My D is mainly looking to major in a business field. She got into Chapel Hill but it sounds like you have to jump through hoops and still may not get into their business program.
She was also accepted to Babson College in Mass which is exclusively business so she is trying to decide if it’s worth the risk to commit to UNC which as in-state is less expensive OR to choose Babson which has strong business focus in all classes but may stretch the budget. Any input?
Getting into KFBS is very competitive with about a 50% acceptance rate. The average college GPA of entering students is around 3.6-3.7, with students that have 4.0’s being turned away. So, yes it is daunting. Your D needs to focus on good grades, get involved in some business clubs early on and maybe get an officer position (Carolina Women in Business “CWIB” is a good one), try to get an internship (paid or unpaid) doing something business related during the summer between freshman and sophomore (something like working for a friend’s business or something), and making sure to get to know the KFBS advisors.
Some of the prereq classes like econ and accounting can be tough and bring down the GPA. My advice is always to try and AP out of those, but too late for your D on that one unless she already has. KFBS is slowly expanding so hopefully more of the qualified students can get in. Once you are in, you are with a very good group of people. Good luck!
UNC is a GREAT school and KF is a GREAT business school. Babson is excellent but essentially caters to business which leaves little to no choices if your D changes her mind or wants to explore other majors / minors in a meaningful way.
S was in a similar boat 2 yrs ago. The players were Wake Forest and Bentley (with a scholarship). Wake also has a competitive business school entry program (although it’s more like 65% get in). He chose WFU and I think he made the right decision. Just being around kids with other interests (non business) has been a great experience. The core curriculum has also opened his eyes to other things and he’s added a Politics & International Affairs minor to his Finance major.
Regarding getting into the B school. Your D was good enough to get into UNC… That’s a good start. If she is focused and wants the B school, she just needs to do well in class and get involved. Is it possible she’ll be declined? Sure (can always do econ and be just fine). But the serious ones get in. When S was looking at schools, he met with a director of student affairs type within KF. Took him on a tour, discussed curriculum,etc. She essentially said a large portion of the declines come from self selection. They either do poorly in the prereq accounting or decide they hate it and remove themselves from the admissions process. So the real admission percentage is actually higher.
UNC will offer a far more rounded education with great career opportunities. Babson’s advantage is it’s in the Boston suburbs and is well connected to many great Boston area companies (if that’s important to your D). It’s actually the major reason my S considered Bentley.
Totally different college experiences.
I was only vaguely aware of Babson (and I have 30 years experience in Finance, so I feel a bit bad) but read a little on it. Looks like a great place, especially if your D is interested in entrepreneurship. My main follow-up here is to concur with rickie1 that these are totally different schools. UNC is a smaller public school, but still 18,000 undergrads, where Babson is around 3,000. The main question is where she feels most comfortable and has an environment in which she can succeed in what she wants.
A) for MBA programs having a business undergrad degree is not important. Harvard, Duke, Yale etc. do not offer an undergrad business degree. Speaking directly to profs at top 10 business schools they all said with good work experience after college they’d much rather have an undergrad in their MBA programs who had a hard STEM major (they mentioned physics) or computer science and 2 years work experience rather than an undergrad business degree. The number of wallstreet connected Ivy league schools that offer undergrad business degrees is lower than the ones that do.
B) as mentioned by someone above something like less than half of all kids get the major they started out with (by choice) and UNC offers a lot of options if she changes her mind. ( whatever the number is it’s not uncommon).
C) by the way, the path for the most money is an undergrad engineering degree and later MBA, this is the profile of CEOs of Apple, GM, Google, etc…
And why is she interested in studying business? She can enter the business world multiple ways and UNC offers related majors if she doesn’t get in to K-F.