<p>I'm deciding primarily between Cal and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. My father and grandfather went to Cal, so I've been a fan for as long as I can remember. I follow their sports religiously, and it seems the focus my whole life has been to get into Cal.</p>
<p>However, I've been offered preferred admission to the Ross School of Business at Michigan, meaning they're holding me a spot while most of my peers will have to apply during their freshman year. I really liked the school when I visited. Ross is 3 years, Haas is 2. At Ross, I'd take all of my core business classes with the same ~75 people (intended to build connections), and they're almost always taught by professors. Michigan also has a lot of support systems in place to help me succeed. (I know more about Ross than I do about Haas at the moment.) </p>
<p>I could only come home twice a year if I went to Michigan, but Cal is only about an hour from home, so I could come back whenever I wanted. The weather isn't even a comparison. </p>
<p>I know how hard it would be to get into Haas. Why should I give up the bird in the hand to go to Cal?</p>
<p>And then, to make things more complicated, I'm also considering UCLA for business economics, and I'd be an Alumni Scholar there (priority for classes & mentors). </p>
<p>It’s not hard to get into Haas, they take 50% of applicants from within Berkeley.</p>
<p>I’d go to Ross. Being a preferred admit is an honor and it’s a good thing to get an experience in a new place. Berkeley is 90% kids from CA, Ross is more diverse.</p>
<p>I’d go with Haas. It’s too early to get bothered about not getting admitted when that’s 2 years from now. Besides, if you won’t get into Haas, Berkeley Econ is still a prestigious and very well respected program. </p>
<p>Ross is excellent and all. UMich, Ann Arrbor is also a pretty college town. Ross building is brand new and state-of-the-art. The students at UMich are great and very talented. There’s a great tradition of academic excellence as well as academic freedom. But having said that, Berkeley-Haas is just slightly better. It’s also slightly more prestigious. Plus Ann Arbor is very cold pretty much the whole year round. You have to factor that in too, plus the cost as an OOS student. Besides, if you’re smart enough to get into these schools, I sure you’re smart enough to get into Haas.</p>
<p>I don’t see having 90% in-state for Cal a problem or a disadvantage. You’re talking about 90% students of varied origin, race, color, ethnic backgrounds, religion, mother dialect and culture. What I personally don’t like about Cal is it has almost 50% Asian population. I think that must eb corrected somehow. </p>
<p>By the way, cmj12391, are you Asian? If you are then go to Ross. If not, go to Cal. You’d be a great addition to Cal as your presence there would create a leverage for its almost one dimensional racial/ethnic population. :D</p>
<p>^ I just checked the site you provided. It’s BusinessWeek’s ranking of the best business schools for undergrad. The data says Haas is number 2 in the nation for Recruiter Survey Rank. How would that serve against the school?</p>
<p>Haas is definitely not more prestigious, they mainly just get recruited regionally. Literally 95% of the graduating class goes on to work in the west coast. Again, not a problem if you want to work in the California… but if you want to work in NYC (or Chicago) after college, Ross will put you in a much better position.</p>
<p>cmj, you should absolutely go to UMich if you have the financial resources for out of state tuition. Given your circumstances now, UMich offers the education with the guarantee of being in the program, whereas Haas is not.</p>
<p>Also, in my opinion, if you are from CA you should go to college outside of CA unless its Stanford/Caltech. If you go to a UC, everyone is from SF/Bay Area, SJ Area, SoCal, random NorCal cities. It’s really not that diverse; you’ll get a better understanding of the US and the world by traveling away from CA.</p>
<p>In terms of recruiting, I know that the majority of banks on Wall Street recruit at UMich. Of course you will get Big 4 recruiting too b/c they recruit everywhere. For Berkeley, mostly CA office of the big banks, rather than the headquarters in Manhattan. Similar opportunities in terms of job type, but different in terms of location.</p>
<p>Lastly, RML I don’t know what you’re talking about when you say it’s more prestigious. How so? The Businessweek Ranking is complete bull, and most people who are in these programs know it. (McCombs is more prestigious than Wharton? Really now?..)</p>
<p>^ Yeah, I stand corrected. Seems they’re both neck-and-neck when it comes to prestige. Ross has the slight edge in the East Coast and Haas has the edge in the West Coast.</p>
<p>If the OP is Asian, he should definitely go to Ross.</p>
<p>I’m a white female, but it interests me that you think race is a factor… </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the posts - I really appreciate it. Location of future employment seems to be another factor I didn’t really consider, probably because I don’t know where I want to work. My more immediate goal is to go to a top law school after college. I may not actually do anything directly related to business, I just think it’s vital to have that a strong background in it - hoping it will allow me some versatility in the hostile market. </p>
<p>Michigan does have the largest alumni base in the world, so I think I’d be covered even if I returned to the Bay Area. </p>
<p>I also think it’s interesting how much the level of prestige is mentioned. It’s funny because when I talk to classmates about my college options, most of them have never heard of Ross and think I’m crazy to consider going to Michigan. I literally had someone ask me which university I was referring to by saying “Michigan,” because they hadn’t heard of U-of-M. I’m hoping that’s youthful ignorance. Everyone, and I mean everyone, knows Haas out here.</p>
<p>Hello cmj12391. I have absolutely no problems with smart Asians. Many of them are really fun to be with. (I’m also married to one!) I just think that there are too many of them at Berkeley --almost 50%. That’s a huge disproportion of races, as an elite American school. If you’re a smart Asian attending Cal, you’re just “another smart Asian” on campus. This is, however, just my personal opinion. </p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve gathered as I spent time researching about Ross. Ross has a strong brand name in the Midwest and East Coast, particularly in New York. It’s one of the few elite schools where top bulge bracket firms recruit talents from. In fact, McKinsey, the most notorious consulting company in terms of recruiting top-quality talents…recruits at Ross! (It’s one of the only 7 core schools of McKinsey!!!) That is indeed a real feat in itself. Only 6 other schools can match that – HYPSM+Wharton. Even Dartmouth, Columbia, Berkeley and other giant names can’t match that. That tells then how excellent Ross is. Not only that. Aside form McKinsey, other big names visit Ross too to recruit talents. <a href=“http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=252&article_id=14364421&cat_id=1223[/url]”>http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=252&article_id=14364421&cat_id=1223</a>
But while Ross is a top brand, excellent and all, you also need to consider other factors here such as cost, weather and environment. Berkeley’s environment is amazing. But UMich’s won’t be that far behind. Ann Arbor is a pretty college town. There are lots of exquisite architecture as well. The students are also just as amazing and friendly. There’s also lots of school spirit. This is really hard to decide. hehe…</p>
<p>so according to your theory, Brigham Young (Marriott) is the most prestigious b-school. thats definitely not true… you can check the methodolgy. the starting salary gap between these two schools are obvious.</p>