in city. Small business school. Highly rated.

S20 really liked Miami business. Seemed like they were very flexible with classes and double majors. Our friend’s D just graduated last year. Loved it. She’s going to PA school in fall.

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Are there types of industries your son is interested in? Type of weather? Specialties within business? Distance from home or particular states to include (or exclude)? Do you want a high likelihood of internships available during the school year? Or just plans to do them in the summer? Lots of Greek life or not so much?

I agree with @tsbna44 that the budget should always factor in to the college search unless you have and are willing to spend $350k on your student’s college education without taking out loans and while continuing to properly fund your retirement. Also, if there are any children after this child, are you willing to pay the same amount for them? Perhaps your family has a low EFC and thus is likely to receive substantial financial aid. Then we know to look at schools that meet 100% of financial need. Or perhaps you say that you can spend up to $ 70k/year but would prefer to spend less than $50k. But there are numerous threads in this forum of people who included very expensive colleges in their initial search (and sometimes applications) where they didn’t want the cost to be a factor, and then cost did end up being a big deal.

Right now, there are a whole lot of colleges if we’re looking at business majors at not-big universities that offer lacrosse and soccer and choirs (if your son decides to continue those in college). Anything else you could provide to help us narrow in on what your son is looking for would be great. Or even what area of the country you’d like to do an initial tour of colleges so that a list could be developed based on that to provide a variety of different campuses that would help your son determine where his comfort zone is.

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thank you!

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He’s my third - so dragged round a fair few public schools! Thanks for the ideas. His sister is at U Miami - amazing school.

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thank you for these ideas - very helpful.

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This is my third child as I mentioned so we’ve been through the rodeo, budgeting etc. I’m simply excited to hear ideas! My oldest was in the elite bucket. My middle was looking at a very specific major which narrowed choices. This child is on his own path and I’m looking to discover a few gems to throw his way. Thank you for the list!

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Our S is a business major at Richmond, and for us, it has hit all these attributes you described. It has become more competitive over the last few years and closer to Wake in terms of acceptance. If Richmond does become a clear top choice, Early Decision provides a significant boost as you move forward.

We found Bucknell to be a close peer to Richmond in terms of a small university, number of students, with a top business school. But, on the other hand, Bucknell, we felt, was a little too isolated and maybe a little more of a party school.

Also, just as an FYI, Richmonds newly hired President was the Dean of the SC Johnson School of Business at Cornell. So definitely, the Robins School of Business at Richmond is of primary focus for the school as it moves forward.

Not cheap, not a ton of merit, but delivers as advertised.

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Ok, since you just want lists of schools:

  • These colleges are the ones that University of Richmond considers its peer institutions.
  • This thread from a couple of years ago was for someone looking for schools similar to University of Richmond
  • Princeton Review’s list of colleges with the happiest students

For those who don’t want to click on the various links

  • From the CC list, these were the names I saw (bolded ones more frequently): Bucknell, Colgate, College of the Holy Cross, Wake Forest, Hobart, Lehigh, Elon, Colby, William & Mary, Gettysburg, Fordham, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Villanova, Santa Clara, Georgetown, Boston College, Lehigh, Emory, Elon, American, Ithaca, Loyola U. MD, Providence
  • For the ones that Richmond considers its top 10 admissions competitors: UVA, William & Mary, UNC, Wake Forest, Michigan, Northeastern, Boston College, Emory, USC, Villanova.
  • The universities that Richmond considers its information task force peer list (“a list of 30 or so institutions that are comparable in terms of size, scope, and resources” are:

Information Task Force Peer List

Colleges on Princeton Review’s happiest list that were mentioned further upthread or on one of these lists include Rice, Tulane, and William & Mary.

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Thank you! Appreciated.

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fabulous - thank you so much

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I do not think Wake is too competitive.

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I can’t speak to the competitiveness of business school wannabes at Wake, but one big difference between Wake and Richmond is that Wake’s business school is competitive entry, students apply spring of soph year, so students do need to have high grades.

Generally, uncapped and/or direct admit business programs are preferable to competitive, holistic admissions processes at business schools like Wake and UVA. IMO of course.

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As a heads up for the OP, some of the LACS on this peer list does not offer traditional business majors. For example, I believe the closest would be economics at schools like Colgate, Colorado College, Middlebury, Trinity-CT, Wesleyan, and several others.

Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall offer business but more in Liberal Arts Context. Among the higher-ranked small universities, Bucknell, Richmond, Skidmore, Washington & Lee stand out by offering traditional business programs.

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So my son ended up ED’ing to Richmond and will be attending. Thank you so much for your thoughtful inputs and advice a year ago - it really helped. We are so excited this worked out for him

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