<p>I'm an international high school student and planning to study in business major (I'm considering marketing, international business, and economics).</p>
<p>I haven't took SAT or Toefl exams yet. However, I rank highly in my class, have good academic results and attend some extra-curriculum activities.</p>
<p>I like universities or liberal arts colleges which have small size classes and prioritize practical tasks. I can afford about $30k for tuition. Do you guys have any suggestion? </p>
<p>Tier 1 - University of Pennsylvania Wharton</p>
<p>Tier 2 - University of California Berkeley Haas, University of Michigan Ross, New York University Stern, UVA McCintire, MIT Sloan</p>
<p>Other good ones that come to mind (unsure where to place these, though in my personal opinion I would put them somewhere behind these first two tiers) - Notre Dame Mendoza, Indiana University Kelley, Emory Goizeta, Carnegie Mellon Tepper, UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell AEM (though I think their business is called a hotel management school), University of Southern California.</p>
<p>Some things to note:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Economics in the US are different from the business schools, and you will have to major in it separately.</p></li>
<li><p>There are other good schools which I didn’t list. However, these are the schools that came to mind when I think of best business schools at the undergrad level and will open you up to the most opportunities after graduation.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, I am unsure what you mean by prioritize practical tasks? Can you elaborate.</p>
<p>I would love to go Penn, but I don’t think I can afford the tuition and fees. > $35k tuition is out of my reach :(</p>
<p>About practical tasks, I mean rather than reading books the professors will give the students some real-life practice. In some universities, the professors give the students some projects to finish as assignments. I don’t like studying too much theory.</p>
<p>Look at University of Texas at Austin. It has an incredibly good business school (ranking in the top 10 in nearly every major) and it’s still a big, fun university with all the bells and whistles one might look for in a “college experience”.</p>
<p>It sounds like a DeVry’s commercial, and a bunch of other trade oriented educational institutions, that you’re talking about, not traditional colleges in the US. </p>
<p>You need to do some basic research first since in one post you said you don’t like too much theory and the next you’re worried about UT’s academic life, as if it were DeVry! (Not that I mean anything wrong with DeVry, it’s just different type of school).</p>
<p>If $30,000 is your total annual budget (tuition + fees + room + meals + books + incidentals) you’re severely limited in your options. You need to look for very inexpensive colleges (which are not going to have the prestige you’re seeking) or schools that offer merit aid to international students with your stats. Or perhaps plan to do 2 years at a community college, try to save some money, and then transfer.</p>
<p>@jvt Dad: I mean I want to be taught by professors, not TAs (Teaching assistants) or all from books. What’s the point of going to university and learning from TAs, presentation or just reading book? I want to have like 50% theory and 50% practical</p>
<p>@annasdad: $30,000 is my budget for school tuition (It can be more or less). Other expenses are not included there.</p>
<p>If you are looking for that type of practical, I would look into the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Their whole motto is action based learning (applying learning to practical problems of companies and projects), though it applies more at the MBA level than undergrad (though it still exists at undergrad level).</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the vast majority of people who go into top undergrad business programs go into it because:
a. They know for a fact they want to do something in business as a career
b. For recruiting opportunities into top companies out of school (think Goldman, McKinsey, etc.)</p>
<p>One thing that you can do to get additional practical experience is to join business clubs at school that emphasize practical and real world experience.</p>
<p>One last thing, I wouldn’t discount any school because you may get scholarships to reduce your cost.</p>
<p>Just as a question, do you know what you’d be looking to do as a career after business school?</p>
<p>With a $30k annual budget, many of the “name” business schools will be out of reach.</p>
<p>many of those publics and privates will cost $40k-60k per year. So, schools like UTexas, Berkeley, UPenn, UMich, etc will not work.</p>
<p>Once you have test scores, we might be able to suggest some schools that will give you some merit money to bring costs down to that $30k limit.</p>
<p>Folks…remember…an int’l has to include tuition, room, board, fees, insurance, int’l travel, and personal expenses in his COA. That will greatly limit his choices. He has to show that he has all those costs covered to get his visa.</p>
