Hi I was just accepted to both UMich & UNC for the class of 2019 and I will be studying business! I’m very undecided on which school to pick as they are both such phenomenal schools with such similar statistics. Any input/opinions on one school over the other would be much appreciated 
Financially, does one cost less than the other? Does cost of attendance matter?
Academically, what is your intended major? What are your future plans? Medical school or Law school? Work, and if so, where?
Financially it does not matter although the lower cost of UNC is more appealing. I will be studying business administration/economics/finance (haven’t officially decided yet). In the future i plan to get an mba and possibly work on Wall Street.
Both are excellent, Michigan has a slight edge for what you want. Michigan is slightly better overall, and in business , but it is not significant. I would go for fit.
Congratulations. They are both phenomenal schools. Wish I was you I went to Maryland!
I would give UM slightly better academics, strong grad programs, but UNC a slight edge on prestige, ranking among oldest universities in the country.
I work on Wall Street as a high yield credit & derivatives traders I see as much Ross as I see Kenan-Flager MBA grads. pretty evenly split. Same recruiters stop at Duke and UNC when they are in the area, just makes sense. Though you do get a big bump by going to UNC being in the research triangle, both schools have programs to let you take courses in either/or, so you could end up taking multiple classes at Duke.
“I would give UM slightly better academics, strong grad programs, but UNC a slight edge on prestige, ranking among oldest universities in the country.”
UNC does not have a “slight edge on prestige.” Michigan has the edge in prestige. Rutgers is older than UNC, so I suppose it has a higher prestige than UNC right? Btw, Michigan was founded in 1817, a whoppping 28 years after UNC. Chicago and Stanford were founded way after both schools, so as you can see the age of the school does not contribute a huge amount to prestige.
“I work on Wall Street as a high yield credit & derivatives traders I see as much Ross as I see Kenan-Flager MBA grads.”
Perhaps it’s because most of the undergraduates at Ross don’t need the MBA?
Go to the one you got guaranteed admit in (for b school)
“UNC a slight edge on prestige, ranking among oldest universities in the country.”
That may be true in the Mid Atlantic (still debatable), but not in the rest of the country, where Michigan enjoys a slight prestige edge over UNC. I am not sure what age has to do with anything. Cal, Caltech, Chicago, Cornell, Duke, JHU, MIT, Northwestern, Rice, Stanford etc… are all 30+ years younger than Michigan, that does not make them any less prestigious. On the other hand, Rutgers, Tennessee, Georgia and Delaware were all founded in the 18th century, while William and Mary is the second oldest university in the US, and not of those universities are considered as prestigious at Berkeley or Cornell, both of which were founded after the Civil War!
“I work on Wall Street as a high yield CREDIT & derivatives traders I see as much Ross as I see Kenan-Flager MBA grads.”
Ross MBA is not highly recruited by Wall Street firms (except for Citi), but Ross BBA is. The MBA program has a heavier Management Consulting lean, with 10% of its graduates taking positions with McKinsey, Bain and BCG alone. The BBA program places 50 or so graduates in BB IBanks annually.
The only IBank that recruits BBAs heavily at Kenan Flagler is BoA (mainly because its headquarters is in Charlotte, NC). At Ross, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley all recruit BBAs heavily. Unfortunately, Kenan Flagler does not publish an detailed placement report on BBA placements as do Wharton, Ross, McDonough or any other BBA program with impressive placement figures. That is not a good sign. But if you have official figures that you can share with us that proves otherwise, please feel free to do so.
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/WHA_2014cp.pdf (page 6)
https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/0ww4l1niu13udxy28wv0 (page 18)
https://michiganross.umich.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/Community/pdfs/recruiters_guide_lr_f.pdf (page 13)
https://www.commerce.virginia.edu/sites/default/files/CCS-Documents/2014_Destinations%20Report_2014.pdf
The fact of the matter is, UNC/KF is not on par with Michigan/Ross, Georgetown/McDonough, UVA/McIntire etc…
“Go to the one you got guaranteed admit in (for b school)”
YellowWolverine, Kenan Flagler is similar to Ross. You usually only get in once at the university. In the case of Kenan Flagler, roughly 60% are admitted and the average college GPA is 3.6, so it is slightly easier to get into than Ross, but neither is guaranteed.
Honestly, if costs are not an issure, Michigan is the better choice. Even if you decide not to major in business, most of Michigan’s programs are highly ranked.
“The only IBank that recruits BBAs heavily at Kenan Flagler is BoA”
- I know for a fact Barclay’s is packed with MBA’s from K-F. Not sure about about BA’s – I don’t really follow.
rjkofnova, cool down. The point I was making was you can’t deny that the age of a school has an influence on the way you view it. It’s not a pure coincidence that the oldest college in the country also enjoys the most prestige. Is it a perfect model, no, but do older schools enjoy more prestige and recognition,? of course they do!
Alexandre, from the way your describing UM your making it sound like its leaps and bounds ahead of UNC-CH, if thats the case why is it 1 spot ahead of UNC and 5 ranks below UVA? Not sure how you can say K-F is not on the same level as Ross, McD, and McI, when K-F ranks ahead of McD and is in the same 10-20 cohort as Ross (K-F is ranked 18, Ross 11). Honestly I can’t think of any more comparable schools than the ones you listed. Because the delta between a K-F and Ross is significantly smaller than that of Ross and let say a, Chicago, Harvard, a Wharton.
I never attended either UNC or UM and I have an impartial view from the outside.
“It’s not a pure coincidence that the oldest college in the country also enjoys the most prestige. Is it a perfect model, no, but do older schools enjoy more prestige and recognition,? of course they do!”
