<p>I was looking around google, but couldn't find a whole lot. Does anyone know of any good articles on this subject?</p>
<p>Don’t need it. It is common sense. Better prestige = much higher chance of a job, and a better job. Also good to have high prestige for grad school.</p>
<p>Well it obviously matters for every career. But engineering and premed don’t matter nearly as much as business. My parents don’t get this. I’m just trying to show them.</p>
<p>All matters.</p>
<p>The prestige thing… It may matter in the beginning, but after 18 years, it doesn’t. Really.</p>
<p>We went to a no tier school. One of us is a VP-Finance; another owns his company, one of the leading government contractors in a southern state. One turns out to be a voice over actress 
Many are still toiling in the cubical land. But that’s life. I don’t think a leading can school beat it either.</p>
<p>Prestige matters more for business than any other major. This is because the top companise only recruit at a dozen or so schools. It’s as simple as that.</p>
<p>What hillbillie doesn’t get is that a lot of people don’t want to have to wait until they are 40 to have a small chance of being an executive at a mediocre firm or working for the government (a job I certainly wouldn’t enjoy) and most likely be stuck in a cubicle. I’m guessing none of hillbillie and his friends even considered jobs in high finance or consulting out of college, and from where they were, they couldn’t. They probably wouldn’t have had much of a shot at top MBA programs, either.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard “money now is worth more than money later?” We can apply that here. If you went to a top business program, you could be earning enough out of school that I bet you would be making more than at least one of hillbillie’s friends 18 years out of college. You could have a shot at getting some high finance or consulting experience that would help you get into a top MBA program and get a top job right out of that, as well. If you really want to be a corporate executive, I know people from my school often get positions that allow them to become VPs, even fast-tracks at fortune 50 companies, and become a VP in their 20s. If you can get into a top MBA program, you could be a VP in your 20s as well. Let’s say you live as extravagantly as one of hillbillie’s 40 year old friends while being ten years younger and making a lot more and invest the rest or start your own company with it and by the time you’re 40, you can be doing what you want without worrying about money. Let’s say you went into investment banking right out of school, and came back to it after an MBA. You could easily have more in the bank by the time you’re 30 than hillbillie’s friends do at 40 and with 10 years of experience in banking, your yearly salary could be what his classmates will make in their lifetime.These are just hypothetical situations, but a lot more is definitely possible from a top business program than a no-name school.</p>
<p>^ My only point is this, it is not the end of the world, or your career, if you don’t go to a prestigious school. I offer my opinion here because sometimes I feel a sense of desperation from kids who, for whatever reason, don’t get that prestige thing. Again, it’s nice to have but there are more than one way to traverse life. For those who choose a state school, a less selective school etc, this article is for you… [Higher</a> Education – State Universities Rival Ivy League? — Open Education](<a href=“http://www.openeducation.net/2008/12/28/higher-education-state-universities-rival-ivy-league/]Higher”>http://www.openeducation.net/2008/12/28/higher-education-state-universities-rival-ivy-league/)</p>
<p>I’m just trying to make the decision between paying 25k/yr at Michigan (I have to pay for it all) or taking a free ride at Alabama. I’d like to make a lot of money, but I don’t want to have to work 13+ hour days my entire life. It’s not a guarantee that I get a great job and make a ton of money coming out of Ross either.</p>
<p>lead them on to the networking side.
prestigious business schools have excellent networking. You can look this up (if you’re looking for some nice articles about it) on the top 10 business schools websites. Berkeley-Haas has plenty of nice articles about how networking has helped their graduates found the best jobs around. I’m sure Wharton, Sloan, Stern and Ross have plenty of such articles too.</p>
<p>youd be a fool to turn down Ross for bama</p>
<p>Unless you want to work in Alabama or general area, no question Ross >>>>>> Bama. Ross has strong connections in NY, plenty of interns and hires get placed there in Finance and Accounting if that is what you are interested in.</p>
<p>Frankly, I would take the free ride at Bama anyday over paying 25K per year at Ross. You can use that 100K to buy a house or start you off in a career.
