Cornell PAM vs IU Kelley

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey so I am a rising senior who is trying to decide which college will be the best match for me. I am interested in a business-related career (finance, consulting, etc.) and have been researching my options very heavily. </p>

<p>My current top choices are Cornell University (PAM major) and the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. I have visited both and am in love with both of them.</p>

<p>At Cornell, I am most interested in the PAM major (rather than AEM) as I like how it is a mix of policy, business, government, and social sciences. Also, along with the major, many electives are required which would give me the possibility of taking more practical business courses in the AEM department. Looking at the senior survey for employment, it appears that it is very possible to get a great business related job with this major.
<a href="http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/after_graduation.cfm"&gt;http://www.human.cornell.edu/pam/after_graduation.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>However, I also love IU and particularly the Kelley School. I am very impressed by the variety of majors and courses within the program and the career specific workshops (consulting, IB, etc). I wonder if being in a more career-oriented environment could possibly be more beneficial and possibly outweigh Cornell's overall prestige factor.</p>

<p>I feel that either of these have great potential for me and would serve me well, but I am just not sure which would ultimately be better. As the November 1st deadline approaches, I am trying to decide whether or not I should jump in on Cornell ED as it will greatly increase my chances.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any insights or opinions?</p>

2

<p>When I went through the college process, I looked into Cornell PAM as well. From what I gathered, it essentially is a public policy program. Though many graduates of it get business jobs, I don’t think it will provide you with a business concentrated education as much as Kelley will. If you are only considering PAM as a back door into Cornell (like I did), then I would probably not recommend it. You have to decide if you’d prefer the main focus of your education to be business or public policy. Based on your career goals, it seems to me that you prefer business. However, if you really would prefer PAM (and aren’t just scared off by AEM’s selectivity) and have interest in government, law, etc. then I would probably encourage it over Kelley. </p>

<p>On another note… may I recommend Michigan, and its Ross school of business? Seems like the perfect in between for you, and happens to be where I ended up. :wink: It offers a preferred admission program to outstanding applicants (the program starts sophomore year) and if you don’t get in pre-admit you can apply the following year regular like everyone else. You get the prestige Michigan/Ross name and the benefit of the #2 ranked undergrad business program that is tied with that of MIT’s. I didn’t intend to come on here to promote Michigan, it’s just that I was very similar to you and that’s where I happily ended up. Though I don’t know much about Kelley specifically, I do know that the caliber of students you will be surrounded by at Indiana University is drastically polarized with that of Cornell (and Michigan), so that is something to consider. Best of luck. :)</p>

3

<p>I have no idea about Cornell PAM but Indiana Kelley is a top 10 business school.</p>

4

<p>A concern with Ross is that they have very few direct admits to the business school – most students have to apply after freshman year so it is possible you could go to UM and not get into the business school (I know more than one person who had this happen).
I don’t know about the PAM program at Cornell but the Dyson school is very well regarded.</p>