Kelley (IU) or Illinois-Urbana Champaign for Business?

Which is the better school? Potential majors: finance, investment banking, accounting. Cost is not a factor. Job prospects and recruitment are important factors. Potentially living in Chicago post-graduation, but open to living elsewhere such as New York or wherever life takes me.

Have you already been accepted to both?

I have recruited out of both schools, and their graduates have similar profiles. Overall, it comes down to what you want to study and your home state for tuition. Some disjointed thoughts:

UIUC COB has about 3,000 undergrads while Kelley has 6,000. Both are heavily recruited.

If you are OOS to both, IU is significantly cheaper and gives out more merit aid than UIUC. I would not consider UIUC if I were OOS due to cost.

UIUC is known for their accounting program, while Kelley is famous for being to place kids in IB. However, Kelly’s IB workshop is pretty small and very competitive to get into. If you are not in the IB workshop at Kelley, you are competing with a large graduating class for non-IB jobs.

If the goal is to work in Chicago, the average UIUC grad will have more opportunities than the average IU grad. Top students from both schools will have excellent opportunities, but a lower tier UIUC student will do better than a lower tier Kelley grad due to less competition. The low tier UIUC grad will still work in Chicago, while the low tier Kelly grad will work in “logistics” in a big warehouse in central Indiana.

If the goal is to work on Wall Street and you have top stats, go to Kelly. Here is a link to Kelly’s IB page.

https://kelley.iu.edu/IBN/index.cfm

Good luck!!!

Yes, accepted to both. I’m leaning toward finance. Investment banking and accounting are strong seconds.

I have a daughter and son who are current students at UIUC in the College of Business. Both are double majoring, with one of them being finance.

My daughter never applied to Indiana, while my son did. He was accepted as a direct admit. We attended the admitted student day at each school, which I recommend, you do. As Zinhead mentioned, the size of the undergraduate business programs was the (ahem) biggest difference we noticed and also our biggest concern…how would it impact the experience there? After weighing several factors, he ultimately chose UIUC. You may feel differently.

Since you specifically asked about job prospects and recruitment, I’ll share a link to BCS (Business Career Services) at UIUC.

https://business.illinois.edu/bcs/students/undergraduates/statistics/

As for my daughter, she attributes much of her personal and professional growth to the people/experiences from her RSO (registered student organization) and study abroad program. I mention this because I think those are two areas that are sometimes under-valued when choosing a school. Her post-graduation employment is with one of the Big Three Consulting firms.

I would say they are very happy they chose to attend UIUC. Good luck with your decision!