<p>I'm looking to eventually go into business/management/operations research - but at the same time i think a solid lib arts bground is important for career flexibility in business.</p>
<p>My parents are pushing for stern because of the connections and job opportunities that I could get in NYC. But I heard a lot of things about Stern that makes me wonder if I should just go NW.</p>
<p>What i have agaisnt Stern:</p>
<p>-No typical college 'campus' experience - i think the campus experience is invaluable.
-expensive daily living costs (going out, eating, and just chilling in the city is mo expensive)
-non existant sports (NW is at least in the Big10)
-huge student body so I hear that individuals are almost just treated as a #
-I hear people are pretty snotty/non-friendly.
-this might be me being shallow, but NW is probably considered more prestigious than NYU stern</p>
<p>What my parents have agaisnt NW:</p>
<p>-too far and thus expensive travel fees (I live in NJ)
-not necessarily strong business wise and no separate management program
-cold (chicago winters)
-after 4 years in college, I might end up settling in Chicago which my parents dont like cause they want the fam to be near each other
-less job/intern opportunites in chicago than in NYC</p>
<p>AH wuhtf to do.
What school do you think would be a better fit for me? (btw, im visiting both soon)</p>
<p>Hi
I got into Stern as well as Northwestern . Even i am interested in business but i think i would rather go to NW. I am actually deciding between NW and Brown. I personally think that NW is a better school overall.</p>
<p>If you are into operations research, you may want to check out the industrial engineering/management sciences dept. It's ranked 4th by US News. Good luck in your decision!</p>
<p>Being realistic, an undergrad at Northwestern will have very little contact with the Decision Science department at Kellogg (they are the crazy technical people) or any other Kellogg department really. This is really not much of a drawback for an undergraduate wanting a corporate or consulting career, though. It's the exact same position as most students from elite undergraduate programs. A business program is a little bit on the "vocational training" most of the time, and plainly that is a big part of the reason why undergraduate business programs are almost (not entirely) nonexistent at elite private universities. </p>
<p>At Northwestern or any other good school without a business program, you just need to make sure you get plenty of training in quantitative and analytical methods. Northwestern has some very appealing versions of this, eg, the Math Methods in Social Science program I mentioned in the other Northwestern business thread. You might also grab a few business skills courses like accounting, and take some stuff on organizational behavior. Very few undergrad business programs can match the quality of those offerings at Northwestern for undergraduates.</p>
<p>The main question then is whether employers know how to interpret the lack of business school certification for a Northwestern (etc.) graduate, and whether MBA programs know how to interpret it in the future. Of course the answer is yes, they do know because they see this kind of thing all the time.</p>
<p>So, the business training comparison really does not clearly favor a school simply because it has an undergraduate business degree. An obvious exception is accounting, which is still something of a vocational training program in part anyway. But generally presence of a program in business per se is a myopic way to choose.</p>