My son is considering 3 schools. IU - 2 hours away, he is direct admit into Kelley, plus Honors program, $40K/yr. At UNC - a connecting flight, no direct admit into Kenan-Flagler, $50K/yr. TCU - a direct flight, no direct admit into Neeley, Honors program, $20K/yr. IU and UNC business schools typically rank in the top 10. TCU - ranks anywhere from 22-50. He’s thinking Finance at this point, but prob not Wall Street bound. MBA - not sure? Also not sure where in US he wants to settle down. Thoughts?
Congrats to you son! Those are excellent choices!
On the face of it, I’d say Kelley, since he’s a direct admit into the business program. But it really depends on how much your family can afford and are willing to pay. It seems like you’d really need to consider TCU if money is a big factor. For a very successful student, attending a top business school, I do feel like there is more justification for paying more than if a student is looking to go into a field that is low paying. There’s much more likelihood of getting a good ROI in that case.
Also, how committed is he to business? If very, then direct admit, with honors, to a top business school, seems very appealing. If he has other areas of strong interest, then maybe UNC since it is so strong in so many areas, if money is not too much of an issue. Are there any other factors, like he just flat-out loves UNC, and is willing to work very hard to gain admission into Kenan-Flagler?
Good luck working through it!
Kelley is extremely well ranked as well as well recognized. Employers always rank Kelley really well too. You always hear about Kelley’s fantastic core curriculum, I don’t even know what UNC does. UNC has a slightly higher average salary at $66,000 whereas Kelley has an average salary of $61,000 (excluding one student who’s salary was so much it would push the average up to $78,100), but of course that could all change with industry and location.
Also think about roughly what field your son may want to end up within. For instance on UNC’s most recent report, only 3% of students went into Marketing/Advertisemnts or Media/Entertainment. Most students went into Financial Services. http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/~/media/files/ubp/undg17014_student_outcome_statistics_fnldigital.pdf?la=en
At Kelley, only 1% went into Insurance and 2% into Real Estate. Most went into Public Accounting and Consulting. https://kelley.iu.edu/recruiters-companies/undergrad/_files/ucso-annual-report.pdf
Kelley or unc for sure, great schools and a great place to go to school.
IU seems to be your best bet. It’s a sure thing for a quality business degree.