I’d like to pursue some sort of finance, hopefully investment banking. Love Michigan…love Ann Arbor… but Providence is great too, in different ways. Ross vs. economics at Brown? Anyone here have familiarly with both colleges?
Do you have a sense of which offer you would have accepted had you received simultaneous admissions? If so, that’s the school you should strongly consider attending.
I don’t know much about finance but was just reading Pedigree (a book about how students from elite colleges get elite jobs) and Brown was mentioned as one of the schools at which the big firms, finance and also consulting, recruit. It talked a lot about how–fair or unfair, and the author of the book argues unfair–where you go to school for these types of jobs matters. Of course, I know nothing about Michigan’s program so maybe it’s ranked just as highly?
As an aside, did you just today get off the Brown waitlist?
Little bit of apples and oranges, Ross is a business school (where you would need to choose a business specialty, mrktg, mgmt, etc. ) where at Brown, you would major in economics. Also where would you like to live after college that is relevant too here.
@RossorBrown Congratulations! You have to decide between two excellent options.
If you were my kid, I would suggest that you go to the one that excites and motivates you.
If it were me, I would choose Brown. Brown has a more diverse student body. At Michigan, half of the students are from, well, Michigan. Michigan also has excellent students, but because they have 28,000 undergrads and about a 25% admit rate, they have to focus more heavily on grades and test scores for admissions. In contrast, Brown is a lot smaller with 6,500 undergrads and only a 9% admit rate, which means they can be extremely picky in choosing interesting students for their class. I also prefer the campus at Brown. I would want to walk through the Van Wickle gates this fall if I were you, and I suspect that is what most students in your situation would choose to do.
Having said that, Michigan offers a world class education and you won’t have to spend the rest of your life listening to aunts, uncles and cousins, tell you they never heard of it at family get togethers. Ross is an excellent business undergrad program. If you are more pumped about attending to Michigan, you should go there and never look back.
MIchigan’s BBA program is typically ranked in the top-5 or 10 but if you want a career in investment banking you most likely will need a MBA, preferably from a top 10 school in finance. And you don’t need an undergrad in business to get into a top business school nor do you need to have a job in finance before b-school. So pick a program that will get you exposure to different industries, maybe different geographies in addition to strong financial theory, so you have good foundation for i-banking.
Although both great options, Investment banking in particular is essentially a prestige game. Get yourself into the best school you possibly can and you position yourself to land IB jobs. Certain schools have stronger placement into IB, which includes Michigan. Although Michigan Ross does have a strong IB connection, Brown will still place you better, being an Ivy.
“Do you have a sense of which offer you would have accepted had you received simultaneous admissions? If so, that’s the school you should strongly consider attending.”
Good way of putting it.
Probably slight edge to Brown. But now, after I got so caught up and committed to Michigan-Ross the last 6 months, this is throwing me for a loop.
Do they cost the same? Is that a consideration for you? And more importantly, have your parents paid the tuition bill for Michigan yet, and if they have, can they get their money back?
Ross and Brown are both target schools and will have many IB firms recruiting on both campuses. Brown has the highest average GPA than pretty much anyone. Being an Ivy would surely help as well. There are far more Ross finance students trying to get IB gigs than Brown students, so the intensity of competition can be another factor. But if you really want to learn finance knowledge, Ross is far better equipped with world class finance faculty. In contrast, Brown has a strong liberal arts tradition. Fit is a very individual kind of thing; only you can answer.
Like some other schools which offer economics but not business as an undergraduate major, Brown does have significant finance offerings in its economics department, presumably to help prepare students for Wall Street jobs:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/index.php?q=undergraduate/course-groupings
I think Ross is gonna get you where you want to go. Brown might, but it will be harder and this may be more of a round about way, without conferring any additional prestige.
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@RossorBrown I would go with Brown for two reasons. Firstly, you would get a better and more well-rounded undergrad education at Brown. Secondly, Brown is more of a guarantee for ibanking. It has bigger grade inflation and also being an ivy it is more prestigious than UMich undergrad and is probably a bit more of a target school for elite firms. (That said Ross also does great in that department).
All that said Ross would be an excellent choice if there is a cost issue or if you really prefer the environment there over Brown.
A lot of very poor advice on this thread. Brown and Michigan are pretty much even when it comes to quality of education and reputation. Graduate school admissions committees, or Corporate HR offices hold Michigan and Brown in equal esteem.
Michigan proposes an interesting mix of exceptional intellectual opportunities with high powered professional placement. You can receive a world class liberal arts education from LSA by majoring in any traditional discipline you like (if you are interested in IBanking, I would recommend Mathematics, but every single one of LSA’s departments is ranked among the top 15 in the nation) while still getting your degree from Ross and having access to its highly structured and aggressive careers office. Roughly 45% of Ross students pursue a dual degree or minor in another field of study.
When it comes to Brown vs Michigan, I would recommend going for fit. Thankfully, Brown and Michigan are significantly different from each other, so choosing shouldn’t be too difficult. You really cannot go wrong either way.
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Exactly, if you wanted to drop out of Ross and major in econ at UM, it has an excellent econ program, top-10 or 15, some rankings top-5.
I would give Brown the nod for both academics and placement (I know people who have attended both schools). Unless you crave that huge school experience, I’d opt for Brown in a heartbeat.
Both are great schools for your intended majors. You may want to list out what you like and dislike about each school and also compare their cost. They are very different in many aspects, so the decision should not be very difficult after you go through your list.
Brown.
But pick the campus that best fits you bc there is literally a hairs width between them.