<p>I am entering college in Fall 2009. Should I go to DePaul University (Chicago) (and pay $10,000 per year after financial aid) or go to Indiana University (Bloomington) (and pay $27,000 per year after financial aid)? I am a Finance major.</p>
<p>Go to Depaul, man. $17k/year difference? That’s almost $70k after 4 years! Not worth it.</p>
<p>It’s almost the end of July. How is this decision just being made now? Did you get off the waitlist?</p>
<p>IU is supremely better and higher ranked in business if you value a degree that way</p>
<p>If you want to get into investment management/investment banking/consulting then IU is better. If what you want to do in business doesn’t involve those three, there is no way to justify the extra costs.</p>
<p>well I think as for the business program, the ranks are not that important. Staying in Chicago can definitely facilitate your interns,job hunting…And you can pay less. I cant figure out the reason not to choose DePaul.</p>
<p>before you make the decision, check the job placement rates and avg. starting salary for your major, that way you can see how soon you can pay off loans for each school</p>
<p>I don’t have an opinion on which would be better, but I know IU is loaded with kids from the Chicago area that probably also thought about attending DePaul. And a lot of them aren’t direct admits, so they want to get into Kelley badly enough to take a big financial gamble.</p>
<p>taking a gamble if your not a direct admit is not worth the cost</p>
<p>I have taken all the things mentioned into consideration…and totally confused myself. I’ve made a list of reasons to go to each school, but again that has confused me even more.</p>
<p>Just an FYI, I will be able to graduate in 3 years since I have many AP credits and have taken several courses at a community college. Therefore, my total cost of attendance will be approximately $35,000 at DePaul and $105,000 at Indiana. (with interest and NO payments over 3 years).</p>
<p>Also, I intend to major in Finance. Looking to go into investment banking and/or/eventually Law school after graduation.</p>
<p>With DePaul, I pay $70,000 less, which is obviously a plus. I am also in the heart of Chicago’s financial district, which could make getting internships and a job easier (right?). I’ll also be closer to home and the transportation will be easier to and from home (I live in the suburbs about 45 minutes away from DePaul). Btw, I will be dorming at DePaul.</p>
<p>With Indiana, I get a beautiful campus with lots of facilities and a typical college atmosphere. The academic calendar is also really nice because I get off in the first week of May (as opposed to mid June with DePaul). Indiana’s business program is definitely more reputable (US News: #6 among public school, #11 overall, #9 Finance program; BusinessWeek: #20 overall). Also, Indiana has fewer general education requirements compared to DePaul, which is something I REALLY like. </p>
<p>So as you all can see, there are plus sides to both schools. I am really confused, especially because of the great difference in money. If I was paying the same amount of money for both schools, I would definitely go to Indiana. So I want to know, is paying is the extra $70,000 REALLY worth it?</p>
<p>What do you want to major in/what job do you want to end up with?</p>
<p>Finance major. Investment banking or corporate finance. Eventually want to go to law school.</p>
<p>There is almost no way you will be able to get into i-banking from depaul (unless you know a vice president or higher). IU has one of the best i-banking placement records in the country.</p>
<p>Corporate finance is not as competeive and as long as you have a good gpa, you could get into that from depaul.</p>
<p>If you want to go to law school, then the undergrad school doesn’t matter at all; all that matters is your GPA at whichever school you choose to attend and your lsat scores.</p>
<p>i agree with maxellis</p>
<p>Thanks guys for all your help, especially maxellis.</p>
<p>A couple follow-up questions:</p>
<p>Would it make sense for me to go to DePaul for undergraduate studies and then a school like Indiana (Kelley) for an MBA or graduate studies? Like would I be able to get into investment banking with an undergraduate degree from DePaul and graduate (MBA) degree from Indiana (Kelley)?</p>
<p>I ask this because if I go to Indiana (Kelley) for the next three years as an undergraduate, I will come out with 105k of debt. On the other hand, if I go to DePaul for the next three years and do an MBA at Indiana (Kelley) I’ll graduate with maybe 140k in debt. </p>
<p>Basically what I’m trying to get at is if I’m gonna drop over a 100k to go to Kelley, isn’t it better to do it as a graduate student for an MBA? Especially I’m getting a great deal of financial aid and scholarships at DePaul.</p>
<p>Btw, I have graduated from high school one full year early and plan to do the same for undergraduate studies. So even if I pursue an MBA immediately following my bachelor’s, I’ll still graduate “on time”.</p>
<p>Most good MBA programs want to see some work experience before they admit you. The strength of that work experience is often a factor in what MBA program you can get into. A number of employers will pay for you to take MBA courses while you work, also. If it were me, I’d go for the undergrad program that was likely to land me the job I wanted and worry about the MBA later. This is the opposite of what I’d do if I were aiming for law school or medical school, where I’d go for the least expensive undergrad option.</p>
<p>So basically, if I want to go to Law School after my undergraduate studies, going to DePaul would be the smarter option?</p>
<p>Conversely, if I want to go into investment banking and later do my MBA (assuming my employer would pay for it), going to Indiana would be the smarter option?</p>
<p>That is what I think.</p>
<p>If you have 21 hours of AP credit spread into at least six credits each in the A&H, S&H, and N&M distributions, then you would only have to take two 300-level general education classes at IU. This is compared to probably lots of gen ed/liberal arts classes at DePaul, since DePaul requires a big number of credits in the liberal arts. One of the reasons the Kelley degree is so valuable to employers is that a lot of the classes qualifying as “general education” are really business classes, so Kelley students have more relevant business training than graduates of colleges who adhere to traditional interpretations of which courses are considerred general education/liberal arts. At Kelley, assuming you have the right AP credits, you could double-major in finance and accounting in three years, as majoring in accounting requires adding only two three-credit courses to get the major in finance. Theoretically, the finance/accounting double-major possibility in three years could enter into your decision, as most of the Kelley bachelor’s graduates who get into Big Four accounting firms have that double major and probably a lot of the one’s who get good finance jobs have this double major, too.</p>
<p>Thanks mdoc, maxellis, and bthomp1.</p>
<p>Here are the credits that I will have going to Indiana:</p>
<ol>
<li>BUS-X100</li>
<li>CMCL-C121</li>
<li>ENG-W131</li>
<li>MATH-M119</li>
<li>POLS-Y103</li>
<li>PSY-P101</li>
<li>ECON-E202</li>
</ol>
<p>I know some of those count in the three categories and others don’t. Is that what you meant, because that does equal 21 credits?</p>