Columbia GS vs. Michigan vs. Emory vs. SCPS vs. SCS vs. SMU

<p>There is no guarantee you’d get into Ross if you attend Michigan. However, you can apply during your year at Michigan and see if you can get accepted. I would just concentrate on getting strong grades in economics and see how it plays out. Remember, it will take you three additional years to graduate from Ross after you matriculate at the College of LSA.</p>

<p>That means 4 years at Michigan for a finance degree, how is that possible?</p>

<p>Ross is a three year program. Unless go directly into it this fall, which you will not be doing, it’s going to be three years starting next year. You can only matriculate into the school once a year, once again in the fall.</p>

<p>^^^^That is why I suggest an economics degree from Michigan and getting your MBA at a later date. That is what you said you wanted ultimately anyway.</p>

<p>Is an economics degree from Michigan going to get me where I want to go?</p>

<p>That is a tough call. It ultimately depends on you. If you do well, a degree from Michigan is not going to hold you back from attending top MBA programs.</p>

<p>Yes. It can.</p>

<p>And for a lot less money.</p>

<p>Which means you will be able to pay for that MBA you want some day.</p>

<p>I want to end up in investment banking and Wall Street. Can I get there with an Econ degree from Michigan?</p>

<p>Hypothetically, let’s say I get an econ degree from Michigan. I graduate May 2015. What is my next course of action? Immediately apply for MBA grad school or try to get a job on Wall Street?</p>

<p>I’m 25 years old by the way…</p>

<p>Michigan is your only truly affordable option. Go there. Do well in your classes. Get to know your professors. Let them know about your career goals. Spend time with the people who run the career center on campus, and get their help targeting potential employers. You want to start looking for good summer internships the day you hit campus this fall. If you need a student job, and there is one available in the career center, take it. You will meet every recruiter who comes to campus, and you will learn a lot about job-hunting.</p>

<p>The better MBA programs expect a minimum of two years of increasingly responsible professional experience, and prefer more than that. If you have been working since you graduated high school, and moved up into management, that experience could count. But it probably will be better for you to get a job after graduating, and work for a couple of years before the MBA.</p>

<p>“I want to end up in investment banking and Wall Street. Can I get there with an Econ degree from Michigan?”</p>

<p>It is certainly possible. I majored in Econ and found jobs in IBanking. Several other Econ majors did as well. If you have a strong GPA (at least a 3.6 GPA), a good understanding of finance and how financial institutions work, and take the initiative, finding a job in any industry from Michigan is possible. Your other options are not better in this regard. </p>

<p>“Hypothetically, let’s say I get an econ degree from Michigan. I graduate May 2015. What is my next course of action? Immediately apply for MBA grad school or try to get a job on Wall Street?”</p>

<p>Applying to graduate school (especially MBA programs) without relevant work experience is not optimal. You will likely not get into a good MBA program, most of which expect 3-5 years of full time work experience.</p>

<p>An undergraduate from these other schools will get you into Columbia’s MBA if you desire. I don’t think it matter so much 5-10 years down the road. Most of these institutions are the exceptions. They’re all solid.</p>

<p>An Economics degree from Michigan will not get you a job on Wall Street. Neither will one from Emory for that matter but Goizueta is a 2 YR program so at least you can graduate by Spring 2015 with excellent job prospects. You wouldn’t graduate from Ross till Spring 2017 if you were even admitted in the first place.</p>

<p>If Columbia is too expensive, I would advise enrolling in Emory.</p>

<p>You can certainly get a job on Wall Street with a degree in economics from Michigan. I know people from my undergraduate college who got jobs on Wall Street with econ degrees from my alma mater, which is far less well-known than Michigan. My freshman year roommate works at JPMorganChase right now with an econ major and no master’s degree.</p>

<p>What you need to do is do the internships over the summer and make sure you take a lot of quant classes and classes in finance.</p>

<p>julliet, are you referring to the highly competitive and coveted Front Office Investment Banking positions at Bulge Bracket firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, or JP Morgan? Those sort of firms will not recruit at the College of Arts & Sciences at any universities besides the Ivies, Duke, Georgetown, Duke, Stanford, MIT, and perhaps UChicago/Vanderbilt. Most of these schools don’t offer undergraduate business programs so the best and brightest are usually liberal arts and engineering majors, whichi s why they are recruited heavily.</p>

<p>Emory Goizueta is a great b-school that has a 2 year curriculum-it appears to best align with the OP’s aspirations and goals.</p>