Farmer vs Isenberg

I’ve been accepted to the Farmer business school for Supply Chain and Operations management with a merit aid package of 19k a year and admittance into the University Scholars Program. I have not yet visited but I’ve heard amazing things and seems appealing. I have applied RD to UMass Amherst for operations and informations management. I have been told Farmer and Isenberg are at about the same difficulty to get into and believe I am a strong candidate for Isenberg plus I’m in state and a minority. Assuming I get in, which one is more highly regarded in the field? What are the pros and cons of both? If they are both about the same, I will probably go with the cheaper one unless I love Miami when I visit (I visited UMass and while it was okay, I was not in love with it, plus a lot of kids from my school go there).It seems from my research that Farmer is #1 in Supply Chain for undergrad programs but Isenberg is higher ranked overall…I’m just wondering which ranking would matter more in the job market/education-wise?

@ciara2021 - I don’t know anything specific about Miami’s Supply Chain Management Program. My son is a sophomore majoring in Biomedical Engineering with a Mechanical Engineering minor. His best friend is a sophomore finance major at Farmer. My son said that his buddy already has four summer finance internships lined up, so Farmer must be doing something right. FWIW, my son loves it at Miami. He is OOS from Arizona and his buddy is from Northern Virginia.

@Beaudreau Yeah, Miami definitely seems like it attracts students from all over, so I guess I wouldn’t have to worry about seeming out of place being out of state. Does your son or his friend find that their program or internship opportunities are competitive? I’ve heard that Farmer has the most students compared to the other schools at Miami, does your son ever feel like the Engineering School is overshadowed? Just wondering since my back-up major (possible double-major) is in the science field. Thanks!

@ciara2021 - Actually, engineering has been growing rapidly. There were 1953 engineering majors last term, versus 4211 in Farmer. Ten years ago, there were only about 800 engineering majors.

IIRC, my son’s friend has one internship possibility on the West Coast, one in NYC, and two in the Midwest.

This link will give you enrollments by major and school: http://www.units.miamioh.edu/oir/FactBook/FB201617/Enrollment/EnrollCensusC-OXFORD.pdf

@Beaudreau Oh, wow. Yeah, I think I’m leaning more towards Miami now after hearing and researching about the multiple internships that often lead to jobs after graduation. I will have to visit first but the business school in general is impressing me more.
Thank you and good luck to your son!

@ciara2021 - Good luck to you. I think you will do well wherever you go.

Hi Ciara2021,

My son has also been admitted to Isenberg (Finance) and to Miami , FBS (Economics) and UHP. We are also from Mass and have essentially ruled out UMASS in favor of either Miami or U South Carolina. We will be visiting both over Feb vacation to narrow don. I’ve spoken with colleagues who have been to Miami and they say it is beautiful and the business school is exceptionally well run.

Good luck with your decision!

@Mac001 Yeah I feel like I’ll make my decision in March when I attend one of the Make-it-Miami days! How did your son rule out Isenberg, if you don’t mind me asking?

Well he really wants to go out of state and he really wants to major in economics. At UMASS economics is housed in the College of Behavioral Sciences so in order to have a business school major with well rounded business electives, he had to choose Finance. As I understand it UMASS is short of housing, I know from living here and observing the budget debates that UMASS state funding is down…meaning that fees will be increasing and the fact that he applied there only to have a first class, affordable, in-state option. Given that he has received generous merit scholarships from Miami and a number of other schools he now has affordable, high quality options from out of state schools. As such, UMASS is pretty much ruled out.

I hope this is helpful and congratulations on your success and your great choices!

Yes, I’ve heard similar things and my friends who go there say that class availability is becoming a problem as well! Thank you and best luck to you and your son!

My son’s other honors-dorm roommate from last year is a Farmer student from California. I met his parents on move-in day and asked them: why Miami? They said that class availability was a real problem in the University of California and better Cal State schools like Cal Poly SLO. They said that five years was getting pretty typical for graduation. So for the in-state school you had to first calculate the cost of the extra year of school at another $30-35K. Then you had to look at the opportunity cost of the fifth year. If you could start work at $70K per year after four years you would be $70K ahead of a student who took five years to graduate. If you added it up, you had to add more than $100K to the cost of the in-state California school vs. Miami’s four-year cost.