I am a current high school senior who got into Kelley School of business. I’m trying to choose which school I should attend in the fall so I need as much information as possible. Obviously, when I go visit the school, only the positive factors are going to come out, not the negatives. When I make this choice, I need to be able to consider all aspects. So at Kelley School of Business, what are some of the setbacks in it’s finance program? What would you have complained about when you attended the school?
Is good solid b school. What other schools did you get admitted to?
It’s top 15. But bigger than the other top schools so the student has to look out for themselves in terms of internship etc
If you got into Wharton or MIT then go there. But is hard to beat IU in the Midwest unless you go to Chicago, Northwestern or Michigan.
To be completely honest, I think the general finance major at Kelley is pretty dumb. I’m not going into finance in my career, but I’ve essentially completed the major and I don’t feel like I’ve learned that much. One caveat to the following: if you are interested in investment banking and are able to get into the investment banking workshop, I’ve heard that program is strong and you will learn more than a person with just a basic finance degree. I’m not in the workshop, and this whole post is just my opinion.
I had some basic finance knowledge before coming to Kelley - I set up a Roth IRA and had another investment account with some money I had saved up. I had/have everything invested in a total stock market index fund based on knowledge gained from reading articles online. After completing the finance degree, I still have the same investment allocation, so learning finance is not really going to help me with anything since it is not related to my job, and also isn’t helping me manage my own money more effectively than I was doing before I ever took a finance class at Kelley.
You will learn some basic techniques for valuing stocks and other securities, but you can’t really use them in practice because it is almost impossible to predict the stock market. Investing in a total stock market index fund will yield a better return after fees than 75% of professional money managers each year. And the 25% that beat you each year will change, as hardly anyone can consistently beat the market over the long-term. That’s the most useful thing I’ve ever learned in any finance class, and you can learn that yourself in 5 minutes on the internet.
To be completely honest, if I were to suggest 10 stocks to buy and hold for the next year based on my finance knowledge, and a 3-year old also picked 10 stocks to buy and hold randomly from a list, the 3-year old would have about a 50% chance of yielding a higher return than me. I am 100% serious about that. This could also just be a function of my expectations going in, but I think it’s pretty deflating to have a finance degree and not be able to pick individual stocks better than a 3-year old.
The good news is that if you go to Kelley and want to go into finance, you will definitely be able to find a job at a reputable firm. Most of the stuff you will use in your job will be learned on-the-job anyway, and I do think Kelley does a good job at teaching fundamentals of finance. I also don’t think this is a Kelley problem, as finance is very similar across schools.
I really like Kelley overall and I am very glad I came here because of the accounting degree I will graduate with, but I would be pretty disappointed if I was solely a finance major.
question - 1) did you know you were going to be accounting going into college?, and 2) what other undergrad schools did you consider and what stuck out about Kelley and did it live up to your expectations going in…thanks!
@DG Yeah, I knew I was going into major in accounting going into college. The only other schools I applied to were Miami of Ohio and Manchester University (in Indiana). I knew for several years that I wanted to go to IU, and I really just applied to Miami and Manchester because my dad works with some accountants who spoke highly of their programs. I actually considered going to Manchester around this time during my senior year of high school because I got an unexpected scholarship offer, but decided against it.
The biggest factors that went into choosing Kelley for me were: cost, resources (the school has a huge budget and a huge alumni network), proximity to home, perceived quality of the school, and having a ton of family who have graduated from IU (3 grandparents, dad, uncles, etc). I’m paying about $3k per year in tuition here after scholarships, and no other school could come close to offering the resources and quality Kelley offers for that price.
Kelley has lived up to my expectations. I think my knowledge of accounting is very solid, and I feel prepared to pass the CPA exams this summer. Obviously, I’m not particularly satisfied with the finance program, but I would definitely still go to IU if I could redo the decision. I do think that out-of-state students are potentially better staying in-state though, depending on the cost and quality of in-state schools.
Ouch, that hurt. 
Actually, its sounds like you had only one part of finance – investments. I’ll leave what you say about the stock market as your opinion since there are billionaires who think differently. There are other areas including corporate finance, credit analysis, etc. I would say the Kelley finance program is more of a “meat and potatoes” program than an investment banking program.
As for the OP, Kelley is a BIG school. Lots of kids. So you have to handle that. And IU does some bassckwards things some times that can be frustrating. Good luck with you decision.
@yourmomma I am graduating in a month and will graduate with a finance major. I have taken corporate finance, venture capital, and a class designed to train financial advisors as well as investments. Most of the non-investment classes involve doing 1000 discounted cash flow problems, rinse, repeat. Anyone can use the formula, but the hard part is obviously coming up with the assumptions to put into the model, which we don’t really talk much about.
Like I said before, I’m sure the program can set you up for success in a finance role, but it seems to me that you would need to learn a lot more on the job than an accounting role. I think I’ve learned a lot more concrete information that can be directly useful in accounting than finance. I also don’t think my opinion on all of this is the same as most other finance students.
Exactly. Accounting is rules based – GAAP, Tax laws, etc. In finance they teach you the “formula” which really doesn’t mean jack squat. It’s the assumptions you put into the formula where the big money is made. If your professors could teach you the “right” assumptions, they wouldn’t be telling a bunch of 20 somethings.
I got into Northeastern’s business school so I’m trying to decide between the two