Temple's Fox Business School Compared to UMD's Smith Business School

Colleges and Universities A-Z Temple University
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I posted this in a couple places but haven’t received much feedback. I’m not sure if it’s my phrasing or where I’m putting it. So, I’m trying it on Temple’s forum:

My son was admitted to both schools and is trying to make a decision. As you know, time is becoming a bit of a concern particularly for housing.

UMD: The biggest advantage here is it’s ranking over Temple. The disadvantage is that even though it’s in state, it will cost about $20,000/year. Not horrible, but twice as much as Temple will cost . Crime rate reported seems to be similar to Temple when considering the number of students on campus (which I thought Temple’s would be higher).

TEMPLE: The biggest advantage here is cost - about $10,000/year (plus two $4,000 stipends for study abroad or internships). However, it’s not as well ranked, although the program looks good.

Would one school put my son in a better position for job in finance/law school than the other? Any advantages of one over the other. While my husband and I are willing to pay for either school, we don’t have money trees growing around here! That being said, we also want our son to be able to land a job when he graduates (whenever that will be as I can’t say for sure if he’ll still want to go to law school four years from now). Thanks for any help.

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why do you think Temple will cost 10K a year? our costs with our son liviing on campus are closer to $17,000 and he has the full tuition scholarship. incidentals such as laundry, travel, and spending money add up over a year and they still have to pay for books. my kid’s books have cost around $600 and are probably on low side for what books can cost a student. have you gotten word from temple that you qualify for subsntantial need based aid? or perhaps you are subtracting his loans out of the total current costs? i am not trying to be nosy but the costs of the 2 schools may be much closer than you realize. of course, you may be underestimating Maryland’s costs too. the caliber of the 2 schools should not matter much for law school admissions so long as he has a strong LSAT. please verify that on CC’s law school pages though as it’s been a long time since i personally dealt with law school admissions. I am not sure about business and finding job when one graduates in comparing the 2 schools. however, using your original figures, i don’t think it’s worth 40000 more just to go to maryland even if is better ranked.

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@ct1987, thanks for the input. The costs that I included were the costs that are standard (specifically, the costs we included are tuition, room and board, and fees) rather than the things that are estimates. As a result, we didn’t include those in the costs. For our son, those costs will be present at both schools, but are too hard to predict. Books vary with professor, ability to borrow from a friend, buy used, get a good deal on internet,etc. Laundry and travel will be similar in costs for us.

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wow, then this is a hard question to answer. i suggest you contact both schools directly and get their take on it. Yes, you will get the line on how great their school is but maybe in between those lines, you can find the answer to your questions. the stipends are very helpful at Temple. i don’t know what percentage of students each school places in jobs post graduation. if the schools are willing to pass that along to you, it would be helpful. as i mentioned above, i don’t think it will matter that much for law school admissions. his grades and LSAT will be key for law school admissions but please get on the law school CC pages to verify this is still accurate. Temple treats its honors students very well. i can’t speak to maryland on that issue due to a lack of knowledge. Regarding housing, i think he is ok since he’ll be honors at Temple if he decides to go to Temple. since law school is a possibility, Temple makes more sense since it will cost a lot less. however, the 2 schools are not that far apart in costs so i would not make that the deciding factor.

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Hello! I am currently a student in Temple’s Fox School of Business, and when I saw your post, I was so eager to respond that I immediately made a CC account!

Last year, I was in the same position as your son. I was accepted to both Smith and Fox, and I had trouble deciding between the two. I received full tuition to Temple (as well as three $4,000 stipends), so it would cost around $11,000 per year for living expenses. I did not receive any financial aid from Maryland, but since I was in-state, it cost around $20,000 per year, which did not matter very much to my parents. However, I still believed that a cost of $9,000 more per year was a substantial difference.
Since your son also received full tuition/2 stipends, I know that he was accepted to the Honors Program, and I am guessing that he was also accepted to the Fox Honors program. The most notable advantage I saw in Temple was the university/business honors program, which impressed me when I went to Experience Temple Day (I highly recommend attending one of those, if you have not already!) All of the current students were lauding the honors classes, honors advisers, etc.

I immediately felt like I belonged at Temple, but I was worried about the business school’s reputation, since Smith has a higher overall ranking, thus a comparative advantage over Fox. However, I can assure you that there are few discrepancies between Smith and Temple, at least in my experience. My best friend is a Smith student, and we frequently compare our classes and our schoolwork. We are taking classes that are relatively the same in terms of difficulty, content, and size. I visit her frequently at UMD and I am surprised at how seldom the students go to Washington, D.C, or off-campus. Temple’s location in Philly is a huge, huge advantage over UMD for this reason.

She is enjoying her time at Smith, and I am thoroughly enjoying mine at Fox. I truly believe that your son will be happy at either schools, as demonstrated by me and my best friend. He will be able to succeed at either school, because I firmly believe that the ranking of the school does not matter. It’s all up to the student to fully utilize his/her resources wisely (although it does not hurt that Fox has a very respectable reputation in the Philly area). Everything considered, as much as I loved the idea of potentially becoming a Terp, I’m elated that I chose to be an Owl.
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I’d love to answer them.
I truly wish you & your son the best of luck in your decision process!

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I am so glad to hear this! We went to Temple today and had a fantastic day! We keep talking about what a great day it was! I think that’s a good sign!!! Your post is also very helpful! I hope @irreplaceable sees it as he/she had questions about Fox Honors, too. I do have a quick question - my son is trying to find a chart to show course requirements for his major and the gen ed requirements so he can see how he can apply his AP credits. We have seen descriptions of the requirements, but it would be easier if we could find them in a chart or checklist form. If there isn’t one, that’s fine, he can make one.

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I am delighted that you had a wonderful time at Temple! Hopefully there will be many more days to come!
-Here is the link to the undergraduate bulletin, where you can find the academic plans for each major: (the majors are located on the right hand side, under “Fox School of Business and Management”)

http://bulletin.temple.edu/undergraduate/fox-business-management/

-And here is an example of an academic plan (this one is for Actuarial Science)

http://bulletin.temple.edu/undergraduate/fox-business-management/actuarial-science/#academicplantext

-Lastly, here is a resource you can use to see how his AP credits apply:

http://www.temple.edu/vpus/transfer/equivalencies.htm#AP

I will answer any other questions you have tomorrow, as I have to go finish an English paper! :slight_smile:
I hope you find these links useful!