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<p>Depends where you are in the Midwest. It’s a powerhouse in the St. Louis market and probably not too shabby in Kansas City. I have a friend who teaches at Illinois who says WUSTL is very highly regarded by top students coming out of Champaign-Urbana high schools, with more kids headed there than to U Chicago or Northwestern. I suspect it’s got some real reach in central and southern Illinois which in some ways are more oriented toward St. Louis than toward Chicago. It’s also got some influence further south, into Tennessee, Arkansas, and as far south as New Orleans, and west into Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. But Chicago? Not so much. I lived in Chicago for a long time and never met anyone who went to WUSTL, or even so much as mentioned it. </p>
<p>I’d say for undergrad business, Michigan and Notre Dame are names that will open a lot of doors in Chicago (as of course are the University of Chicago and Northwestern without the undergrad business degree). Wisconsin and Illinois would be right up there, just a tad behind. Indiana’s got a terrific undergrad business program but I don’t think the brand has as much impact or instant name recognition in Chicago; everyone’s heard of the university of course because it’s a fixture in the Big Ten, but I think the business school is stronger than the school’s overall reputation and that represents something of a barrier. Everyone thinks of Purdue as a great engineering school and Ohio State as a great football school, and they don’t think about Michigan State or Iowa at all. Minnesota’s connections are mainly in the Twin Cities and west from there, so it’s pretty much off the radar in Chicago. Minnesota and Wisconsin both have very good business schools, quite comparable in many ways, but I’d say Wisky places more grads into the Chicago market and Minnie places more grads into the Twin Cities market, two of the most dynamic business markets in the Midwest.</p>