Deciding between UNC vs Georgetown

Congratulations on 2 great options!! I can’t possibly make a recommendation on a financial decision as everyone’s circumstances and preferences are highly personal and unique.

I am not sure if your child’s goal is finance or Wall Street but I will share that as a 30yr plus veteran of such jobs at several bulge bracket firms we primarily recruit from the business schools within a college.

Specifically McD at Gtown, Mendoza at ND, Wharton, Gabelli at Fordham or Carroll at BC, etc. Occasionally you will see someone from outside of the B school curriculum but more the exception then the rule.

Think of it this way. Typically from a target school we will get 40-60 resumes with a desire to take no more then 2-4 kids from one school. That means we will offer on campus interviews to 10-15 kids of which we would offer 4-8 “super day” in office spots.

The non B school kid faces an uphill battle competing with their own schools B school candidates and then ultimately has to impress relative to all the other schools B school kids.

One option although not ideal is to participate in Dartmouth’s Tuck program called Bridges which offers a business education for non business students during a winter of summer session. It isn’t cheap but offers a way for a liberal arts kid to hit the ground running if and when they get an internship and stand out a bit.

https://bridge.tuck.dartmouth.edu/

Either way I think your student will have ample opportunities and wish you luck!!

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Go to UNC. Try for KF. If not, look at Econ or Organizational Leadership or something else. Do well. Take the $200k and get an MBA from Wharton or JD from Yale when she has a better idea what she wants to do later in life.

If she has the stats for Georgetown, I would hope she would be very competitive for KF. Good luck.

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People on CC are very eager to save you money you may be willing to spend! Don’t be bullied - of your d loves GT and you can afford it, go for it.

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I agree with @relaxmon. Sometimes the advice on this site can seem like bullying. Only you know how much the dollar difference means to you. The least expensive choice is not always the best choice for everyone. Neither of my kids are at the school that was the least expensive for us. We saved for college, knew what we could afford, and they stayed within the budget they were given. The colleges they chose to go to offered some intangible benefits that the others didn’t. Everything isn’t always about the best return on your investment. If you can afford Georgetown, your daughter prefers it, and she knows she can get into her preferred major there, then I see no reason to force her to go to a less expensive school.

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No one is bullying. As I said it’s a personal choice. …but I don’t see how one can justify it.

Anyone who applies to a no merit school and is full pay knows up front the possibility of a high expense. But applying, getting accepted and then that $340k bill staring you in the face can give someone late pause and it may have happened here.

But obviously the op has ‘some’ concern with cost hence they created the post. If they had no concern, they would not have.

So people are going to provide their perspectives. That’s why we are here.

In the end every OP will make the right decision for them. But hearing varying opinions may help provide them clarity.

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We also were prepared to pay full fare for our kids to attend any college. We did help them craft their application lists…but once that was done, the decision about where to attend was up to them. Neither chose the least costly option. One actually chose the most expensive option. If we had had issues with the costs, this would have been presented up front.

So…if this family is willing and able to pay the cost to attend GTown, fine. But the OP did reference costs…

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If the money is saved, there is no hardship, and your retirement is well funded- I would allow the student to choose.

If staring at the high cost makes you nervous…you have an outstanding state university system from which to choose.

I would attend UNC and help pay for grad school.

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OP hasn’t discussed finances in this post as far as I can tell. Is there debt involved or is the 529 fully funded for Georgetown? Any other conditions? That would help.

I don’t think anyone is bullying. OP asked for advice and yes one of our son’s took the higher cost route and the other took lowest cost…but because of fit, not cost.

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From the OP…they mention the difference in tuition between the two schools and wonder if they can check with GTown for any type of aid.

Hopefully, the cost isn’t an issue, and the student can choose.

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Here are a dozen potential reasonable justifications for absorbing incremental cost…

  1. Better academic fit
  2. Desire to be surrounded by a certain type or caliber of student
  3. Better geographic fit
  4. Specific course of study advantage
  5. Social fit
  6. Parents saved and value giving the child the choice
  7. Money doesn’t have the same “value” to everyone
  8. Prestige (right or wrong it is personal)
  9. Perceived greater alumni network
  10. Greater resources
  11. Job placement
  12. Curriculum format

Hardly a complete list and frequently some overlap or give and take exists I am sure.

