<p>So I've recently decided to give up an Ivy League offer where recruitment is high for investment banking, for a second tier business school, (Ross at UMich). I did this for personal reasons so that is not the point. </p>
<p>I just wanted to know if this was a bad decision or not in terms of future career development. I was told if I worked just as hard at Ross that I would be able to secure a job equivalent to what I possibly would have been able to secure at the ivy league school. However, others have told me that career growth would have been better at the ivy league school and that students from non-ivy schools tend to stagnate at a certain position without further promotions. </p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. The truth is that anybody, Ivy or otherwise, will stagnate without an MBA. The MBA is what matters, or the PhD in Econ, not the undergrad.</p>
<p>What you can do for yourself is this: work hard and get your best GPA possible so that when your company says it is time for the MBA, or after two or three years, whichever comes first, your GPA and their recs will be enough to get you in. The other thing is to take the GMAT right at the end of your senior year and before you start to work so you have time to study and prepare. Take a prep class for it.</p>
<p>Good luck. Ross is fine. Ross grads work everywhere they want.</p>
<p>^You will only need an MBA if you either decide to switch industries (investment banking to management consulting/vice-versa), or to bring in more clients through the MBA network.</p>
<p>The misinformation and ivy-league whores (see above) on this board are absolutely absurd. Ross is not a “second tier” business school and it is a solid target for IBD, second to only top ivies (HYPWCD) and the like. </p>
<p>You will be fine at Ross and you are right that you will land the same opps if you put effort into classes and networking. Mix in basketball and football teams that are returning to their prime, an awesome college town in Ann-Arbor, and an infinitely times more interesting student culture than your run-of-the-mill ivy, pre-admit at Ross, and you honestly can’t do that much better.</p>
<p>Investment Banking and high finance (hedge fund, PE, asset management) are areas where an MBA is not required. Many in the industry have an MBA because they didn’t start their careers in that field and switched into the industry as Radiances pointed out. As long as you are making money for the firm, they don’t care which school you attended.Meritocracy works in this industry. However, they are very selective on college hires and that’s when the name of the school can be advantageous. Ross is a target school and having a high GPA helps.</p>
<p>If you gave up Wharton or Harvard for Ross, then there is no question you’ve put yourself at a significant disadvantage. If it was a brown vs ross thing…then the gap is less significant (if it exists at all).</p>
<p>Working hard only gets you so far, and networking requires a lot of luck and people skills which you may not have at a college level. Ross may be a target school depending on how you look at it, but when I try to find analysts for my group, why would I choose you over an equally qualified high GPA candidate from Princeton?</p>