Kelley IU vs NorthEastern vs UIUC Geis vs Rutgers Business School

Narrowed down to 4 choices for my daughter
NJ resident so qualify for in-state only for Rutgers
Didnt get Honors program in any of the colleges

Kelley School of Business
Fees: $52K (no aids/scholarships)
Pros
1. Highest Ranking and Reputation in terms in Business undergrad . #10 in US(at least what we could found over the web)
2. Good Placements
3. Best ranking in Sales and Marketing/Consulting which are potential Majors my daughter wants to do
Cons
1. Bloomington College Town - Small as compared to Boston or NJ Suburbs
2. Overall rank of IU is lower
3. Large Class size

UIUC, Geis School of Business
Fees: $56K (no aids/scholarships)
Pros
1. UIUC has overall higher ranking
2. Good combination of Technology and Management programs
Cons
1. Geis school decided to shutdown their Full time MBA program which we believe will affect the reputation in long term
2. UIUC more know for engineering than management

D’Amore-McKim School of Business Northeastern Boston
Fees: $59K (After Scholarship)
Pros
1. Boston life. Urban living and College life
2. Co-Ops programs are considered to be the best
3. Access to Boston job market
4. 4 hrs Drive from Home
5. Top college in my daughter’s list
Cons
1. Selected to NU.IN program where 1st semester has to be spend abroad - London, Itay or Greece. Not sure if its really worth it specially in Freshman year
2. Most expensive of all. Not sure if its worth it
3. Co-Op program seems to be overhyped. All colleges in the list are able to get you internships

Rutgers Business School, NJ
Fees: $35K (No Scholarship)
Pros
1. 45 mins drive. Near to home
2. Good Placements and near to Wall Street
3. Instate tution . lowest costs among all
Cons
1. Lowest Ranking among all
2. Has a mix of students (1600 SAT to all the way to 1300 SAT).
3. My Daughter doesn’t wants to go to Rutgers

Can you afford all options without loans above the federal loan limits? I think all except Rutgers are expensive for what she wants to do (sales/marketing). Consulting is unlikely for her as only the top students from those schools usually break in and if she didn’t get honors or scholarships, chances of her ranking at the top of the class are slim. I would cross off NEU. It’s not that strong for business and the co-ops don’t make a lot of sense for business students given the availability of summer internships. (Too many cons plus the NUin). If affordable, I’d choose between Kelley and Geis. Both are strong for business. The lack of an MBA program won’t affect Geis for undergrad.

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Yes currently we can afford all options. We are leaning towards Kelley too

It’s fine if you don’t like Northeastern, but to respond to the person who said the business school is not that good, Poets and Quants did a ranking last month of top value undergrad business schools and had Illinois at 17, NU at 18, Indiana at 19 and Rutgers NB at 41. One of the strengths of NU is combined majors, i.e. business and economics or cyber security or data science. Co-ops are six months long and the average salaries are $21,500 with some up to $55k. It’s cool if it’s not for you but the co-ops are longer and more intensive than internships.

My husband went to Illinois and loved it. I am sure Indiana would offer a fun campus experience too. My son chose NU over Rutgers engineering and biz schools. He is happy.

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i go to NU so i can try and address your cons.

  1. I have tons of friends who did the NUin program and absolutely LOVED it. This year though because of covid there’s an NUin Boston location if you really don’t wanna go abroad.
  2. co-op is definitely NOT overhyped as an NU student. Co-ops are NOT internships, they are entry-level jobs. 54% of students who do a co-op get a full-time job offer after graduation from one of their previous co-op employers. There are some crazy good business co-ops thru NU such as Disney, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc. Really just wanna reemphasize that co-ops are not internships and you’ll get incredible work experience (not to mention co-ops pay)
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Has your daughter visited Bloomington? A friend’s son from a large metro area visited and scratched it off the list. Found it to be too remote and too much of a small town. Others would find the college town focus to be awesome. Given Kelley’s academic reputation, just curious if a visit to both IU and NU has them both neck and neck. “Only” $7K per year cost difference.

UIUC is outstanding for accounting and engr/business combo majors but your daughter wants sales and marketing.

Yes we visited Bloomington and she did get that small town feeling. We live in NJ and whole state is like living in a suburb. So yes that was a concern

We plan to visit NU over the weekend.

54% isn’t that great. And the downside of co-ops is huge - either graduating late or going to school during the summers, and friends being off campus at different times. The cons for business students outweigh the benefit, imo, as summer internships are plentiful and lots of employers hire their junior interns full time. The work done during a co-op and internship won’t differ much.

If the OP is interested in learning more about NU I suggest joining the Northeastern University Parents Facebook group. Parents are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about their kids’ co-op experiences and post-grad plans. Reading the positive actual experiences there versus the secondhand comments on College Confidential is night and day. My son went in with 20 AP credits, which should help with graduating either early or in 4 years but you don’t pay tuition and students earn money on co-op so that helps too. They accept up to 32 AP credits with scores of 4 or 5.

Some recent co-ops mentioned were marketing with the Boston Globe and business or finance with Wellington Management, Wayfair, Amundi, MFS Investment Management, Blackstone, and a $55 billion private equity firm in Boston.

I saw in another thread someone belittling the D’Amore McKim name. They are two alums who donated $60 million to the business school. Guess they did all right.

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Can you afford all options without loans above the federal loan limits? This is a key question to determine if fit or finances should be the determining factor.

In this COVID time, if we can save money thats the best. But yes we can afford

54% is pretty good…There are no major downsides to co-op (which are, VERY different from internships). You can graduate in 4 years with 2 co-ops and doing only 1 summer session of classes, which is only 2 months of summer. Our summers are 4 months long so you’ll still have 2 months of summer left. And you’ll likely only have to do one session your entire time here. So I don’t see how that could be a “huge” downside. You can study abroad as our summer classes or time them with friends, it’s not that hard. Friends are not off-campus at different times unless someone leaves for co-op, but the vast majority of students will co-op in Boston. I’ve had the same great friend group since freshman year.