The OP appears to be appropriately weighing several of them.

I recognize not everyone has the financial flexibility to prioritize fit over cost but for many cost isn’t nor should it be the sole factor that drives all other decisions.

For example…If the question is what north east LAC with a classics dept is best for my politically active sport hating child the answer shouldn’t be a huge southern state school known for football because it’s cheap.

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Congratulations on the acceptance to such wonderful colleges! @canyons, does your family feel financially comfortable paying for Georgetown, doing so without taking out loans while remaining on-track for a financially secure retirement? If not, then I personally would remove it from consideration. Your daughter has been accepted to great schools, including direct admit to the business programs at NC State and UNC-Charlotte and it doesn’t seem as though you have financial concerns about the cost of your in-state publics. If your family feels financially comfortable paying for Georgetown, then I think it remains a contender.

What does your daughter like about Georgetown? What does that opportunity offer that the others don’t that she values? What is it that your daughter likes about UNC-CH? What does Chapel Hill offer that the others don’t that she values? What is lacking from NC State and/or UNC-Charlotte? Right now the only sense I have is that the pedigree/prestige is a factor and that the ability to major in business. But college is about more than prestige and a field of study. Is she interested in Greek life? Does she want ra-ra athletics or couldn’t care less? Has she visited all the campuses? What were her impressions? Where does she feel most comfortable? Where does she feel like, “this is right, these are my people, this is my place?”

As @tsbna44 has mentioned, there is a significant financial difference between Georgetown and the wonderful in-state options that North Carolinians have. Would your family be willing to use the difference in cost to pay for an MBA or other grad school option, or assist with a house down payment, or…? Does the value of money for a house or grad school mean more to your daughter than Georgetown vs NC State?

Also, is there a difference in what kind of lifestyle your daughter will have at college? For instance, perhaps she’d have a roommate all 4 years at Georgetown and wouldn’t be able to study abroad and would have to pay for all of her personal expenses. Whereas if she attended an in-state public, maybe she would have a single room, study abroad for a year, have college activities paid for (season sports tickets, theater tickets, sorority fees), and a personal allowance. Then again, perhaps she could have all of these experiences at Georgetown as well.

In looking at UNC’s non-business school majors that might be possible, besides Economics there’s also a Statistics and Analytics major and a Management and Society major (should she switch her interest from marketing).

Best of luck to your family as this decision is made!

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About 900 (57%) students a year decided that Georgetown was worth full price. I am sure that most of them had a cheaper option. There is likely 900 reasons why they are at Georgetown. There is likely another group around the same size (44% yield) that decided to do something else. They may be paying less somewhere or pay the same somewhere else.

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My daughter was an OOS student at UNC, and I can state that the academic fit was perfect and she was surrounded by very intelligent students and professors. That was not an issue on any level.

There are big differences between UNC and GT and my advice is to decide which is a better fit. If money is not an issue, if retirement funding is going well, etc…let the student decide. I would not risk retirement for GT.

There are certainly valid reasons for not attending UNC, but lack of academic peers or caliber of student is not one of them (yes, it’s a state school and there is a range).

GT has a very different vibe than UNC…very different. Deciding against UNC because it is not a direct admit to the business school is also a valid reason (for some) not to attend UNC. The student has to be ok with the possibility of a different major.

This family has to decide whether they can afford GT.

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As the parent of a UNC/KF alumni, I will tell you that UNC has some negatives that they don’t talk about in the admission presentations. Classes can be difficult to get until you’re accepted into your desired “school”, and academic advising is less than what should be expected for such a highly rated university (a lack of advisors, hard to get appointments or even assigned an advisor. The advisor often changes multiple times). These are issues that continue to plaque UNC and are chronically complained about. It’s always interesting to see in the parent groups, how quickly new parents turn on UNC when confronted with these shortcomings.

