<p>hey guys. im interested in doing business after undergrad, preferably finance. I also want an mba but want to pay for t myself so im looking for a college that can get me a good starting salary at a good firm so that i can save up enough money in 4-5 years for an mba. spo will it be better for me, in accordance with getting a job, to goto an top LAC or a top university.</p>
<p>P.S: how would pomona or colgate be compared to other universities that provide business programmes ? also which LACs should i apply to if any for good job prospects ?</p>
<p>If you want to go into finance the places to be are Harvard and Wharton (Penn’s business school). They are on their own level in terms of finance recruiting. After that the Ivies, top schools like MIT and Stern (NYU’s business school) are your best bets. For LACs your best bets are the top LACs (big surprise) in Williams and Amherst. To get an idea of which school to go to among LACs, look at career services placement data from the last few years (hopefully by time you graduate the economy will be better) and see which ones place the most at investment banks. Those surveys don’t tell the whole story (i.e. who is working IBD or S&T and who is working research or ops or some backoffice stuff) but it’s better than nothing. I honestly don’t know if you would be better off at say Williams versus Brown, or Colgate versus WashU, but there are some universities (HYP, Wharton, MIT, Michigan, Dartmouth, NYU, etc.) that place very well for finance jobs.</p>
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Why would you want to pay for an MBA when there is the opportunity to get it for free or partially paid? I also wouldn’t worry about MBA prospects until you’re a few years out of undergrad and have a better idea about what you want.</p>
<p>hey venkat, thanks a tonne ! heres my probab;e college list.</p>
<p>would die if i got in: wharton, princeton, dartmouth, duke, cornell</p>
<p>the rest: nyu-stern, pomona and colgate(the only two lacs that interested me) , and im not too sure bout 2 more (my parents said that theyll pay for 10 colleges’ app fees…lol) so could u help me with the other 2 ? i wanna apply to places which id have a decent chance of getting into incase i dont get into my 1st 6 preferances.im thinkin between
ut austin, ucb (but a liitle turned off by the general reviews bout their undergrad) uva, umich, ucla(i liked their econ/math program)
any other suggestions will be appreciated.</p>
<p>PS: i got 2280 in sat 1 , 1600 (math and phy) sat 2, and top 5% of my class, killer ecs and killer recos. :)</p>
<p>If you want the best chances for a job in finance in NYC apply to Michigan and UVA and try to get into the business schools. If you want to be in Cali after graduation I’d go with Cal and UCLA. If you want to be in Texas or the South after graduation I’d go with UT, but the other schools on your list are better for placement elsewhere. UT is probably the only school I’m comfortable saying you’ll get into though (with UM as a pretty good match).</p>
<p>From what I see, your list is: Wharton, Princeton, Dartmouth, Duke, Cornell, Stern, Pomona, and Colgate. Aside from Pomona I hear they all do well for finance placement. I’m not sure about Pomona, mostly because they’re in SoCal and not the north east, but I’m sure they do fine for sutff in that area.</p>
<p>If you are looking at LAC’s – Bucknell has an emerging school of management program, Lehigh very strong in finance close to NYC (rated as top 10 finance program). </p>
<p>Know that – down the road – if you are competing to get into top business schools, there will be lots on investment bankers from top schools applying to choose from. After graduating, you might give up some pay to go the industry route (i.e., financial/strategic planning in a company) – but you will learn more about business and will differentiate yourself from other MBA applicants. There are some great roles/paths at academy companies (GE, PepsiCo) as an option on this front. You can access these types of roles from many different types of schools (including respected state universities).</p>
<p>thank you so much venkat… u have been the most helpful person in a looong time. for the 1st time im actually feeling clear in my head bout where to go.</p>
<p>btw i have 1 last question. a little cliche but is paying 200,000 $ for an education in any of the above schools worth it ? i mean i feel really bad coz its a huge chunk my parents will hav to part with… not tht its a huuuge problem but still. is it worth it both in terms of monetary return on the ‘investment’ and also the experiance and networking opportnities.</p>
<p>^Honestly I can’t answer that question. I’m paying the full amount at Penn and still don’t know if it’s worth the investment. If you look at salary surveys, many top schools have their alums earning a ton of money upon graduation and in the future. If you look at the type of students at these schools, it makes sense that a college with a large number of smart type-A people will have successful graduates. At the same time, you have prestigious companies in lucrative industries that pay a lot of money recruit heavily at these schools. You also have children of very rich and powerful people at these schools which can lead to good networking opportunities.</p>
<p>Most of what I’ve told you is a mixture from what I hear at school, on CC, from talking to people in the industry, and hearsay, so take my advice with a grain of salt. Best of luck.</p>