Hi guys and gals,
I’m applying for business/accounting. As of right now, I’m currently considering either UBC, Santa Clara University, and Northeastern University, and I’m waiting to hear back from UC Berkeley (doubtful I could get into Haas second year), UCLA, U Southern Cali, and U of Toronto Rotman.
I was wondering about your opinions on how these schools stack up, if the cost for me will be about the same with scholarships, etc. I live in the SF area, so SCU is just 30 minutes away, but I really like Vancouver as a city. I also plan to get a masters or PhD, as well as summer internships, so how do the job prospects and possibilities look?
I’m also waiting for my UBC scholarships to be released, and was wondering on how selective those are.
Thanks for the help!
Northeastern’s co-op program means your job prospects will be very good: many if not most accounting students have jobs right out of school - usually for the same companies they co-oped for. OTOH, accounting is a very practical major, and you’ll likely also have good job prospects graduating from the other schools on your list. A couple things to consider: housing costs in Boston are very high and you’ll by paying considerable airfare to fly home for Xmas, etc.
Wait and re-post when you have all your acceptances and the cost of attendance for each school. The answer might become obvious.
I’d choose between UBC and Santa Clara, in all honesty.
Ah, thanks
Unless you’re hoping to make a career in Canada, then going to college in the US makes more sense as you establish business connections, co-op opportunities, alumni network, etc.
Assuming you don’t get into Haas, I’d go with USC, Northeastern or SCU. Think about where you most want to establish business connections, co-op opportunities, for the future - the Bay, LA, or Boston?
This ranking from Bloomberg might help: http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-04-04/the-complete-ranking-best-undergraduate-business-schools-2014
@insanedreamer Thank you, but between the two Canadian schools, which one do you think would be better in terms of future job prospects, as well as an MBA?
Both UBC and U of T are excellent. Just like the US schools, they will give you better job prospects in their local areas.
Toronto more known internationally (because of higher international rankings), so slight edge there. But UBC is excellent too especially if you’d rather live in Vancouver (having lived there myself, I can confirm it’s a great city!) I think how well you do at either school will make a bigger difference in getting into a top MBA program than which of the two you choose.
OK, thanks. Do you know if going to UBC or UoT will still allow me (relatively) to get into a top MBA program in the US? Or do people just tend to stick to Vancouver/Toronto?
I don’t know specifically, but tons of people apply to US MBA programs from outside the US so I don’t see it necessarily being a disadvantage especially since those unis are well known.
UBC is an excellent school; you won’t be at a disadvantage applying to U.S. based MBA programs with an undergrad from there. Also, British Columbia has pretty strong ties with the northwestern U.S. The four border crossings that serve the route between Seattle and Vancouver are the four busiest in the U.S.
University of Toronto is also a really well-known school and you won’t have a problem getting into a U.S. MBA program from there.
I wouldn’t worry too much about business connections; undergraduates don’t establish a whole lot of local business connections the way that a graduate student might. You can do summer internships in the States at U.S. companies to get that connection/experience that can lead to employment here. Co-ops and term-time internships are a different story, but both Vancouver and Toronto are very large international cities with lots of businesses and companies. Vancouver has lots of big companies with a large presence in the U.S. (Lululemon, Cymax, Microsoft Vancouver, Telus, Nintendo of Canada, other smaller gaming studios, Salesforce, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Accenture, lots of film production, IBM, Amazon, Nokia, Intel). Toronto is the business and finance capital of Canada and has lots of financial and banking firms there as well as a growing tech community, and some big companies with big presence there are Asus, Coca-Cola, Nortel, Sirius, XM Radio, Nelvana and Marriott International.
However, I think you should probably come back when you have some financial packages and more word from the schools you’re waiting on.