Moreover, If you get good grades, you will have the same opportunities. You can always go to grad school at ROSS. Undergrad degree pedigree has relatively little merit unless you will never go to any type of graduate education.</p>
<p>I would say Ross is a no brainer, but 100,000 dollars is really hard to pass up. You actually might want to just go to Bama and study like you’re working to earn 100,000 dollars. Basically, you will be, because if you’re at the top of your class with great ECs, you can hunt down a good job from Bama and go to a good MBA program and be in the same boat as the guy that came out of Ross with six figures of debt.</p>
<p>I know this goes against what I said earlier, but $100,000 is a lot of money. Consider that the average work experience of students at top MBA programs is 5 years. Lets say the difference between the top of your class at Bama and being average at Ross is 5k in your salary. You’ll earn 25k more by the time your undergrad doesn’t matter, but still be down $75k.</p>
<p>If you think you can get the $20k more annual salary from Ross that you’ll need to make it worth it, then by all means go to Ross. That’s really what it boils down to.</p>
<p>one more point: saving $100,000 in college tuition is after-tax money. It is akin to earning about $170,000 extra. Think about that: will you make an extra $25,000-$30,000 per year graduating from Ross over that of Bama? I would seriously doubt it. </p>
<p>Take the money! Don’t listen to anyone here suggesting full pay at Ross over a free ride to Bama. You will be VERY happy that you listened to me when you graduate and when you start to plan your life.</p>
<p>TaxGuy, 25k is surely not full pay at Ross. </p>
<p>Anyway, I think it depends on what you want to do post-grad… so what DO you want to do?</p>
<p>c-Revs, yes you are right. It would cost more than $25,000 per year at full pay. It’s actually between $34,600-$36,000 per year depending on the school and whether it is upper division or lower division courses. Thus, at $34,000 per year, time 4= $136,000 PLUS COST OF LIVING INCREASES. There is no way spending $34K+ more per year than a free ride at Alabama is worth it. It would be even worse if it takes five years to graduate too.</p>
<p>OP, I digged a little bit and here’s some numbers to think about. After all, business is about dollars and sense… </p>
<p>Ross: [Employment</a> Profile - University of Michigan Business School](<a href=“Error 404! Page Not Found. - iMpact Web Portal”>Error 404! Page Not Found. - iMpact Web Portal)</p>
<p>'bama: <a href=“http://career.ua.edu/employers/reports/May%202008/First%20Destination%20Report%20CBA%20May%202008.pdf[/url]”>http://career.ua.edu/employers/reports/May%202008/First%20Destination%20Report%20CBA%20May%202008.pdf</a></p>
<p>(The difference in salaries could be due to cost of living, see this, <a href=“Error 404! Page Not Found. - iMpact Web Portal”>http://www.bus.umich.edu/EmploymentProfile/ByGeographicRegion.htm</a>. NYC should be whole lot more expensive than Birmingham, for example.)</p>
<p>I just meant I don’t think the OP is paying full-tuition, getting some help from the uni or otherwise for UMich. It’s not really important other than the fact that paying 25k/yr for UMich is not as bad as it could be.</p>
<p>C-Revs notes, 25k/yr for UMich is not as bad as it could be."</p>
<p>Response: How bad can it could be if 25K per year isn’t bad? If the median posted salaries in post number 17 are accurate, paying an extra 100K to Michigan over Bama would be insane.</p>
<p>First of all it could be worse in that he could have to pay full tuition at Mich… aka ~15k more. </p>
<p>Second of all, starting salary is not the be all end all, possibilities for earning are also important (aka how fast it can grow). </p>
<p>Third, notice that only 49% of Alabama graduates had jobs.</p>
<p>Ignoring all of this and just using averages, let’s assume that average all in salary coming from Bama is $40k and the average coming from Michigan is approximately $75k (55 base + 6 signing + 5 other guar comp). That makes the initial earning differential $35k. Now lets be conservative and assume that living and other expenses are $10k more graduating from Michigan, so the difference is now $25k. Let’s assume the worst and estimate taxes at 40%, thus ~170k like TaxGuy mentioned. At this difference, you would break even under 7 years (of course this is ignoring interest… but it is near 0% now anyway). In this basic example of worst case factors, it would take around 7 years for the education to be worth it financially… do you plan on working for more than 7 years? If so, then it likely would. Furthermore, we are ignoring important factors such as bonuses (plus for Michigan), growth of salary/bonus (plus for Michigan). </p>
<p>That’s how I see it, and for the record I have no ties to Michigan. Like I said, if you are planning on going back to Alabama to work, then probably don’t go to Michigan, but if you want to work in Chicago, NY, etc, I think it’s a no brainer.</p>