<p>Hey guys im in a dilema. I just got into Babson, IU-Kelley and Villanova and im not sure which school i should go too. All three are great schools for business and i just love both of them. Tuition isnt an issue. So i was hoping if you can list the schools in numeral order 1. 2. 3. and tell me which is the best choice. thank you guys x]</p>
<p>bkim92,</p>
<p>I can give you better insight if you can tell me what you plan on majoring and where do you want to work after you graduate? (ex. midwest, eastcoast, etc)</p>
<p>well i am in the Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation classes and i was wondering which school is the best. geography doesnt matter</p>
<p>If Entrepreneurship is your major I would select between Kelley and Babson. Both schools are ranked 1 and 2 for entrepreneurship programs. I think it will come down to do you prefer a state school or a private school? Both schools lack diversity. If you haven’t already done so you should visit both schools and get a feel for them. I would lean towards the Kelley School if the geography doesn’t matter. While Babson is known as the Entrepreneur school Kelley is more nationally recognized. Also I know you stated finance isn’t an issue but I rather have my parents pay 30K (Kelley) instead of 55K (Babson) especially when both school’s Entrepreneurship program is equally respected.</p>
<p>In your case if Entrepreneurship is your major, you don’t care about geography, all three schools lack diversity, and even if finances are not a problem I would recommend</p>
<p>1) Kelley
2) Babson
3) Nova</p>
<p>As far as ranking which is the best OVERALL undergrad business school it is.</p>
<p>1) Nova
2) Kelley
3) Babson</p>
<p>My Son also visited and got into these schools. His vote was IU and was very happy for his decision. Did you visit all the schools yet?</p>
<p>There is no way villanova is better than IU for overall business. All of IU’s undergrad majors are top 15 (finance is 9th and accounting is 6th). IU is the 12th best b-school in the country.</p>
<p>Although not for business, I picked IU over 'Nova. All I can say is that I went to Villanova for a weekend stay and it was boooooooring. Socially, neither Nova or Babson (I live very close to that school, lots of friends there) compare to IU.</p>
<p>And as far as b-school rankings go, and entrepreneurship specifically, IU is the way to go.</p>
<p>we can fight back and forth which schools are the best looking at rankings such as business week or US news week. at the end of the day bkim92 your three choices kelley,nova, babson are the same caliber of business schools. it will come down to
“fit” and your personal preference. entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship whether your learning it from harvard or a community college. it all comes down to alumni network, geographic location, finances, and most importantly the type of people you want to surround yourself with. </p>
<p>by choosing one school over the other is not going to make you a more successful entrepreneur. you will have relatively the same resources to excel whichever school you do decide.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>This type of question comes up on seemingly every undergraduate business board here at CC. Here is my personal opinion based on my experiences as a hiring manager over the last 20 years.</p>
<p>There are various levels of “reputation”. Some schools are national in their draw, others regional and the rest primarily local. That said, the vast majority of a particular business school’s reputation flows from its graduate program, i.e. MBAs. At the graduate level there are only a handful of truly “National” programs, the Whartons, Harvards, and Stanfords of the world, (yes, I know there are others). At the undergraduate level, in my opinion, the only school which may have a national draw is Penn-Wharton, maybe; after that it strictly becomes a regional/local game.</p>
<p>All three of your schools listed do a very good job preparing students. Bkim92, you say geography isn’t a problem. That may be true now, but it could have an impact on how easy it is for you to find a job later. Villanova will have the strongest “reputation” and network in the NYC to Washington DC corridor. Babson will be stronger in Boston, though will have some name recognition in NYC. Obviously IU-Kelley will be strongest in Chicago and other mid-western locations.</p>
<p>Does that mean you if go to these schools you’ll never get a job in Los Angeles or San Francisco? No, of course not. It just means the graduates of USC and Berkeley are going to have a bigger network to tap into than you will. Of course since you plan on studying Entrepreneurship, geography should be of little importance.</p>
<p>My advice is two-fold. First, review a list of the recruiting and hiring companies for all these schools for the past few years. Look at the list and ask yourself if “entrepreneurship” or “corporate innovation” are words that come to mind when reading their names. Second, I am skeptical that entrepreneurship can be taught. Successful entrepreneurs have an overall command of the basics of business. I would consider which school will give you that base as well as offering you the best options to alter, change or customize your education, just in case you change your mind about your current path. </p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>I think Villanova is the most widely known, but Babson will give you the highest quality of education. It has personal attention and small classes, professors with industry experience, no TA’s, and an innovative curriculum with entrepreneurial thought running through all of it. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about the Kelley program, but the people I know that go to IU aren’t very bright. I guess that gives me the impression that IU isn’t a prestigious school. Babson is by far the most selective, and will offer you life skills and hands-on education.</p>
<ol>
<li>Babson</li>
<li>Villanova</li>
<li>IU Kelley</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, let’s look at those “smart students” at Babson (per ishamig):</p>
<p>Average SAT scores at undergraduate business schools:
Villanova: 1302
Indiana University at Bloomington: 1266
Babson: 1254
