I’m a recently admitted student to UChicago who is looking to go to business school after college. I also intend to major in economics. How is UChicago’s business school placement and will UChicago’s grade deflation hurt my chances when applying?
I’m not sure but this is a good question.
Years ago, Chicago’s placement was weak. The school recognized the problem, and has taken concrete steps to fix the issue. You should not have a problem with placement from the Economics department although it is not at the level of the better Ivy’s yet.
Chicago has a Booth Scholars Program reserved for UChicago students that, if admitted, works like a 2+2 MBA program.
@Zinhead Do you know what the issue was, like GPA?
Check our poets and quants. They have a survey of who gets into the top3 or the m7 biz schools.
@Trickster2212 - For a long time, UChicago focused their attention on graduate programs. What drove the University was the Law School, MBA program, and medical school, not to mention the many graduate Phd programs in which a diploma from UChicago was a great gateway to a tenured teaching position.
In contrast, the undergraduate college was somewhat ignored, and never developed the pre-professional focus that one might find at a school like Northwestern. That has changed in the past 10 to 15 years as the University has tried to shed its “where fun goes to die” image. While it has made great strides in doing that, undergraduate business placement is not at the level that regional players Northwestern, Notre Dame and Michigan are at.
See the following undergraduate Wall Street employment survey at Poets and Quants. UChicago ranks #34
http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2015/02/04/the-top-feeder-schools-to-wall-street/2/
One of the issues with UChicago business placement is the only business type degree offered on the undergraduate level is economics. While a great program, at an undergraduate level the college does not offer the breadth of business degrees offered at other schools.
That said, UChicago is a great school and many of their graduates have gone on to have stellar careers. UChicago has also invested quite a bit of time and energy into their career services department, and they are aggressive in pushing internships and research opportunities. That should benefit the placement of all students.
Zinhead - in the link you provide, Yale, duke, and Stanford are 28, 29, and 30 ( with a Chicago at 34). I’m not buying that Southern Methodist grads (#15 on the list) or Indiana U grads (#13 on the list) are more sought after for top bus. Jobs than Yale or Stanford. No disrespect to those schools, but hat doesn’t pass the sniff test.
@Cue7: I have seen those rankings. I think they are based on the readership of the Wall Street Oasis Forum
Why are you interested in business school specifically? As far as I understand it, having an MBA is required/valuable if you are 1) seeking a career shift, e.g. software engineering --> consulting, or 2) it’s required for advancement at your firm (e.g. PE funds). The latter of which is de-emphasizing the need for an MBA.
To directly answer your question: there is a Booth Scholars program that is reserved exclusively for College students. You can either enroll in the MBA program immediately after getting your BA/BS, or take a few years to work and then come back for your MBA.
I wouldn’t trust Poets & Quants as someone mentioned earlier, since it doesn’t pass the sniff test.
It’s also important to note that MBA placement is heavily dependent on the quality of your work experience out of college. And by increasing the quality of internships available to undergrads, which the University has done with its tremendous bolstering of Career Advancement, it is indirectly increasing the MBA placement for undergrads. Hence, we can expect MBA placement to only increase in the near future. Anecdotally, I know alumni who are now at HBS, Stanford, Wharton, etc.
@Cue7, That list is nonsensical. You’re right!
Another reason why Chicago is not likely to rank that high in business-oriented placements, whether MBA programs or bulge-bracket investment bank hiring, is that a smaller percentage of its students want that kind of career. It has a lot more graduates going into academic, research, or government/public service career paths, which means that fewer are applying to business school or finance-industry jobs. Not none, by any means – there are plenty of kids at Chicago who ARE interested in business and finance – but proportionately fewer than you would find at Penn, Duke, or even HYPS.
All of my kids’ friends at Chicago who wanted an investment banking or business consulting job got one. But you wouldn’t have needed both hands to count them on your fingers.
https://careeradvancement.uchicago.edu/about/outcomes-data
The first number touted in the link is the marked increase in finance/consulting jobs for Chicago grads. I can tell you that no other top school has seen such an increase, because the characteristics of the other top schools have been so constant. Princeton’s finance/consulting placement was strong 3 years ago, and it’s still strong now.
At Chicago, however, it’s evident that a change is in the works - there’s more interest in finance/consulting jobs than there ever has been before, and the subset of students seeking this type of work is growing. There seems to be increasing industry demand for Chicago grads too, as the school “normalizes.”
“there’s more interest in finance/consulting jobs than there ever has been before, and the subset of students seeking this type of work is growing” - yes it looks like that nowadays.