Looking for Recommendations for Midwest LACs with strong Business / Economics Programs [IL resident, 3.5 GPA in honors/AP courses]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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My son is a HS Junior and he is leaning toward pursuing undergraduate studies in business and economics. He’s interested in either a smaller college or a university with smaller class sizes that make it “feel” smaller / more personalized, preferably in the Midwest. He is perhaps seeking a “unicorn” as he would love to find a place that has engaging and caring teachers and support staff but also offers relevant, hands-on internship opportunities in the business sector and facilitates opportunities for career placement in top-tier national / international companies.

He is an extremely bright student but also has all the classic struggles of a gifted ADHD kid: his academic rigor lags due to his tendency to procrastinate and his lack of self-discipline when his course load becomes overwhelming. He currently takes all honors and AP classes and grasps the material like a boss, but he has a 3.5 GPA (4.35 weighted), which - while certainly not bad - is less than he’s capable of due to lack of motivation around homework and sub-par rigor on tedious assignments.

He has terrifically productive classroom conversations, projects, presentations and labs, and he can hang with the best teachers, professors and classmates in any situation. He tests extremely well. He’s cooperative, kind and motivating, making great people around him even better. He does best in collaborative work environments where those around him motivate him to be his best. But a grueling, highly competitive and crushing workload would break him.

He’s just starting to begin seriously investigating colleges and universities to find a good fit. As I help him navigate the process, are there any suggestions for business / economics programs that might position a kid like this to find his wings? Any to definitely stay away from?!?! Any and all input would be welcome as important life decisions are coming at him fast. :heartpulse:

His schools of interest currently (both larger and smaller, but currently all in the Midwest):

  • University of Chicago (likely FAR reach)
  • Northwestern (likely far reach)
  • Washington University - St. Louis (likely far reach)
  • UIUC
  • Indiana University - Bloomington
  • Bradley University
  • Butler University
  • Carleton College
  • Grinnell College
  • Macalester College
  • Hope College

Demographics:

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: IL (Chicago)
  • Type of high school: Top-tier college prep (#2 public in Chicago)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Male / Caucasian
  • Other special factors:

Intended Major(s):

  • Business
  • Economics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores:

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.5
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.35
  • ACT/SAT Scores: not yet taken, but historically very strong standardized test results

Coursework:

  • All classes are honors level, will likely graduate with 4 AP classes (relatively low compared to peers due to ADHD constraints / IEP and counselor recommendations)

Cost Constraints / Budget:
No constraints; not likely to receive need-based aid

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I’d have to say that Carleton is a pretty big reach too. (Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if econ leaned more theoretical there, vs. “business-y”)

Definitely take a look at Truman State. As Missouri’s public honors LAC, it attracts a lot of bright and motivated students who are attracted by the great financial value that Truman offers. He’d get automatic admission and automatic merit - after merit, your costs would be under 27K/year. The total undergraduate enrollment is under 4K students, and they offer both a Business Administration major and an Econ major. Truman sets a very good baseline in terms of looking at his other options and assessing whether they offer the value added for the price difference, over the terrific financial value Truman offers.

If you’re willing to look at “midwest-adjacent” Ohio, there are a number of good options there. Denison has a Financial Economics concentration within Econ, and also offers a Global Commerce major. Ohio Wesleyan has majors in Accounting, Business Administration, International Business, Data Analytics, Econ, Management Econ, and Quantitative Econ. College of Wooster has a Business Econ major and an International Business Econ minor. Oberlin has a Business major as well as an Econ major. Just 20 miles over the Ohio border in far-northern PA, Allegheny College has both Business and Econ as well. There’s also Kenyon, which has only a straight econ major, but shares some attributes in common with other schools you like that also don’t have business-specific programs.

You might also look at Kalamazoo College, where the Business & Econ Department offers both majors. K-College offers a nice small-city environment, with lots of curriculum flexibility, and emphasis on study/internships abroad and experiential education.

Lots of good options - good luck to him!

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A lot of what he seeks - many colleges will say they have but will they is the unknown. As you visit schools, make academic appointments and see how they feel (the profs - did they have an interest in meeting you, etc?) Also, talk to kids on campus…and many schools will have student advisors who you can talk to and would be honest.