Source: <a href=“http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/[/url]”>http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/undergrad_bschool_2009/</a></p>
<p>I guess this means that if IU-B business students aren’t very smart, then Babson students must be downright idiots.</p>
<p>Also, here is the latest estimated cost of attendance for each school:
IU-Bloomington–in-state–$24,980 per year
IU-Bloomington–out-of-state–$39,875 per year
Villanova–(a private school, so cost is same whether in or out-of-state): $50,500 per year
Babson (also a private school)–$54,700 per year</p>
<p>P.S. I have actually taken some business classes at Villanova, though my MBA is from UCLA. My son is a senior at Indiana.</p>
<p>Don’t take my comments in my last post the wrong way–all three of these schools are good ones–especially for an Entrepreneurship major. I think that the heads of some of the new renewable energy companies come from all three schools (for example, UPC Solar is headed by some guy who went to Babson).</p>
<p>As I said above my son looked at all the schools. I would also take a look at where you think you FIT. This can be hard if you are only visiting for 1 day. He did go back to IU and Babson for a second visit. He liked Nova, just wasn’t in his top 5.</p>
<p>He also talked to students and I think that had an impact on his decision. When talking to students everyone loved IU, he was able to talk to a lot of students. But Babson was very mixed. You can see some of those comments on this web site and do a search. I’m not saying that Babson is bad, but a lot of the comments made him think twice. </p>
<p>At first I was disappointed he did not go to a smaller school, but have changed my mind. He has been able to get involved in alot more things at IU that interest him AND find more business opportunities (leadership positions). </p>
<p>PLUS, a new $60 million business building improvements are getting started this spring at IU.</p>
<p>Unless you want to be an entrepreneur, Kelley >>>>> Babson (by a wide margin). Look at the employment statistics.</p>
<p>All,</p>
<p>Thanks for the confirmation. It could be straightfoward for my 2nd son who will probably apply to only one school - IU next year if Kelley DA criteria is only modestly increased to (GPA 3.8, SAT 1300) as I expected.</p>
<p>Kelley is definitely better for business than the other two. Kelley has been a reputable biz school for a while now. I honestly had never heard of Babson until the other day. It sounds like a school that people go to who can’t get into a good b-school. It’s got it’s place in the world but it will never carry the weight that a traditional university with an established b-school has. Villanova is a good school but their b-school is not as good as Kelley. I’m basing my “knowledge” on investment banking rep. which is a pretty “elitist” group. Kelley is decent, Villanova is meh, and Babson gets laughed at. You can get a good education anywhere, the only thing that matters is the reputation and alumni. Based on that IU is def. the winner.</p>
<p>your all buggin… scotti reynolds college hoops gotta go with nova lets go cats!</p>
<p>I can’t argue with statistics but I have to say Babson’s SAT scores are probably lower because:
- Babson doesnt get such a wide-range applicant pool as the other universities
- Babson students are 30% international, which brings down the average reading/writing score a lot since most of these students’ second or third language is English
- Babson looks more heavily on HS classes and extracurriculars than SAT score</p>
<p>And, Calcruzer, I never said Kelley students aren’t very smart— I don’t know anyone in the Kelley school. I said that my friends that go to IU aren’t very smart, which doesn’t give me a very good impression of IU. So, in effect, if someone doesn’t know anything about Kelley (like me), and all they know is that it is an IU school, that could lead to a not very good impression of Kelley (if you have never heard of it, which is more likely from people in the northeast)</p>
<p>I do not know when Kelley nudged up their DA criteria last time. It seems to me that the 3.7/1270 have been around for a few years. If that is the case, we may see a jump of these requirements for 2011. Regardless, I glanced through Notre Dame’s freshmen stats. It looked like the majority of the students ranked 1-5% with average SAT(M+R) between 1390-1490. These stats certainly are higher than those for Kelley students. Nonetheless, Kelley’s ranking is comparable to ND’s (business school) in general (except from BW which ranked ND as 2 or 3 lately). The only logical reasons for this would be IU’s professors, curriculum, and the hard work of the students. Did I miss something? Hopefully, the raised standards coupled with these factors will push Kelley in the right direction.</p>
<p>ace550,</p>
<p>No, I think you hit the nail on the head, here. Keep in mind that part of the attraction for schools like Notre Dame (and Penn–Wharton and Virginia) is that they get the “smart” (meaning high GPA and SAT scores) students to begin with. The advantage with Indiana and Kelley is that the professors rank extremely high in a few key categories–namely (1) ability to teach the subject, and (2) accessibility and approachability. Look at the ratings on places like Princeton Review and you’ll see that Indiana ranked second (behind Stanford) in business school professor ratings. About the only class that they get ranked low on is the “weed out” classes right at the beginning (which are required to get into the business school). This is very common, though. If you check out both the University of Virginia and UC Berkeley, you’ll see that they also have “weed out” courses–and the professors that teach those classes also get ranked low at those schools. </p>
<p>ishamig,</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that one person’s limited knowledge of two or three students does not support a sweeping statement concerning all students at a school. I knew two or three lazy students at UCLA also. Of course, I also was on a thesis team (of four students total) with a student whose undergraduate was from Harvard and who designed and built his own customized home from scratch and I also knew two business students who started their own successful consulting firm in Hong Kong (with revenues over $15 million/year within 5 years) right after graduating. So, which ones should I generalize about?</p>