I’m interested in business (probably either finance, economics or accounting) and am wondering about the difference between a highly ranked business school vs a higher ranked school. I visited University of Miami recently and liked it. It’s a good school, much better than a school like Indiana, which I also liked. Assuming my major will be business, would it look better to go the the clearly better school (as I would show I’m smarter) or the higher ranked business school (us news #8)? I may just be naive but I can’t image IU business school grads are better/smarter than UMiami ones. The business school rankings seem to be all over the place anyway, so if someone would care to enlighten me…
Miami is not better than Indiana. Who told that it is? They are very different types of schools, so depending on the methodology, one school will likely be ranked higher than the other, but in absolute terms, Indiana and Miami are both very good, and neither is better than the other. That being said, IU has a better B-School than Miami. As such, between those two, I would go for IU.
More than half of all undergraduates change their major (often, several times). I do not suggest that you will do so, however, the problem with opting for a middling university, with a good department/major, is where does that leave the undergraduate when he discovers (after a few semesters) that business (or anything else, for that matter) really is not what he wants to study.
Only Indiana is not a “middling” university. It is a very well respected university. It is a member of the AAU, Fiske gives it an academic rating of four stars and it is strong across a range of fields, particularly the humanities and social sciences. Plus Bloomington is a very nice college town, and the cost of attendance is likely $15k/year lower than Miami (unless they offered you a sizeable scholarship or good FA).
Well here’s some anecdotal evidence that tells a different story. In the town that I live in, the average high school kid who gets accepted to Miami has an SAT score of over 2000 while the average kid that gets accepted to UI has an average SAT of less than 1850. Also, the average high school kid who gets accepted to Miami has a GPA of over 92.5 while the average kid that gets accepted to UI has a GPA of 89.0.
There is no doubt that Miami is more selective than IU. But IU has its own advantages. I did not say they were identical, I said they are roughly equal in terms of overall quality. However, for a student intent on studying Business (or the social sciences in general), IU offers more than Miami at a slightly lower cost.
Yes, IU’s student body overall on average has less impressive stats than UMiami (though keep in mind that components like IU’s Music school, which is very highly regarded, would be weighing other aspects far more heavily than stats). However, stats of the student body at Kelley would not be lower than those at UMiami.
More importantly, from where I sit, UMiami isn’t really perceived to be superior to IU, while Kelley would have the edge over UMiami’s b-school.
Well, @Alexandre, you are entitled to your definition of “middling,” as I am to mine. All of the Big Ten universities are, of course, justifiably respected, but (in my opinion) hardly distinguished (naturally, excepting Northwestern).
Further, my real point was to caution CC participants (tje OP is not the only individual who may read this thread for guidance) regarding the perils of opting for majors, rather than institutions; I was not criticizing Indiana, per se, but as long as you introduced the subject . . .
Duke is “distinguished” for biomedical engineering and basketball. Just like Indiana is “distinguished” for its business program and basketball history. Miami is “distinguished” for being a party school and football shenanigans.
TopTier, I am not going to debate your definition of “distinguished”, but how is Miami any less “middling” than IU?
@Alexandre: I repeat, my post (#2) NEVER concerned Indiana or Miami, per se; rather, it only stressed the potential perils of selecting an undergraduate school based largely on the quality of a department or concentration, since so many youngsters change their majors at least once during their Bachelor’s program.
Obviously TopTier, if one is choosing between a top program at good but not great university and a weaker program at a significantly better university (say Engineering at Purdue vs Engineering at Columbia), the option is clear. But Miami is no better than IU.
As long as they are both affordable, I’d go to the school you prefer. If you do well at either school you should be fine. Don’t get too caught up in the rankings.
There are many ways to define “better”. One thing we have already agreed upon though is that Miami is clearly more selective than Indiana.
Alexandre, Miami, in general, is a pretty significantly better university than IU. It has a 40% accpt rate compared to iu’s 72%. It’s 75th percentile sat is 1420 compared to iu’s 1290, only 60 points better than UM’s 25 percentile. Miami has 50 percent of its classes with less than 20 students, while iu only has 36%. Kids who go to Miami are, in general, smarter than kids at IU and they recieve more attention. That being said, thank you to the people who answered the question! Any further input would also be appreciated
Also, if you get a 1270 or higher and meet a gpa req, you are automatically admitted to the kelley SOB. 1270 is only 40 points higher than UMiami’s 25th percentile. So I wouldnt exactly say students are the same at both. Of course, test scores aren’t everything and that is essentially what prompted me to make this post