I don’t know rayallen, here are the most “prestigious” universities in the US (according to academe, so we are looking at the most legitimate form of prestige) and the year they were established:
Harvard University 1636
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1861
Princeton University 1746
Yale University 1701
Stanford University 1885
University of California-Berkeley 1868
California Institute of Technology 1891
Columbia University 1754
Johns Hopkins University 1876
University of Chicago 1890
Cornell University 1865
Brown University 1764
Duke University 1838
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 1817
University of Pennsylvania 1740
Dartmouth College 1769
Northwestern University 1851
University of Virginia 1819
Carnegie Mellon University 1900
Georgia Institute of Technology 1885
Rice University 1912
University of California-Los Angeles 1919
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 1789
University of Wisconsin-Madison 1848
Vanderbilt University 1873
12 of the 24 most prestigious universities in the US were founded 1850 or later. Even by US standards, 1850 is not that old. There are dozens of universities that are not that prestigious that were founded before 1825.
St John’s University 1696
Moravian College 1742
University of Delaware 1743
Washington & Lee University 1749
Rutgers University 1766
College of Charleston 1770
Salem College 1772
Dickinson College 1773
Hampden Sydney College 1775
Union College 1779
Transylvania University 1780
Washington & Jefferson College 1780
Washington College 1782
University of Georgia 1785
Franklin and Marshall College 1787
University of Vermont 1791
University of Tennessee 1794
University of South Carolina 1801
Ohio University 1804
University of Maryland 1807
Miami University 1809
St Louis University 1818
University of Cincinnati 1819
Indiana University-Bloomington 1820
Hobart College 1822
Duke University 1838
Northwestern University 1851
Massachusetts Institute of TECHNOLOGY 1861
Cornell University 1865
University of California-Berkeley 1868
Vanderbilt University 1873
Johns Hopkins University 1876
Georgia Institute of TECHNOLOGY 1885
Stanford University 1885
University of Chicago 1890
California Institute of TECHNOLOGY 1891
Carnegie Mellon University 1900
Rice University 1912
University of California-Los Angeles 1919
“Alexandre, from the way your describing UM your making it sound like its leaps and bounds ahead of UNC-CH, if thats the case why is it 1 spot ahead of UNC and 5 ranks below UVA?”
Where did I say that? Overall, I said that Michigan is only slightly better than UNC. All I said is that when it comes to IBanking, which is what the OP is interested in, Ross (as well as McIntire and McDonough) is more of a target school than Kenan Flagler. I even provided links to illustrate my point. Do you have a link to counter it?
There are many “Wall Street” type jobs that are local to UNC. If its cheaper and you plan on staying in that area, UNC is probably the better option. If you plan to live elsewhere I think Ross provides an advantage; enough that its worth the extra money. Wherever you go, make sure to keep your GPA as close to 4.0 as possible.
Ha! I clearly haven’t put in anywhere near the time and thought as you have Alexandre. I am time constrained as it is is in researching & analyzing what the market is going to do tomorrow – so I am sorry I don’t have any links, detailed numerical analysis, or official “prestige rankings” to cite you. I am too much of a layman, a philistine, a caveman. I was just telling you what my “gut” felt regarding the comparisons of both schools.
But I do have a quick remark/question regarding the accurateness rankings you posted above, which I think made me chuckle. Do you really believe Michigan is 1 notch below Duke in prestige? Right below Duke? And is Michigan really more prestigious than UPenn? More than UPenn? I’ll give you Rice as a benefit of the doubt, as Michigan is an older school 
But Common now! I just got into Duke for Grad school in Economics, I don’t think anyone anyone at Duke would immediately think of Michigan as a close association in terms of academics and prestige.
Like I said rayallen, I am not referring to my own standards, but rather that of academe. In the academic world, Michigan, Duke and Penn are peers. If you look at any reputational rating, Duke, Michigan and Penn are virtually tied with each other. In the above group of schools, the only reason Duke was above Michigan and Michigan above Penn is because I put the schools in alphabetical order. And in Economics, Michigan is actually ranked slightly higher than Duke. For graduate school, I would recommend Michigan at least as highly as Duke in Econ.
Another viewpoint. I think UNC has too much “in-breeding” by design at the undergrad level (max 18% OOS). It is definitely better at the grad level. Though the UNC schools like med, law, business are good, I am not impressed, especially considering that NC is not a place well-known to produce a boatload of high achievers like CA, MA or NJ. Smart OOS undergrads have so many options. I would go with UMich over UNC anyday.
" I am too much of a layman, a philistine, a caveman. I was just telling you what my “gut” felt regarding the comparisons of both schools."
rayallen, cool down.
“I just got into Duke for Grad school in Economics, I don’t think anyone anyone at Duke would immediately think of Michigan as a close association in terms of academics and prestige,”
Ahhhh. Graduate School. The area where Michigan is clearly superior overall to Duke. Thanks for reminding me to point that out. If Dukies don’t think that Michigan is a peer at the graduate level, you just reaffirmed the delusions of your fellow classmates here on CC.
“If you look at any reputational rating, Duke, Michigan and Penn are virtually tied with each other.”
Right! OK… Michigan is as good as Duke and is overall a better than school than UPenn.
Duke:
Enrollment: 14,600 (2013)
Acceptance rate: 10.8% (2014)
UNC-CH
Acceptance Rate: 8,930 admitted (29% of all students applying; 53% of NC applicants; 18% of out-of-state applicants) (2014)
Enrollment: 29,127 (2013)
Michigan:
Acceptance rate: 32.2% (2014)
Enrollment: 43,710 (2013)
I’ll end it here.
^^^What does that have to do with this statement:
" I just got into Duke for Grad school in Economics, I don’t think anyone anyone at Duke would immediately think of Michigan as a close association in terms of academics and prestige."
“I’ll end it here.”
You have to differentiate between undergraduate and graduate education.