<p>@rjkofnovi, let me clarify. UChicago doesn’t have an undergrad business school or a major in business. The university has a special program, however, called CCIB which lets students take MBA courses, get job training, and network with top employers. Although the CCIB coursework isn’t as substantial as that of a typical business student, the program itself provides many of the typical benefits of attending b-school. Also, CCIB has a fairly strong reputation, just like many of colleges I’ve listed. Thus, I felt UChicago was a worthy inclusion to my list. Here’s the CCIB website if anyone wants more details: </p>
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[<em>]For Investment Banking, UT Austin is definitely better than UIUC. UT Austin’s business school has a better reputation than UIUC’s.
[</em>]For financial engineering, UIUC is better if, and only if, you study computer science. UIUC has one of the best CS programs around and their CS majors do better than those at UT Austin. You should keep in mind however that “quants” usually don’t major in business or econ. Most of the quants I know studied CS/Engineering and math as undergrads. If you truly want to do FE, a CS degree is far more useful (and relevant) than a business degree. If you don’t want to major in CS, however, than UT Austin would probably give you better options.
[li] For S&T, they’re essentially the same if you do a CS or engineering major (or 2nd major). UIUC and UT Austin have good engineering programs so no one will doubt your quantitative ability. [/li][/ul]
NOTE: All of these comparisons are between UIUC - College of Business and UT Austin - Business w/o honors. The Business Honors Program at UT Austin is a good deal better than the UIUC business program.</p>