What is the weighting system? What level of math will he achieve?

Your first three are far reaches.

UIUC for Gies may be a reach. It’s big.

IU will depend on test score. and it’s really really really big.

Bradley - safety

Butler - Safety

Carleton - has econ but not business - and it’s a high reach

Grinell - same as Carleton

Macalester - low reach to high - depends on actual rigor and test score - same as far as has Econ

Hope - is safe - but is Christian - do you want that? Others on your list aren’t.

So Econ is not business. Econ is a social science - if you want business, it’s more pre professional. Some schools do have a mix but some you mentioned don’t. Northwester doesn’t but has a business minor. Hope has a Business + Econ major.

There are a few LACs with a formal business program - lafayette, bucknell, richmond, etc.

As for large schools which don’t appear right for you - but maybe a Pitt with a smaller b school class (like 350) would be better than IU or UIUC (you don’t list budget that I see) although then full pay - which doesn’t mean you want to be full pay.

Here are schools that may hit the spot and you’d get merit too!! They show a Bus/Econ major.

Augustana (South Dakota)
Beloit
Cornell College Iowa (block schedule - one class at a time)
Drake
Furman - a bit tougher and in SC so out of range - but a fine school/program
Kalamazoo
Wabash - bus minor
Wheaton - like Hope, will be Christian…this is the Illinois Wheaton
Wooster

Happy hunting.

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My son is similar, looking for a smaller school, probably an LAC for business, although not specifically in the midwest. He is also a junior so things can and will change. Here’s his full list right now, it’s very long and some is quite reachy.

Trinity U
SMU
Denison (global commerce/financial econ)
Wabash
Miami U
U of Dayton
U of Richmond
W&L
Furman
Lehigh
Bucknell
Elon
Wake Forest
St Olaf (financial econ)
Creighton
Gonzaga
U of San Diego

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Maybe a little larger than you want but Miami Ohio and Dayton came to mind.

Washington and Jefferson is south of Pittsburgh. Good faculty. Roger Goodell is a grad.

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W&L is a reach; but it’s one of the few LACs that has an undergraduate business school, and has fantastic career outcomes. SMU Cox is very strong; if not a direct admit you need a very high gpa to be admitted later.

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We went through a somewhat similar search recently for S24. He is looking for a certian type of job out of college. Either a business degree or an econ degree degree could get him there (and honestly lots of other areas could work too, but he expressed interest in those two). When we started the search, we noticed the following (gross over-generalizations):
(1) Econ tends to be in the liberal arts college at big unviersities. Whereas business is usually a separate business college. Liberal arts and business colleges often have completely different gen ed requirements.
(2) The econ major tended to be theoretical. The business major seemed to focus on skill development for a profession.

So I pulled up graduation requirements (and sample 4 year schedules) for degrees he was considering at his top 10 schools. The classes required were VERY different. Schools that I thought looked a lot alike actually had very different curriculum structures and contents.
In the end, D24 is most interested in schools with hands-on opportunities to develop practical and tangible skills in his specific major within business. He wanted to minimize gen eds outside of his major and maximize opportunities for electives related to his major. That cut out econ majors, as well as business majors within many liberal arts schools and Jesuit schools (both of which tend to incorporate a liberal arts curriculum into the business degree and as a result do not leave as much room for extra business-related electives). (My D22 went the exact opposite way with her decision. She is studying computer science at a LAC because she wanted the liberal arts classes and not just an intense pre-professional track. So I’m not advocating that one is better than another–just different. )

I would encourage your son to explore … why business/econ (spoiler: he will probably have to write an application essay about that, so start thinking about it now) and what classes does he want to take in college? The more specific he can be, the better you can do helping select schools. If he likes the liberal arts component, I would suggest he look at Jesuit colleges in addition to LACs.

As to the schools on your list, we looked at 3 of them for business-- Butler, UIUC and IU. It was interesting to see them all in a weekend because they are all really great undergrad business programs and also very different. All 3 are very invested in their business students and have fantastic facilities, as well as amazing internship and job placement rates. Butler requires 2 internships and has a 99% placement rate, I believe. UIUC is 92% for internships and 97% employed; IU is 90% internships and 99% employed. Size-wise Butler graduates about 270 business students a year, UIUC 750 and Indiana 2000+. The size of the business schools makes these places feel very different.

