Is it worth 50K to transfer into a better undergraduate business program?

<p>Next year I will be in UW-Madison's school of business as a junior, and I'm thinking about transferring into a school with a better business program like Wharton, Stern, Haas and McIntire. I think I have a good chance of getting into Stern and McIntire, but all these schools' yearly tuitions are about 25k higher. If I transfer, would the 50k of investment payoff?</p>

<p>YES!!! without a doubt...esp if your going into banking, sales & trading, or capital markets. On Wall Street its all about pedigree</p>

<p>Idk wat the guy above me is talking about......... its not always a good idea to do that, and wall st is not all about pedigree....</p>

<p>of the schools that you listed though, it is worth the extra 50k IMO, but basically your not getting into Wharton even if you hav a 4.0 from an ivy, Haas is almost impossible to get into out of state. if you beleive you have a good chance at the others than do it.</p>

<p>what are your stats?</p>

<p>^^50K extra for the business school? No I don't think its worth it. After all, you go to Wisconsin and not some third tier university. Stay at Wisconsin and do business.</p>

<p>There are people from all top tier universities that get the same jobs as Wharton grads every year. It certainly is possible to get those top Ibanking jobs(and actually quite easy) if you hustle.</p>

<p>My stats are pretty descent.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.88 after this semester, and I'm in honors program.
ACT:31
SAT II: 790 or 800 Math, 770 or 790 Chem, i'm don't really remember :)</p>

<p>I'm also applying to Cornell AEM, Northwestern Econ, and U of Chicago Econ. I know Wharton and Haas are reaches, but I think I have a good shot at Stern, McIntire, and Cornell. I might apply to UPenn as a Econ major since Wharton is a far reach.</p>

<p>another question. which ranking should i trust? usnews or businessweek?</p>

<p>Obviously some of these kids have no exposure to the street, its always the kids from the non- target schools that believe with hard work and blah blah they could easily land a job. Unfortunately, thats not the case. did a summer analyst gig last summer at MS and this was the representation from schools. Additionally i dont know when you graduate but since this summers credit crunch/ sub prime mortgage mess banks have been withdrawing offers from kids that offered full time positions. Making it that much more important to go to a school which banks recruit at for IBD, which unfortunately doesn't always include Wisconsin.</p>

<p>Uber-Targets:
Harvard – 15</p>

<p>Stanford – 10</p>

<p>Upenn (Wharton) – 8</p>

<p>Targets:
Duke – 6
Umich – 6
Princeton – 6
Berkeley – 6</p>

<p>Columbia – 5</p>

<p>Dartmouth – 4
Yale – 4
Cornell – 4
Brown – 4</p>

<p>Williams – 3
Claremont McKenna/Pomona – 3</p>

<p>Semi-Targets:
Upenn (Non Wharton) – 2
NYU (Stern) – 2
UNC (Kenan-Flagler) – 2
Amherst – 2
Notre Dame – 2
UVA (McIntire) - 2
USC – 2
MIT – 2
UCLA – 2
U of Chicago-2</p>

<p>Semi or Non-Targets:
NYU (Non-Stern) – 1
Wellesley – 1
Indiana – 1
UNC (Non Kenan-Flagler) – 1
UVA (Non McIntire) – 1
WHU – 1
Rutgers-1</p>

<p>Colgate – 1
UT Austin – 1
Richard Ivey – 1
McGill – 1
Texas A&M – 1
Bowdoin – 1
Howard-1
Penn state- 1
Wesleyan – 1
Vanderbilt – 1
The U – 1</p>

<p>I find it hilarious that the OP can't do cost-benefit analysis.</p>

<p>So you're saying NYU Stern and UVA McIntire are semi-targets while UM (Ross and LSA) are targets?</p>

<p>Clarify please.</p>

<p>I find it ridiculous that you base target schools off of your summer internship at MS. I know plenty of people that have got top internships at JP Morgan, Goldman, and Merrill from what most on here would consider "poor schools". Now is it more difficult to get recruited from a lesser known school? Of course. But once you get the interview it really is up to you. I think if you are really that good of a student you should be able to make it on your own(although, admit tingly it would help if you were in a large city where you could get some internship experience). </p>

<p>Also, banking is not the only lucrative field in business. Don't discount top accounting jobs at a big 4 firm, where while you may start out earning 5-10K less per year than your banking counterparts, the promotability is easier and you usually have more flexibility on where you want to live.</p>

<p>Trust me, transfer. I'm sure some idiot will write about a "cousin's boyfriend's sister's husband" who went to a non-target and is now working at BCG, Goldman, or Mckinsey.</p>

