<p>I want to major in Finance, hopefully getting a job as an Investment Banker after college. Both VT and JMU have accepted me, and my GPA and test scores are well above the averages for their honors programs, which I have applied to and will most likely get in.
Which college is better suited towards finance/IB recruitment? I hear alot of people saying that I should go wherever for 2 years and transfer to UVA/W&M, but I feel like after 2 years i'll be too attached to my university to transfer out.</p>
<p>I have friends who studied Finance at all four of those schools: W&M, UVA, Tech, and JMU. I know people from all of them who have been very successful getting jobs in investment banking, some on Wall Street and going on to have successful careers. You will hear UVA alum sometimes claim that theirs is the only school in VA from whom big investment banking firms hire. That is simply not true. I have friends from all four of those schools who have been extremely successful in investment banking and were interviewed on campus by big firms. I attended W&M in the late 80’s, and one of my Finance friends was so successful on Wall Street that he was able to retire early as a multi-millionaire. I also have multi-millionaire friends from each of the other schools, as well. What young people today don’t seem to understand is that for undergraduate school, you should go where you feel most comfortable and where the focus in the program of interest is strong for undergraduates. The rankings are so flawed in their methodology, they should be treated with a grain of salt. Reputation is a bit more important for grad school, Law School or Med School, but even then, it’s not the be all and the end all. My son is a freshman at JMU, and although he’s not a business major, all of his best friends there are, and they are very impressive students. I know they will be successful because the school is excellent and they are working very hard to do well and learn all they can. As long as the program is solid, it is your hard work and being able to apply what you learn that makes you successful – not where you go. All of those schools have excellent programs, so you can’t go wrong. Choose the school based on what kind of undergrad college experience you want to have. Do you want huge, rah-rah football like Tech has? Do you want a strong campus community where everyone lives on campus and undergrads are the main focus? W&M and JMU are the most undergrad focused of the four. Neither of those schools uses TA’s/grad assistants at all for teaching – just for research. At those two schools, you have a very strong sense of community and a huge focus on First Year Experience, housing freshmen together (no upperclass students mixed in), very robust orientation programs, and lots of school spirit based on the campus atmosphere and community feel. They both have football, but it’s not as big as at Tech and UVA but does provide a back-drop for social activities and excitement on campus. UVA and W&M are bastions of tradition, as they are both very old and have both had lots of famous alums. W&M is where Phi Beta Kappa, the most prestigious honor society, was founded by Thomas Jefferson. It doesn’t get much more academic than that. JMU and Tech have the widest array of majors to choose from – the traditional offerings, but also lots of innovative technical majors, as well. I know kids who love all four schools for a variety of reasons. After visiting a lot of out-of-state schools, I came to appreciate just how good we have it in Virginia. We have lots of high quality choices, strong students at the schools, beautiful campuses, and tons of history and tradition. There is also a lot of variety, which cannot be represented fairly by rankings. It’s like comparing apples and oranges – each has its own unique qualities, which doesn’t mean one is “better” than the other, just that they are different. You should visit each and decide which one makes you feel the most at home and where you feel you’d fit in the best in terms of campus atmosphere, class sizes, school spirit, professor accessibility, etc; then the success will come.</p>