URGENT: Emory Goizueta vs UT-Austin McCombs (non-bhp)

College Search & Selection
1

Emory will cost about 6k more for my parent’s than UT and I’ll be in about 22k in debt vs 15k at UT - really not too bad. My asian mom really wants me to go to UT because it’s close to home - she thinks that Emory isn’t “prestigious” enough like Northwestern or UPenn to warrant leaving the state and paying extra money. Pretty dumb tbh. Exactly how “prestigious” does Emory have to be lol?

Emory Pros:

  • I really do feel like I’ll have no trouble fitting in here - a lot more people at Emory seem more similar to me and align to my interests. There’s kinda like this intangible feeling I get when think about Emory that I love.
  • Gorgeous Campus
  • Unique opportunity to explore liberal arts for 2 years before going into B-school. Honestly I’m not 110% if I want to do business.
  • Opportunity to finally get to leave Texas and maybe get out of my comfort zone? - was never really a fan of TX tbh
  • Goizueta has 30%+ people place in NYC, although it might not necessarily be for prestigious IB/Consulting roles.
  • MUCH smaller class sizes/ manageable campus/student body
  • idk my friends were impressed I got in I guess.
  • 58/42 female-male gender ratio AYYYYY ( jk haha )
  • Frat scene is less intense here than an UT so I might actually try it out

Cons:
-Need a plane.

  • Disproportionately wealthy - might be harder to fit in with that group
    -Might be more competitive/harder to stand out
  • Honestly not any more intellectual than UT is - very pre-professional.
  • Austin>Atlanta
  • Absolutely need a car to get ANYWHERE
  • Higher frat percentage ( 30% ) - In case I don’t like it can be kinda hard to avoid it Freshman
  • I don’t know ANYONE there
  • Costs 6k More
  • Recruiting isn’t necessarily stronger than UT
  • *** No (or extremely slim) opportunity to transfer into BHP at UT which will have significantly better recruiting.
  • Parent’s don’t want me to go here very much

UT - Austin Pros:

  • Chance to transfer into BHP which will offer amazing recruiting that Goizueta simply can’t match
  • Extremely diverse/eclectic campus might make it easier to find my niche
  • Known for being one of the most fun schools in the nation
  • Very Walk-able; don’t really need a car

Cons:

  • The culture just doesn’t seem to fit me as well
  • BHP is extremely difficult to transfer into
  • Kinda hard to explore majors and stuff at UT - I have to be a B-school major all 4 years
  • Huge emphasis on athleticism and sports here; don’t really have a serious interest in being a huge part of school spirit
  • The campus isn’t that pretty to me - although I could probably learn to like it
  • Extremely Big - Might be harder to find long-term friends with so much people to deal with
  • Extremely Large Classes
  • Frat scene, while smaller ( 18% ) is EXTREMELY intense and I would for sure try to avoid rushing at all

What would you pick?

2

Would highly recommend McCombs! Biggest reason is the strength of their alumni network that can help get jobs post-graduation because they recognize Longhorns more than others.

3

McCombs has an excellent reputation (I have a niece there). You can’t go wrong choosing UT-A.

But, where you want to be is important, and it seems that you want to go to Emory as you feel you’d fit better there and it’s the experience you want for college (only comes once!) plus you’re not even sure you want to do business, plus the opportunity to get out of Texas – which can also open new opportunities, etc… And Emory is also a great school. For those reasons, I’d go with Emory.

4

I managed to work with the FA a bit. So Emory managed to reduce my parent’s cost to only about 1.5k-2k more than UT, and slightly reduced my debt fom 7k more expensive to only about 5k more after 4 years.

The only thing that irks me is the chance to transfer into BHP. I feel like if I go to UT and I don’t get into BHP, I would regret not going to Emory. However, if go to Emory and I would’ve gotten into BHP at UT, I might regret going to Emory. Also, EVERYONE on CC seems to tell people to choose a college based upon fit.

Not going to lie though, at this point UT really does seem more like a pragmatic decision, while Emory is honestly entirely based upon fit and the opportunity to finally get to “start over” on a new leaf. It just seems like my personality better fits a private school… Paying a similar price for a top 20/21 private school than I would at a (albeit very good) state school seems like a really good opportunity…

5

I don’t think that fit is base on a school being a private school rather than a public school. But if you prefer the size/vibe of Emory and the price differential is something easily managed by your family (include transportation costs into your equation) then you should give Emory strong consideration. But whatever you choose, don’t look back and wonder "what if:

6

Well, that’s because that IS how you choose a college. Particularly when you are choosing between two excellent options, a lot of times the differences in outcomes are so small that it only makes sense to choose based on where you feel you’d be the happiest.

Why would you say that your personality better fits a private school? Being private doesn’t make the school feel different; it’s the makeup of the student body and likely the size. There are some private schools that are big sports/party schools and some public schools that are small, intellectual and quirky. Focus less on where the school’s operating budget comes from and more on the way the schools feel to you - you aren’t comparing the more general private and public; you are comparing two very specific schools.

Well, we can never know the counterfactual, right? If you go to Emory you’ll never really know if you could’ve gotten into the BHP - in a completely different school with different grading and a different program size, you don’t know if you’ll have gotten the same grades and activities at UT as you did at Emory. But - and I know it’s hard to fathom know since college is top of mind - when you finally do choose your college and attend chances are you will spend very, very little time thinking about the other choices that you could have made. That’s even more true once you graduate and move onto your career. I’m in my late 20s and I know very, very few people who even give a second thought to where they went to college at this point, much less feel any sense of regret about it. Especially when you have two good choices like this - you can’t really go wrong.

Goizueta and McCombs have similar reputations in the business world - both highly respected. Goizueta has 95% placement within 3 months of graduation and 98% within 6 months, with a median salary of $60,000. Based on their map of distributions, It seems like a good 80% of students either stay in the Southeast or go to Northeastern companies (probably mostly New York with a dash of Boston). Having gone to college in Atlanta, I will say that LOTS of students from out of state fall in love with Atlanta and decide to stay - so I’m betting the vast, vast majority of that 40% who stay in the Southeast are working at Atlanta financial firms and businesses. Some may have scattered to the banking industry in Charlotte, but my point is that if a Goizueta student wants to end up in New York on Wall Street she probably can.

UT doesn’t have the same level of detail that Goizueta has, but it appears that the median salary for BBA graduates there is the same as Emory’s (the BHP median is quite a bit higher - nearly $70,000). However, the biggest difference seems to be that 76% of UT graduates stay in Texas. Only 8.6% go to the Northeast. That could simply be by choice; students who choose a public university like UT might be more inclined to stay in Texas overall, and fully a quarter stay in Austin (almost all of the others go to Dallas or Houston).

I will say that if you think you’d rather go to Emory if you can’t get into the BHP at UT, then going to Emory is probably the right choice - most people are admitted into the BHP at freshman it seems, and it’s difficult to get admitted past your freshman year.