<p>Of course I think truly great individuals will shine through anywhere. However ate to break it to you but, since people of epic intelligence and drive still want these jobs and are willing to fight like dogs for them, you've gotta make the investment of time and effort to be able to rock the Ivy on the resume. Read a paper on the signaling theory of education, it's a pretty compact argument.
Cruise around some of the Ibank websites. Or take a look at some of the Ibank intern resume books. ( Ill send you the ones I have) A lot of them have bios; every single one, magna and summa cum from good schools or went to Harvard, Princeton, Yale. Sure, it's pretentious as hell, but apparently there's something valuable about earning that cachet.</p>

<p>Is Wisconsin's business school that bad? I was considering transferring there as apposed to doing econ at Michigan, bad idea?</p>

<p>Michigan Econ would be better than Wisconsin B-school, but Wisconsin business isn't bad at all.</p>

<p>^ go with Umich Econ... if i am coming of like i dont like UWisc in anyway that was not my intention. I am just encouraging to OP that to increase his chances at finance jobs esp (front office roles) get as high up that USNews ladder as you can.</p>

<p>What group where you in at MS ixjunitxi?</p>

<p>
[quote]
another question. which ranking should i trust? usnews or businessweek?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>They aren't really so different when it comes to the top schools for undergrad, are they? Wharton, MIT, Berkeley/Haas, Michigan/Ross, UVA, etc. For grad school, it's a different story.</p>

<p>
[quote]
My stats are pretty descent.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.88 after this semester, and I'm in honors program.
ACT:31
SAT II: 790 or 800 Math, 770 or 790 Chem, i'm don't really remember

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Evaluate who you are (do you want to do i-banking?) and what paths would be appropriate.</p>

<p>Based on the very little data here, I personally wonder if you aren't better set to a more "quant-jock" path in finance vs. straight i-banking type activities. In my experience -- which I'll admit is limited and I think you should get more opinions -- you want to have a certain personality to do i-banking (sometimes smooth, sometimes alpha male/female, or a combo, but certainly these days polish helps). Evaluate whether you have this. If you are on the nerdier end of things and really into things quantitative, pursuing a straight quant path might be better for finance. So, for instance, studying the heavy math-based econ classes and going that route. For liberal artsy types, for instance, Wharton and like schools often seem quantitatively rich. But for the Street these days, programs like the Master's of Financial Engineering at Berkeley/Haas, are actually kind of the bare minimum for a heavy quant focus. And the typical student at that program has studied anything from engineering at MIT to a PhD in physics at a place like Oxford; in other words, one has to be really quant heavy and a straight business undergrad is insufficient. I had a friend who went there, had done EE undergrad in the Ivy League with heavy math, and has done very well coming out of it.</p>

<p>Also, as others have said, if you don't want to a job on the Street or if you want to go the quant jock path, IMO forget transferring out of Wisconsin. It's a very good school and if you do well there, you can get most of the jobs a b-school grads might want out of there.</p>

<p>You have some questions to answer for yourself. I notice on CC people tend to assume b-school students always want to work on the Street in i-banking.....</p>

<p>Here's the deal, apply to the ivies. If you get into Wharton, Stanford, Harvard etc I think it would be worth it to go there if you are planning to get into the banking world. Why you ask? Because with those kind of salaries it attracts many people such as a LOT of the ivy league students. I don't believe the big names will hire a person because they are from an ivy league college because well... that would just be stupid. I am a firm believe that you can do anything you want from any college but the truth is, if you are accepted into somewhere like Stanford, Harvard or UPenn you should take it because it will help you get interviews and have an edge on the people that haven't. Don't think its easy to get a job with an ivy league degree though, you still have to fight for it and you have to be smart and be able to market yourself on something better than "I went to an ivy league school." Most people on College Confidential get in their knees to ivy league universities but that is not how it is in the real world.</p>

<p>But after all that.. why do people want to work soooo many hours under so much stress? GO DENTAL STUDENTS!!</p>

<p>I was reading some intenet article I forget where and it said that the first year out of college an Ivy leauge grad has quite a bit better starting pay but as it gets closer to 3yrs and to 5yrs out of college the salary gap between the two closes to where it is almost not worth it. </p>

<p>They also compare the tuition and the price increase of tuition from public to private university is greater than the starting income gap for the two schools.</p>

<p>Of course this is all generalizations and it depends on tons of other things, I just figured Id throw that out there.</p>

<p>it's funny how almost everyone assumes that i'm going to be an investment banker.</p>