<p>So, even a flagship public will have a COA of like $35k-50k or more for an int’l</p>
<p>Jasmine…I think you’ll have to relax your “small classes” req’t. For classes to be taught by profs (not TAs), chances are that many classes will have 50 kids or more per class.</p>
<p>@Goldenglobe: Well, I’m thinking about public relation, advertising or even economics. I haven’t had the final decision yet. By the way, what do you think about University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill? Its tuition is about $25,000</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids: I will take the tests in 2 months time. I will post my scores as soon as possible. About the annual budget, my mom said that she can provide me about $50,000 per year. However, I know that it’s not easy for her to give me that huge amount. That’s why I want to keep the cost as low as possible, but still get into a good school.</p>
<p>You should consider Claremont Mckenna college. You specified that you wanted an excellent business school with small classes and a liberal arts college feel. Well CMC is a liberal arts college specializing in Business/Management, public policy/international relations and government. However, you would need really good grades as well as considerable extra curricular’s in order to gain a chance at admittance. Last year’s admittance rate was 14%. This school however is private, and costs around $60,000 per year, but they have need-blind admissions (not for international). You should apply anyways, this school would be worth paying the full tuition.</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill is a great school, and you should be able to go into any of the fields you listed assuming you work hard at the school. One thing, though, if you are planning to go back international, I’m not sure how well known it is outside of the US (I don’t think it’s as well known as some of the other top undergrad business schools).</p>
<p>Also, looking at what you want to major in, you should also look into maybe majoring in something other than business, like economics, poli sci, public policy, etc. because those would give you great opps into the careers you wish.</p>
<p>@Goldenglobe: FYI, I’m studying the A-level course of CIE. Last year, I took the IGCSE examination. I got A* for Maths and Co-Sci (Phy, Bio, Chem), A for Business Studies and Applied ICT, finally a B for ESL. I’m aware that universities in USA don’t really pay attention to the IGCSE/A-level course, but I wonder whether the scores can improve my chance of getting in UNC.</p>
<p>I don’t know what business major suits me. I like off-the-desk work and meeting different people. That’s why I’m thinking about public relation, or something that requires creativity (like advertise). What do you think is the top job in business field ?</p>
<p>Generallly, the best jobs in Business are considered to be within the fields of investment banking and Consulting (top firms such as Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, JP Morgan, Bain & Company, etc.). These jobs provide people with really good pay (finance moreso than consulting) and unparalleled exit opportunities (top consulting places are known as CEO launchpads).</p>
<p>Since you like meeting different people and off desk work something you may look into in consulting, as consultants travel a lot to meet their clients and are on the road for a sizable amount of their work week. At the upper levels of investment banking, the focus tends to be more client driven than desk jobs (meeting people and travelling), though at the junior levels it’s more of a desk job.</p>
<p>The top companies for these jobs, however, tend to recruit at a very few select number of schools (ivys/ivy caliber/very top state schools + top undergrad bschools). It’s not impossible to get into these jobs if you don’t go to these schools, but it’s MUCH harder than if you do.</p>
<p>@ Goldenglobe: I’m not planning get into Ivy schools. The tuition is unaffordable in my case. Finance seems like one of the well-paid jobs. I heard about double major. I’m thinking about learning marketing and finance together, or may be major in finance and minor in law. What do you think? I know it’s gonna be tough because there will be a lot of work load.</p>
<p>You can’t minor in law in the US. Law school is the realm of graduates in the US. However, you can be pre-law with virtually any major, so that could be something that you look into.</p>
<p>Sure, you could do finance and marketing together if you want. Honestly, for undergrad business schools, it depends more on the school than the specific major that you do. As far as top finance and consulting recruitment, there’s a big dropoff after the top few undergrad b-schools (Wharton, Haas, Ross, Sloan, Stern, McCintire type).</p>
<p>Also, a lot of the ivy’s give aid to students (enough to make it affordable to them), so it wouldn’t hurt to apply because you would most likely get at least some form of aid.</p>