Undergrad business school- pros and cons

<p>My D is interested in the OSU undergrad business school for marketing/accounting. Can any student or parent give any pros or cons of the undergrad program. Also, I see on the website that there is no direct admit into the business school. if you meet certain criteria, as a freshman you are admitted to a pre-major of the business school. Then you have to apply to the business school for your major after a year or two at OSU. If this is correct, what % of those students who apply are ultimately accepted into the business school? Is it automatic or do alot of students get rejected from the b-school?</p>

<p>My son just graduated from Fisher last weekend, so I can tell you his experience. He began his freshman year at OSU in Engineering, which after 2 brutal quarters he realized wasn’t for him. After much soul-searching he focused on the business school, but had to take a lot of GEDs to bring his GPA up. Once he finally got the GPA he needed (3.0 I think) he could apply…but his GPA was only high enough to get him into Real Estate. Not what he wanted, but he was in the school of Business now!</p>

<p>He kept working hard and reapplying to various majors in Fisher until he had a high enough GPA to get into his desired field: Logistics and Operations Management. He was very happy with his choice and began to join clubs (BOMBS and a few others) which really helped propel him forward. He went on a elective trip to Germany to visit efficiently-run German businesses (ie BMW). The trip was wonderful and helped him get a summer internship. The internship was a great experience and he learned a LOT, which helped him get a job!</p>

<p>Fisher’s Career center is incredible if you take advantage of all they offer (Intern Fairs, Mock interviews, Job fairs, etc). Once my son set his mind to it and took what was offered, things really happened for him. He had 2 job offers and has chosen to work for a third-party Logistics company - he starts April 2. While his GPA was decent, he never fully recovered from bad grades his freshman year, so some of the “big” companies didn’t go beyond the first interview. But he’s very happy with his new job! All of his friends in Fisher have great jobs lined up.</p>

<p>Not sure if that answered all of your questions…if my son was admitted to Fisher (with his GPA), I can’t imagine that many (if any) are rejected.</p>

<p>I’m a current 3rd year finance student at Fisher- and I greatly recommend the program. Our advising and career center is fantastic, and I believe I’ve had a great number of opportunities to take interesting classes and to interview for internship positions. A lot of major area and national companies recruit here, and students get a lot of support in looking for positions. </p>

<p>Honors students are actually directly admitted to the business college, but non-honors students typically apply after a year. The required GPA is different by the major (I came in as honors and didn’t have to apply, but I believe Accounting and Finance have the highest requirements of around a 3.4 or 3.5?). </p>

<p>I believe most pre-business students shouldn’t have trouble keeping their GPAs high enough for admission, as the GEs most take their freshman year are fairly-easy courses like intro to psych, intro to biology, business-level calculus, a freshman writing course, etc. I don’t know any specific information on what percentage of aspiring business students are rejected, but I can’t imagine it is very high, considering the fairly low entry standards.</p>

<p>Any additional responses would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>From “Tim Cantebrury,”</p>

<p>Excerpt:</p>

<p>“Since you are in the Honors program at Ohio State you would have the option to participate in the Honors Business Learning Community (BHLC) your freshman year. This is a community of about 20-30 business students who live together their freshman year and are placed on a fast track for one of the three Honors Business graduation tracks. The three tracks are Contract, Cohort and Accounting. Honors Accounting is exactly what it sounds like but gives you TONS of accounting experience and help immensely in making you a CPA. Contract is the less prestigious of Cohort/Contract. It gives you the opportunity to take honors classes within Fisher and graduate with an Honors diploma. Cohort provides you with a very intimate experience with 20 of your classmates. You take all of your business classes with the same students your Jr year and beginning of Sr year. You get access to the best professors and internships. I have many close friends who are members of the Cohort program and have accepted positions at places such as Boeing (Seattle), Epic Software (Madison), Dow Chemical, JP Morgan, Deloitte, and GM. Beyond this, the networking opportunities at OSU dwarf those of Miami(OH) and IU. We have a large number of alumni in almost all areas of the country. This never hurts you when looking for a job/internship. We also have partnerships with over 20 companies who guarantee internships to OSU students every year. Meaning that if you want an internship at say Coke or Boeing you are essentially only competing against other OSU students to “get your foot in the door” instead of students from all universities national.”
JPMorgan Chase continues to expand its operation in Columbus after merger with Bank One back in 2004. The company already has about 3,500 employees in Westerville (15 miles, north of Columbus), and 18,000 overall in Central Ohio.</p>

<p>Quote:</p>

<p>“Once the additional hiring is completed, Chase will reportedly have added 1 million square feet of real estate and 6,000 new jobs in Central Ohio since the merger of Bank One and JPMorgan Chase in 2004, including 2,500 positions last year, according to the release.”</p>

<p>[JPMorgan</a> Chase Adding 350 New Finance Jobs in Central Ohio | Proformative](<a href=“http://www.proformative.com/news/1470894/jpmorgan-chase-adding-350-new-finance-jobs-central-ohio]JPMorgan”>http://www.proformative.com/news/1470894/jpmorgan-chase-adding-350-new-finance-jobs-central-ohio)</p>

<p>[JPMorgan</a> Chase, Kasich to outline jobs expansion in Columbus - Business Courier](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2012/02/22/jpmorgan-chase-kasich-to-outline-jobs.html]JPMorgan”>http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2012/02/22/jpmorgan-chase-kasich-to-outline-jobs.html)</p>

<p>Best of Luck & Go Bucks!! :)</p>

<p>As long as your child keeps a decent GPA (~3.3+), they should be admitted into Fisher. </p>

<p>Pros:
Excellent facilities: classrooms, computer labs, etc. are all very new and high tech
Nationally ranked program
Two honors programs (contract and cohort)
Excellent career center
Many specializations to choose from
Specialization courses are a low student:teacher ratio
Can test out of many intro-level courses: HIGHLY recommended
Easy to have Friday off with no classes</p>

<p>Cons:
Some “fluff” classes that I don’t think are super beneficial
The accounting department is on a very high figurative horse
Not as ‘hard science’ as a major such as engineering</p>

<p>After initially getting accepted to the Fisher College of Business, I switched to the Engineering route but now I’m considering (if allowed) to switch back.</p>