A few midwest schools we did not look at (because of the liberal arts requirements), but that I’ve heard great things about for business include Beloit, Creighton and Marquette.

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Agree with this list and would add DePauw and Centre College.

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Good suggestions! I believe DePauw has a brand new business program.

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Thank you for all this. Fantastic, relevant and much to consider. I really appreciate your insights and will definitely use them.

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I understand why IU(kelley) is on here if you are looking at rankings - but the B-school is enormous and class sizes would be bigger than the others. If that is really in his range the rest of the Big ten schools could be considered.

As he is only a junior he may have more options if trending positive. Someone earlier mentioned econ as a social science vs Business School so you should pay attention to that.

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As long as you consider the Great Lakes to be Midwest, I think there are many good choices. DePauw, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Kalamazoo, and Albion immediately leap to mind.

Again not sure how you think of Midwest, but Rhodes is a non-coastal school I would recommend considering.

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And although they may seem interchangeable, the skills required to do well in a Business vs. Econ program are different (with some overlap).

In general, Econ is going to require MORE math and harder math. Econ may require a research paper/project of some kind (what is the impact on increasing the minimum wage on teenagers in low income households; how do subsidies of solar panels impact household energy consumption… that type of thing) whereas business programs may require a group project or capstone but it’s not likely to be regression heavy and theoretical.

Figuring out which discipline is actually of interest is going to make the search much more efficient IMHO.

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It can completely depend too on what Business concentration you’re looking at and what the Econ program is like BS vs BA etc. A finance, logistics, or analytics, major at many schools will require more math than a BA in Econ but a marketing or organizational behavior major vs a BS or Financial Econ would be generally much less.

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I note Econ is a core liberal arts and sciences subject, so the list of SLACs which would be good for Econ is an incredibly long list. But I also know some people intending to do business get a little frustrated as Econ majors, because they sometimes find it kinda abstract and boring.

And so sometimes it can make sense to actually not do something so obviously business-adjacent, but which you like better. People launch into business careers from a long list of different majors. And then maybe (or not) get an MBA or such down the road.

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I was going to say Creighton as well. Jesuit schools tend to be super supportive and good with merit. Omaha businesses seem to be booming.

And I know it isn’t midwest but we were recently on a tour of LeMoyne in NY (her big bro goes to Syrac use which is minutes away). While in their business school the dean happened to be walking by and asked if any were interested in business as a major. It was a small group and only 1 said yes. The dean gave the student his personal business card and asked him to stop in after the tour to learn more specifics. Overall, the school is high on my daughters list for other reasons. Its a small school but she liked the updated areas mixed with keeping the historic feel. We were talking with one of the admissions people after the tour and she then took us on a personal tour of the dance studio (which wasn’t in the tour and needed her to search and find someone to open the locked door). Anyways, my daughter felt she would be respected as staff really seemed to go above and beyond. (sports are going D1 this year if thats your kids thing. )

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Add Ohio University as a safety. They support active, vibrant business/sales clubs that travel - they are somewhat competitive but the business clubs are just touch (if not more so) at top schools. Also, a magnificent bubble of a campus. The school is very, very fun. @izzy74, you as well, if you have Dayton on your list, you need O.U. there as well.

@ChiLACDreamer, dream away on the reaches, but make sure that O.U. is in the mix for safeties for your son.

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I worry about the reaches when you say a huge workload would crush him. The schools may be collaborative but there will likely be a tremendous workload involved. Is that an environment where he will do his best?

Another Midwest Jesuit suggestion is Saint Louis University. D22 is there and absolutely loves it. She’s a STEM major but has friends in the Business school who are very happy with their college choice and have plenty of time to have fun in addition to getting their work done.

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Southwestern University in Texas (you’ll have to decide if that’s close enough to the midwest) is another good one for business and economics and might be a good fit for him otherwise.

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SLU could be particularly good if his foreign language is Spanish, as they have their own campus in Madrid. There’s an International Business major based there; so a student could do his degree primarily in Madrid, or 2 years in Madrid and 2 in STL, or just do a more traditional semester or year abroad.

Another LAC that deserves a mention is Knox Business & Management - Majors & Minors - Knox College

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