<p>I was pretty naive when I chose that list of schools and just kind of put in random prestigious schools, but now I've come to see that a lot of them don't offer what I'm really looking for. </p>
<p>At the moment I'm really interested in UCBerkeley (Haas), as I've heard it's a pretty high ranked business program, only 3 years in length, and located in California (love the weather there... I'm pretty tired of the snow here in Canada lol). I'm also considering MIT (Sloan) and UPenn (Wharton), although those seem like quite the reach schools. </p>
<p>The undergraduate business major at Berkeley is normally two years in length, after applying to enter the major, which is usually done in one’s second year as an undeclared student. I.e. the usual total time from entering freshman to degree is four years (eight semesters). Junior transfers would normally be expected to complete the degree in two years (four semesters).</p>
<p>It is theoretically possible for a student with substantial AP/IB/college credit coming in as a freshmen to apply in one’s first year, taking the seven (or as few as three if one has maximum AP credit allowed for the prerequisite courses) required prerequisite courses within the first year. Whether Haas will admit such a student to the major (assuming grades etc. are good) is another question entirely, and probably should be asked on the Berkeley forum.</p>
<p>In my opinion, undergrad b schools come in tiers. I would put them in tiers like this, in which the schools in each respective tier will give you the most opportunity:</p>
<p>Tier 1:</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)</p>
<p>Tier 2:</p>
<p>MIT (Sloan), University of Michigan (Ross), New York University (Stern), University of Virginia (McCintire), Univeristy of Berkeley (Haas), Cornell (AEM) though this is actually a hotel school technically</p>
<p>Tier 3:</p>
<p>Notre Dame (Mendoza), University of Texas (Austin), Indiana University (Kelley), University of North Carolina Chapel-Hill</p>
<p>There are a few other schools which are good that I probably forgot to mention.</p>
<p>Edit: Also, you said you were interested in Berkeley, but keep in mind that Haas graduates tend to stay in the west coast. So also take into account where you would want to live after when applying to schools.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus - Aww, got my hopes up when I read about the program only being 2 years in length. </p>
<p>@Goldenglobe - Thanks for your input, I will look into those. </p>
<p>@OCELITE - Weather’s one of my deciding factors but not a huge deal-breaker. Also, does it snow just as hard in Pennsylvania? Just wondering lol</p>
<p>Just wondering why do you want to go to an undergrad business school. The most elite business jobs often don’t recruit deeply at undergrad business schools after the top 3-4 schools. Outside of Wharton, you’ll do as well getting, in terms of finding an elite job, with an econ, math, engineering, or even liberal arts degree from a top feeder like Dartmouth, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Duke, etc. If your goal is consulting (general business) or finance there are many more options than business schools, many of them better.</p>
<p>Undergrad business degrees are mostly skills and techniques. There are few courses that cause you to think deeply and stretch your mind. If you want to be successful in business, you need the latter more than the former. Somebody who can think through and analyze problems can always pick up the skills on the job. Companies know this. Much better to get a degree in a subject that causes you to stretch your mind, get some business experience, then get an MBA part-time, which you can often do at your company’s expense. </p>
<p>I have an undergrad business degree (and an MBA). If I had it to do over again, I’d have majored in something like philosophy. </p>
<p>No problem. The interesting thing about business is that elite recruiters care much more about general brand name and prestige of your school (generally) than they do about the vocational training you learn in school So basically Goldman Sachs or McKinsey is going to prefer a Duke, Dartmouth, or Columbia econ major over any business school except perhaps Wharton. If you look at how the prestigious firms (banking and consulting) it breaks down with them recruiting generally at the list below (many others on CC who work/ have worked at these types of firms have all confirmed this). </p>
<p>Oops…hit enter by accident…anyway, meant to say that people are highly brand-conscious in finance/consulting. You don’t need to go to Harvard, but you need to be in one of the places that he mentioned or something like Georgetown, Hopkins, Swarthmore, etc. that is also generally respected. I cannot overstate how much of a difference this will make in your career.</p>