I’m still a senior in high school, but pretty confident that I want to get an MBA in the future. I was accepted to Northwester, Vanderbilt, Berkeley, Cornell, and USC with half tuition. I would be majoring in economics at all schools except USC where I would major in business. I want to go into a career in investment banking or consulting and will try to get into a top MBA program like Harvard, Stanford, etc. when the time comes. I’m unsure though where I should go to school. I will be saving a lot of money at USC, but will my chances for admittance to these top schools be hindered by passing up the opportunity to get an undergraduate degree from one of the more prestigious schools. Furthermore, I hear that economics is a better degree to have to get an MBA than business administration is, but I don’t want to do economics at USC because it’s pretty weak there. Thanks for answers!
If you decide to attend USC, I would go for the finance major. It would probably be the best for IB or Consulting. USC doesnt have as much IB recruitment as Northwestern, Cornell. or Berkeley but there is still some. Vanderbilt, and USC are roughly on the same level. Getting into an MBA program depends more on your job experience also and I feel that a Finance major at USC would be able to get you an analyst position at many west coast IB’s if you had a 3.7+ GPA.
And I forgot to mention, the money if you go to USC, you could use that money saved to pay for the MBA.
The top MBA programs expect a bare minimum of two years of increasingly responsible work experience. Four to five years would be better. They also expect excellent undergraduate grades, excellent scores on the GMAT, excellent application essays, and stellar letters of recommendation from your undergraduate professors and your work supervisors. The name of the college or university on your diploma doesn’t matter if you meet those expectations.
Berkeley is a better school, but will I be at a disadvantage because of how competitive it is?