<p>Hi everyone. So I'm a junior looking to major in business/finance, and I was looking through a few undergrad school rankings, namely Bloomberg's in this case (but definitely others as well). I noticed for 2013 ND's Mendoza, UVA's McIntire, and Cornell's Dyson school leads (Wharton is #5..). </p>
<p>How accurate do you think this list is? Throughout high school I always perceived Wharton as No. 1, with Stern and Columbia's Business program up there, but I've never really heard of Mendoza and McIntire as top 5...or at all really. How closely do you think one should follow this list when applying to college, or in general? When you graduate and are looking for jobs, does the name matter more than the ranking?</p>
<p>There is no official source of rankings. Business hiring manager do not use rankings. They use the programs they consider excellent where they have successful experience with the applicants In the past. Most HS kids ‘perception’ comes from marketing.</p>
<p>Bloomberg ratings should be given little weight. That being said Notre Dame/Mendoza is a good school as is UVA/McIntyre. The bigger questions you should ask yourself are what you want to study, what industry you want to work in and where you want to end up working. Mendoza is good for accounting and good if you want to be in the Midwest. McIntyre is good if you want to be on the east coast. Based on my experience (Georgetown undergrad business/Northwestern JD/MBA, lecturer at Northwestern business school and son who is a Freshman at Penn/Wharton), here are my thoughts on schools</p>
<p>Penn/Wharton - No 1 program/good anywhere nationally/ good for most concentrations but especially finance, management, marketing, real estate, insurance and entrepreneurship
Cornell/Dyson - rising program top 10 program/good for east coast/good for management and finance.
UVA/McIntyre - good program top 10 program/good for east coast or south/ good for finance and management
MIT/Sloan - Top 5 program/good nationally/ good for finance, operational management, quantitative analysis
NYU/Stern - top 10 program/good east coast/ good for finance
North Carolina - good program maybe top 10/good east coast and south
Carnegie Mellon - good program possibly top 10 program/good east coast/good in management systems and quantitative analysis
Michigan/Ross - top 5 program/good east coast or midwest/good for finance, marketing, management and accounting
Notre Dame/Mendoza - good program maybe top 10/good for midwest/good for accounting
Indiana/Kelly - good program/good for midwest/ good for finance (for top students)
Illinois - good program/good for midwest/great for accounting - probably no 1 school for accounting
Wisconsin - good program/ good for midwest
Texas - good program/ good in southwest/good for accounting ad marketing
Cal Berkeley/Haas - top 5 program/good west coast and maybe nationally/good in finance and management
USC/Marshall good program maybe top 10/good west coast especially LA/good in accounting, entrepreneurship and international</p>
<p>Other good programs include Emory, Boston College and Georgetown </p>
<p>When you graduate and are looking for jobs, does the name matter more than the ranking? Actually, it depends on what you are looking to do. </p>
<p>If you are looking to work in a large financial firm as an investment banker or something related, you are looking to get recruited and these firms recruit from just about all of the top ranked institutions. </p>
<p>If you aren’t looking to work for a large financial firm but perhaps a firm in the small-medium sized area, they normally do little-to-no recruiting for interns and instead hire people with a complete package of 3 years of experience, excellent performance, professional references and with relevant education from an regionally accredited college/university. In this case the brand name nor ranking of the college matters but what matters most is your work experience. </p>
<p>Take the rankings with a grain of salt. It isn’t worth focusing too much on it. A better way to look at this would be do a bit more research and find out how many people went into the field you are interested in and received job offers from these colleges.</p>
<p>Former Speaker Tip O’Neill once said “all politics is local”. This can also apply to how you view college rankings and reputation. As commentcomment said, you need to take them all with a grain of salt. Instead of fixating on the rankings and the inevitable differences among them, ask what do you want to do and where do you want to live. The answers to those questions can then help guide to appropriate schools. </p>
<p>Guess what - if you are looking for a job in NYC or Boston, most hiring managers and execs probably went to school on the east coast. In Chicago, most likely went to Big 10, ND, UofC etc. West coast, you get the idea. </p>
<p>Yes great schools have national reputations, but when it comes to hiring decisions, if there are two equal candidates, the job is likely to go to the kid from the alma mater (or their bosses alma mater). Look for schools with a good track record of placing graduates in the types of companies/firms you are interested in, in the city where you want to land. </p>