I assumed that these were issues that one would find at any public university, however my younger daughter has experienced none of these issues at VT, a similarly sized public university. Attempts are made to justify these problems by blaming cuts in funding but I’m guessing at Georgetown, these things are likely non-issues.

The good news is, once your child gets into KF, those issues go away (I assume it goes away for most students after they’re admitted to their school of choice), and it is a great experience for the B-school students. My daughter was leaning toward marketing and was interviewing for related internships but at the last minute, landed an interview for an IB internship with one of the largest banks in the country. She did not have a strong finance background (struggled through her corp. fin. class) - but she studied hard before the week of interviews and was a great personality fit for this bank’s culture (much of the interview process consisted of networking activities with the bank’s executives, rather than proving proficiency in finance) - she landed the internship and is now at her 4th year at the bank with an impressive upward trajectory. She spent most of her first year being trained, so I don’t think there should necessarily be a worry about major.

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My D didn’t have these problems with advising, but that doesn’t mean others did not. GT, I assume, will not have the problems described above.

She got all of the classes she wanted, but there were occasional glitches to deal with.

Her profs were amazing and she still keeps in touch socially and professionally.

It took her some time to adjust to the instate/OOS issue…Once she made friends from both OOS and from NC, and once she adjusted to groups coming from the same HS (common with state schools), things improved.

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@canyons, just to be clear: the main reason not to take UNC-CH is the possibility that she doesn’t get into KF?

I do understand that certainty is more fun than not knowing. But KF transfer rates are 40-50% for sophomores. She’s gotten into some top drawers schools. If she does as well as she has historically it does not seem a high-risk choice.

Moreover, if she wants to get into a brand-name consultancy after graduation, she’s going to need to be a star in her cohort (see @Catcherinthetoast’s post: just being in the school isn’t a magic bullet). If she can’t stand out next to her cohort at UNC she’s not going to stand out next to her cohort at Georgetown.

(and fwiw, based on your daughter’s track record, I would back her for succeeding in making the transfer- if that’s what she really wants by then ofc).

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If money is even the slightest concern for your family, take the UNC offer and don’t look back.

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Unfortunately KF admission is holistic, not solely based in stats…admission can be unpredictable. So admission is not 100% in OP’s D’s control. If money is not an issue, I encourage students to go the direct admit route, assuming the school’s a good fit in other ways.

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As someone who has spent most of my career at one of the big consultancies, I can tell you that we hire undergrads in a very, very wide range of majors—in fact, I know a very successful, wonderful poetry major from a major state flagship. It isn’t all that unusual… history, journalism, philosophy, economics, data science, etc. … they are all well-represented.

That said, the institution matters more—because the recruiting machine at these places is very well-established. They will be looking for you at both UNC and Georgetown. My organization is not at Bama or smaller state options. Not that you can’t get hired from one of those schools—just that the well-oiled machine designed to bring in thousands of BAs a year isn’t on those campuses.

I also agree with the above comment that standing out in your class matters, too. But it seems like your daughter is motivated and knows what she wants. She can do all kinds of things to demonstrate her fit for that kind of role post-graduation. Personally, I’d pick UNC for the combo of cost plus knowing the kinds of places she wants to work will be recruiting on her campus and they will consider a variety of candidates.

(But I can see the appeal of Georgetown. Super fun location, awesome school, wide variety of opportunities)

Oh—one other thing. The usual path of a young consultant is to spend 2-3 years as a business analyst and then go back for an MBA. The MBA is often paid for by the organization with the commitment to return for a set amount of time (if you don’t, you have to pay back the tuition). So, it isn’t the end of the road, education-wise.

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I am unfamiliar with UNC’s offerings, but Georgetown’s clubs offer incredible opportunities beyond the classroom. There are organizations that cover a variety of financial interests including private equity, consulting, and investing. Such clubs are impressively organized and offer additional education in technical analysis/strategy, networking opportunities, recruiting preparation, mentorship, and experience with clients or funds in addition to the services offered by the active career office. These clubs are highly competitive, but they offer a real advantage in job placement.

The university also is known for its global perspective, if that is a factor for your daughter.

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