U. Wisconsin-Madison or U. Illinois Champaign?

<p>Which undergraduate business major has a better reputation? Please reply, especially if you are a college graduate with some industry experience.</p>

<p>I’ve heard better things about Madison, generally.</p>

<p>UW-Madison is better than UIUC in business for both BBA and MBA. UW has good placement rate specially for brand management.</p>

<p>University of Wisconsin is horrible in the field of business. UIUC is much better and better yet, much more well known, which is a very important factor when in comes to employment in the business industry.</p>

<p>U of I has the better bschool and it is more selective instate and out.</p>

<p>As you can see from the first few responses, both of these schools have certain regions where they are known.</p>

<p>I know UIUC has a very good accounting program (currently #2), and you should probably go there if you want to work in accounting or in Chicago. It’s really not an amazing choice for another major or region.</p>

<p>Wisconsin has a good marketing program (currently #7), and you should probably go there if you want to major in marketing or work in Wisconsin and whatever other places people have heard of them. Again, it’s not a great school of other majors and most people won’t think much for your degree if you go too far away.</p>

<p>^these are some really thoughtful answers guys, thanks :)</p>

<p>Now, say I wanted to head into investment banking. I know both these schools aren’t terribly well known for grads in investment banking…or are they? Give me your opinion on undergrad business degree holders from these schools heading into investment banking.</p>

<p>Any and all input is appreciated! thx</p>

<p>im heading to UIUC as an undeclared business major next year (all freshman in college of business start as undeclared). many kids know exactly what they want to major in, many accounting, but a lot like me are just looking to explore and find what’s right for me. in my research and experience with the program thus far, all majors part of a great network and educational system. a very impressive business school all around, imho. that being said, accounting and finance are the top two majors there. lots of job opportunities from top companies in both. that’s not to say that other majors also don’t get you great jobs. i don’t really know. i just know those two are big.</p>

<p>i also looked heavily at indiana-kelley. if i was the kind of person who knew for sure i was doing investment banking, i would have considered it more heavily. they are very prestigious in investment banking (and finance in general). the university has very generous OOS scholarships, definitely worth looking at.</p>

<p>“University of Wisconsin is horrible in the field of business. UIUC is much better and better yet, much more well known, which is a very important factor when in comes to employment in the business industry.”</p>

<p>and yet, there are more CEOs of fortune 500 companies graduating out of UW than any other school (except tied with harvard).</p>

<p>@gobluecpa</p>

<p>ahh so I am assuming that UWisconsin education will lead to becoming a CEO? Moreover where are your sources for that? Proof please?</p>

<p>Generally, a U of I education is much better, especially with its superior accounting programs. And no, I highly doubt coming out of either business school will make you into a CEO, but if you work hard enough in either institution, it will lead to a decent paying job.</p>

<p>@missionewokzzz: Since top IB firms normally recruits at elite level schools like Duke, etc., you don’t even have to have a business degree. The chance of going to top IB firm from UW and UIUC are both pretty low.</p>

<p>@jakolmaster: I think I actually read about UW having most CEOs (not sure about the fortune 500 part) somewhere as well.</p>

<p>[Harvard</a> and the University of Wisconsin: Tops in Producing CEOs](<a href=“http://www.bus.wisc.edu/news/0145.asp]Harvard”>http://www.bus.wisc.edu/news/0145.asp)</p>

<p>not really a hard find. there was an article in the fortune magazine about uw a few months back. i’m not saying uiuc is bad, just that uw is not “horrible.”</p>

<p>UW “horrible?” What a bunch of clowns. The MBA program is superior to UIUC, the undergrad comparable. Overall UW is stronger across the board while UIUC is stronger in engineering. </p>

<p>I don’t think there has ever in the history of the world been a ranking wherein UIUC ranked higher than UW overall as a university.</p>

<p>Neither of these programs are horrible, they just aren’t the best, and investment banks are mostly interested in the best.</p>

<p>If you want to do finance, especially exclusive jobs like investment banking, these are probably the best schools for you:
[Undergraduate</a> business specialties: Finance - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-finance]Undergraduate”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/spec-finance)
Judging by the other universities you are considering, I’m assuming you might have trouble getting into these schools, but you might have a good shot at Indiana. They have a larger program that is rather easy to get into, especially for being so good. The catch is that you have to prove yourself a bit more while you’re in college to stand out, but if you can do it, you can definitely work in investment banking coming from Indiana.</p>

<p>Like others have said, you can also break into investment banking by going to an ivy league or similar school and doing math or economics. However, these schools often leave grads in a lot of debt (usually subsidized loans, but you’ll still need to pay them off) and that the debt is almost never worth it if you can do a top finance program for half the price (or less like I did) where the exact same companies hire. It’s also harder to stand out among thousands of liberal arts majors at a top university than a couple hundred or fewer Finance majors in a business program (and not all of them want to do investment banking).</p>

<p>"Wisconsin has a good marketing program (currently #7), and you should probably go there if you want to major in marketing or work in Wisconsin and whatever other places people have heard of them. Again, it’s not a great school of other majors and most people won’t think much for your degree if you go too far away. "</p>

<p>“Not a great school of other majors” ??? With the exception of engineering and maybe a few other areas, Wisky is universally considered > UIUC as a better school.</p>

<p>I obviously meant ‘for other business majors’</p>

<p>lol SCREW IT ALL I got into UCLA and USC (CA resident btw). Hopefully I’ll get into Berkeley too, but in any case, I’m probly not considering UWM and UIUC anymore. </p>

<p>Please continue the discussion tho, for other prospective students!!!</p>

<p>all UCs are solid. however, considering the california economy the way it is, you are better off attending public schools in the big ten country. as far as usc tuition goes, whether or not you are ca resident makes no difference.</p>

<p>It will be hard to justify not going to UCLA or UCB when you have in-state tuition. USC has a better business program than UWM and UIUC, too.</p>

<p>California might have an iffy local government and some economic woes, but there are still a lot more top jobs in the Bay Area and LA than Wisconsin. Chicago is the powerhouse in Big 10 country, but it’s not like it doesn’t come with a share of political scandals and issues. That argument would work much better in Texas where Houston, Dallas and Austin are booming and the business program at UT is actually ranked better than USC and almost as high as Berkeley. However, the out-of-state tuition is still a huge obstacle and the OP might simply prefer to stay in California anyway.</p>

<p>Illinois is not quite broke yet. When or if California goes into receivership, watch what happens to public universities with small endowments. Michigan, which has a huge endowment, is already raiding top faculty away from Berkeley and other schools.</p>