To be straightforward, I got into these 8 schools for a plan in business:
UCLA (Pre-Business Economics)
Notre Dame (Mendoza - assured admittance)
U Southern California (Marshall School for accounting and Presidents Scholarship)
U Virginia (CAS, McIntire after soph year)
UNC Chapel Hill (Business admin, applying for Kenan-Flagler soph year)
UC Berkeley (applying for Haas junior year, scholarship)
Cornell University (for Applied Econ. and Management)
Emory University (Goizueta after Soph year)
I’m having the most difficult time choosing between these schools. For now, all I’m sure about is that I want to be at a school with the best mix of a good social scene (not too cutthroat, diverse, generally happy atmosphere, decent party scene, not overly rigorous etc.) and best job prospects/prestige/success factor. Financial arrangements have already been handled between me and my parents. However, I am wary about the risk of having to apply to some of the business schools for the colleges I got into, and want to know if the risk of not getting in and having to major in Economics or something at the school would be worth it.
So far, I’m leaning towards UCLA, USC, and UVirginia for now as they have most of what I’m looking for. Yet, I really don’t want to miss any opportunities available if I instead went to Cornell, Notre Dame, etc. I really need help deciding.
Feel free to be as biased as possible, I will take all opinions with a grain of salt!
Also, some pros and cons of each (big ask, I know) or ranking them 1-8 and describing their general social scenes for me (I am overseas; not able to visit) would be much appreciated. I know I would be happy at all these schools (that’s why I applied to them) but I never thought the decision would be this hard.
Thanks for any help you can provide me in making this decision!
What is the cost of attendance for each (tuition/fees/room/board minus grants/scholarships, not including loans)? How much loans will you need to take out for each?
@harvardandberkeley The cost of attendance is roughly the same for each, around 30k. But financial arrangements have already been discussed with my parents, so that’s not really a concern right now.
Lots of great choices - congratulations! If you like all the environments equally, I might opt for ND where you are assured of admittance to the business school. If you are a CA resident and want to work there after graduation, perhaps USC is the best fit. I’m also wary of the schools without direct admittance to the b-school. I’d hate to be at a school and then not be able to take the major I want.
I think you are wise to think about direct admission to the school of business. When you are admitted after sophomore year, you must submit your grades up to that point. It would be quite disappointing to do two years and then not get your admission to business school. It is in your favor to start as a freshman in the business school. Think about where you want to be after this undergraduate experience. For example, if you come out of USC Marshall School with an accounting major, you will have a chance at the Big Four Accounting firms since that is a top school for accounting. Most of the recruitment is regional so coming out of USC gives you a chance to be recruited in the western region. Notre Dame offers the midwest and so on. Your schools are scattered around the US so think about where you might want to land after graduation. Very few offers are given by the Big Four for other regions outside of your college’s location. A business administration major and an accounting major are very different in terms of their future potential.
Except that Haas isn’t better than AEM, which he already got in to. Internationally or in the US, Cal isn’t better than Cornell either.
For Wall Street, AEM, McIntire, and Haas (and maybe Mendoza) are best.
But you have to apply for Haas (and I believe McIntire; did you get a direct admit there?), so if the Street is your goal, AEM is the easy choice here.
For accounting, yes, consider what region you want to be in. I’d choose from the direct admits. In general, if you want a b-school education, choose from only where you got a direct admit to an actual b-school: AEM, Mendoza, Marshall (and McIntire? Direct admit there?)
Thanks for the answers! I’d rather go into Finance after college than accounting, and I don’t mind working on the east or west coast. Now what would be my best route? And could an accounting degree still be good for a Finance-related job?
PS: McIntire is not direct-admit, only Cornell, Notre Dame, USC and UCLA are for me. I’d also really appreciate social scene being considered in these opinions as well. Thanks!
UCLA doesn’t even have an undergrad b-school, so it’s really only Cornell, ND, and USC (and UCLA isn’t a Street target anyway).
And I’ve told you which of those is a clear-cut Street target.
Look, I don’t have a dog in this fight (neither my undergrad or b-school are among your options), but at some point, you have to ask yourself “why are my parents paying a ton of money for me to go to school in the US?” If it’s to party, I’d advise you to just take a gap year, travel the world, and party away. It’d probably cost your parents less.
In any case, all those schools will have social and party scenes where anyone with some social skills can fit in to.
Honestly, make a pros and cons chart, and do a cost benefit analysis. Think about where you want to work after college, or if you want to go to grad school, and take those stats into account. You have great choices, so really no way to go wrong.If you really want to have a business career, and you’re set on that, I wouldn’t recommend going to a school just for the name if its business program isn’t the strongest. However, if you see a chance that you may end up in a different direction after finishing your core classes, I would then consider the importance of a big name school that will be a huge resume booster.
@windbehindwings Notre Dame offers employment opportunities nationwide, particularly in accounting. My S went to ND and got multiple offers in NYC (his preferred location). A couple of firms had people from the NY office fly in to interview students on campus and other firms had him interview first with a Chicago recruiter and then he was referred to his preferred location for his office visit (second interview). And the firms paid to fly him back to NY for the office visits. In general I think the large CPA firms recruit nationally and are able to accommodate requests to work in cities outside of the region in which the school is located.
Thanks a lot guys, I think right now I want to attend Cornell, it seems to be the most promising and auspicious choice for me. Can anyone describe Cornell’s general social scene?
"Can anyone describe Cornell’s general social scene? "
The university is very diverse due to its different colleges with different focuses, so it is harder to generalize than at many other schools. You will find people living in the library 24/7, others who seem to live in the Collegetown bars, and everything in between.
About 1/3 of the students join fraternites/sororities, and a significant amount of their social life surrounds that. Most of the other 2/3 live off-campus as upperclassmen, many in the Collegetown area adjacent to campus. Frat parties are very significant for fraternity members, and often for freshmen who are being wooed by the frats. Social life for non-frat upperclassmen often surrounds the private houses and apartments they rent there. People go out together in small groups, go to house parties, or just hang out in people’s apartments. There are popular bars and restaurants in Collegetown and in downtown Ithaca.
"…there’s no easy direct/route for traveling there and back "
That depends on where you live. I had no problem traveling there and back. Did OP say where he/she lived? I didn’t see it.
FWIW, a little Cornell “tribute” from two graduating seniors. https://vimeo.com/23897683
I have to admit I cry most of the time i watch it, it brings back memories. There’s a lot of “in-references”, but the take- away should clearly be that they loved the place. Perhaps you will too.