That doesn’t surprise me. Should probably have made that point more clearly. I think for assurance work, which feels like the area with the most spots (because they need the most bodies), you can get there from a variety of levels of schools. Consulting and, maybe to a lesser degree, tax, and probably school starts to matter more.
Of course, regardless of what division and where you’re going to school, you need to do well because it’s competitive. Villanova is a very good (and beautiful) school. And it’s been my observation that they have one of those crazy tight alumni networks (like USC).
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Which of the LACs with business majors/programs that are not “real” like Skidmore’s? My research suggests that Trinity U, W&L, Richmond, Bucknell, Skidmore, Denison (Financial Economics), Claremont McKenna, Dickinson and Rhodes seem real enough, but happy to be redirected; Furman, F&M, Gettysburg, Pitzer and Sewanee not as much. Holy Cross seems accounting-only. How about Economics at Wesleyan, Trinity, Vassar, Colgate, Hamilton or Conn College (deliberately skipping the tippy top which I know well and might not be reachable)? Also very interested in hearing about placement tracks for Ga Tech Scheller, Wake Forest, Emory Goizueta, Elon Love, Miami Herbert, Georgetown, UNC, BU, Lehigh, W&M, Fordham, Pepperdine and Tulane.
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Two questions here, one of which I can put to bed quickly as a misunderstanding (or I communicated poorly, or both): I didn’t mean to suggest that ANY other LAC business program isn’t real. I was replying to the other poster who seemed to be suggesting that business in a LAC was something about which to be wary because it’s not ‘real’ liberal arts. In part, she/he is right - it’s not. But that doesn’t mean that such programs in LAC setting aren’t real or legitimate. I was just defending Skidmore’s, but have no view that they have the only one.
On the second question, I won’t be able to offer expert opinion on all those, but I have experience with and hear great things about Emory, Lehigh and Fordham, and UNC is an MBA top tier school so I suppose their business undergrad is superb. BU has always seemed to punch above its weight amongst the MBA schools. Again, not sure about undergrad but I would only guess it’s solid since it has a solid graduate biz school. That may be too big of an assumption.
Of the schools you listed for econ, and I am an admitted Wes homer so keep that in mind, I think Wesleyan probably has the best department of that group … perhaps Hamilton is right there or better … not sure. I think if you dig into it, you’ll find Wes has a very strong dep’t that might rank closer to the tippy tippy than one might guess since so much Wes talks tends to focus on film and the arts. My impression is that Trinity places well with a strong alumni network regardless of department rank. I really don’t know about the other schools at all though they’re all great schools in general.
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Edit: here is an article linked in a discussion about econ departments in the Wesleyan forum:
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html
Of the schools you listed, for publishing prowess at least, it shakes out like this:
Williams #1
Wellesley #2
Midd #3
Colgate #6
Hamilton #8
Amherst #9
Wesleyan #10
Vassar #11
Trinity #22
Conn not listed
I’ve seen other rankings that places Wesleyan higher than 10 and closer to Williams.
If you look at it, you’ll notice not all the tippy tippy top are tippy tippy top in econ. Swat 15, Bowdoin 16, Pomona 20, W&L 23, etc.