I will be applying to colleges this summer and was wondering which of these colleges in your opinion is best for an aspiring business student, money is a semi-decent factor, but I think to make money you have to spend money. Out of these options what do you think is the best decision (All are OOS schools).
1. The one you get into.
You have a lot of this school vs that school threads. I am not sure if you have ever disclosed your stats. UM and t.u. are going to be the toughest admits. Unless you qualify for financial aid at UM, merit is going to be very difficult. Any money from t.u. is hard for an OOS. It is possible to get merit to tOSU. This seams more like a reach (UM, t.u), match (tOSU) and safety (Ole Miss) list than a straight comparison. The one piece of advice that I would give is that if a school has direct admit in the B school, only go if you get the direct admit. Also, I don’t think I would take the chance of paying for an OOS school if they didn’t have direct admit.
Leaving aside questions of practicality (i.e., can you get in, can you afford it, etc.), I’d say that the best picks for the generic “aspiring business student” would be Michigan and Texas.
Both of these institutions have strong overall academic reputations nationally, and both have highly regarded business programs. One measure of this is the fact that many investment banks consider UM and UT as “target” or “semi-target” schools for undergraduate recruitment. (This is not to say, however, that you could not get into IB coming out of OSU or Ole Miss.)
Of course, no one–including you–is a GENERIC “aspiring business student.” Presumably, you have specific vocational interests and specific preferences regarding where you would like to end working after graduation. Hence, if you want a shot at energy finance with the Houston office of a global investment bank, UT would be the clear choice. If you want to work as a CPA with a Jackson-based accounting firm, then Ole Miss would be a better option. If you want to do supply chain work for the auto industry, then UM would be ideal. If you want to get into a financial management training program with Proctor & Gamble, then Ohio State would probably position you very well. If you want to do some sort of management consulting, then UM and UT would probably be the best bets, given their somewhat higher degree of “prestige” in the business world.
If you could provide a bit more information about your background and interests, CCers would be able to provide you with a more finely nuanced set of suggestions.
UT Austin? As you haven’t cited your stats, it probably isn’t worth bothering with.
You can’t invest money you haven’t got. And you personally can only borrow $5,500 frosh year, and slightly more the years after that. So if you aren’t in state and money is an issue, that is a challenge. Now Michigan MAY give you enough financial aid to attend. If you can get direct admit to Ross, and the FA works, I think that is your best choice. But if you don’t get into Ross, don’t go and hope to get in later.