<p>Alright, so I am junior starting to look at schools and am planning on doubling in econ and finance. Anyways, could you rank the following schools I am looking at in terms of the quality of the business/econ departments and job prospects:</p>
<p>Minnesota
UW Madison
Texas
Iowa
Indiana</p>
<p>Texas probably on top, but something like 95% of the incoming class is from texas because of some stipulation they have in admissions.
Madison for econ, otherwise I would say Minnesota and Wisc tied
Then Indiana
finally Iowa</p>
<p>Thanks, Madison is probably my most likely school I will end up going to because you get instate tuition if you are a Minnesota resident and I want to get away from the Twin Cities. Is that the best econ program out of the list? What is their reputation for finance? </p>
<p>And how big of a gap is there between schools like Texas and Boston College, and UW Madison in terms of quality of business/econ and prestige and job prospects?</p>
<p>Don’t give too much credit to what I am saying, because I am basically exactly what you are: a junior researching econ and finance programs. From what I gather, Madison is very highly respected for econ. Finance…I have no clue.</p>
<p>For your second question, I really do not know. Texas gets great job prospects locally I think, however again, admission to texas would be very hard for both of us as OOS (ATL here). I am planning on applying to Boston College as well, but I don’t think their is much prestige difference between BC and UWisc. </p>
<p>Please correct me anybody.</p>
<ol>
<li>Texas - Great finance program and good econ program</li>
<li>Indiana - Great finance program and okay econ program</li>
<li>Wisconsin - Good finance program and great econ program</li>
<li>Minnesota - Okay finance program and good econ program</li>
<li>Iowa - Okay finance program, not sure about econ</li>
</ol>
<p>I am placing more weight on finance, because for almost every school that has a business program and an econ program, business students get better jobs out of undergrad.</p>
<p>Texas is definitely the best for finance (including Boston College & Madison) and I’m not very knowledgeable about the econ programs at some of those schools, but I’d assume it is one of the top 2.</p>
<p>It really comes down to if you would prefer finance or economics.</p>
<p>Finance is more of a practical major, which would be more likely to bring in good job offers at a good school.</p>
<p>Economics is more of an intellectual major, which would also bring in above average job offers, but at a college with a business school, the best jobs usually go to the business students first.</p>
<p>If you can get in-state tuition somewhere, it definitely gives that college an edge, especially as you start to realize how much everything is going to cost. If money isn’t an issue, you might want to also consider location (urban vs. rural, warm climate vs. cold, region, local industries etc.) because it would not only effect your college experience, but also your job offers. For example, U Texas at Austin is right in the middle of the outdoor music capital of the world. It was also one of Forbe’s top 5 cities for your career in 2008 boasting lots of high-tech jobs and good job growth. I don’t know much about the other colleges in that aspect.</p>
<p>(PS: Whoo! Ron Paul!)</p>
<p>RON! RON! RON PAUL!!</p>
<p>Anyways, yea, I am thinking about both econ and finance because I am extremelly interested in economics and would love to study it, but don’t want to neccesarily become an economist; after college I would like to go into finance. So schools like Madison you can easily double major, but I am not sure exactly about the others. Madison is what I am leaning towards right now, and it has a very similar vibe as Austin although with a lot colder weather. Ultimately I would like to end up in IBanking, but I don’t have the stats to get into a target school right now so I’ll probably try and get into a top MBA program.</p>
<p>If you want Ibanking, Indiana has a 15 month investment banking workshop which has 100% job placement into investment banks (the hard part is being accepted into the workshop).</p>