I am currently a finance student at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and was accepted as a junior year transfer to Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business.
I am a finance major and hope to enter real estate/real estate finance after graduation and work at a real estate investment firm or a REIT (i.e. Starwood Capital Group, CIM Group, CBRE, Vornado, etc). I’d like to get some insight into which university has the better business school and which university would be better off for finance/real estate/business and finance/real estate/business recruiting.
If I were to go to Boston University or Northeastern University, there is a possibility that I would have to spend an extra semester in college after my 4 years to complete some of the transfer university’s business school requirments (i.e. Northeastern’s co-op program and some of BU’s core business classes). Also, I currently commute so if I transfer then I would also have to pay for dorming.
I know that the end decision will be based on what I think of the schools but I’d like to get some insight from college confidential to help me make the decision. I’m not really enjoying my time at Fordham too much and I have doubts about how well positioned Fordham’s business school is in terms of recruiting for real estate firms and banks. But at the same time it’s still in NYC (my hometown, hence I commute to Fordham) which makes it great for networking opportunities given that many big firms are located here.
As for the two transfer schools that I got accepted to (Boston University and Northeastern), I feel that they have better business schools (but not completely sure, so if somebody could elaborate more on this, that would be great) and I feel Boston is still a pretty nice city for networking and finding career/internship opportunities with real estate investment firms or banks. I also feel that BU and Northeastern may have more firms recruiting and better career opportunities after graduation. However, what turns me off for these two schools would be the higher cost and the possibility of having to stay for an extra semester to complete the school’s core requirements. Both schools say that there is a possibility of having to stay an extra semester depending on how many credits transfer from Fordham. As for costs, BU barely offered me financial aid (only ~10,000) so I would have to pay around $55,000 per year at BU. Northeastern is a little less, but still around $50,000 per year (possibility of little lower to $45,000 but not completely sure yet). Fordham right now is ~$25,000-$26,000 per year. Also since I commute to Fordham, I find that it is more difficult for me to network compared to my classmates based on real-life experience during my time at Fordham. (You may say to just dorm but then the costs will be just as much as BU and I don’t see the point of spending 25k-35k more when the school is only ~35-45 minutes away)
So as you see, I am in a tough spot here because I see there are a lot of pros to each school, but also quite a few cons to each school, hence I am having difficulty in deciding. It would be amazing if you can offer me some more insight based on what I just told you above. Any help in aiding me make my decsion will be greatly appreciated! Please and Thank You
(Once again, schools I am choosing between as a junior year transfer would be BU Questrom, Northeastern D’Amore-McKim, and Fordham Gabelli)