Lil_Wayne_Fan

US News had it ranked 29th for undergrad business in 2007

Top US Undergraduate Business Schools

Business week has it ranked 13th

Who should I trust??

please help

Reddune

...Are you going to college just on ranking alone?

You should trust on the money being offered to attend the school, you should trust the gut instinct you get when visiting schools, and most importantly, you should trust in will what make you happy as a college student.

Lord help you if you trust in for-profit magazines alone.

randomgrandeur

Well I'm not sure if this will help but here's my perspective as a senior in CSOM...

CSOM is an AWESOME school......if you're a finance and/or accounting major which sucks for me since my concentration is in marketing. Because of the mandatory undergraduate core and CSOM core, the variety in classes is minimal. It's a double-edged sword, imo. As much as it is important to take classes in different fields, it should be as equally as important to prepare business students with classes dedicated to their concentration.

Now, to graduate with a marketing concentration, you need to complete a 5-course sequence, which to me, seems pretty darn simple, right? It is. However, combine that with internship experience, I STILL feel unprepared when applying for jobs because my classes are basically cakewalks and I've vastly learned......nothing lol. This past semester, I took a class with a known professor in the marketing department and I didn't learn a thing. Easy A. Great look on the transcript, terrible in reflection.

BTW, here are the classes I've taken:
Marketing Principles
Marketing Research
Services Marketing
Media Industries (forgot the rest of it..don't feel like looking at Agora)
Applie Marketing Management

The first two and last one are required parts of the concentration.

Now, I know it would be easy to say well you could've taken more classes in marketing? Yes, I could have but that's the problem! The classes that are offered in my concentration are sometimes cancelled/uninteresting/deals with the sales aspect too much. So, basically, the classes at my disposal are MEDIOCRE. The faculty, albeit nice, in the department are...okay. They're not bad but they're not remarkable enough that tuition is this high for a school that's supposed to be 14th/29th in the nation.

Onto the ranking:
IMO, CSOM needs serious restructuring. They need to hire better faculty as in FULL-TIME...and they need to change up the CSOM core. I suppose it's their intention to have a well-rounded business student who is GOOD in many areas, but I'd rather be EXCEPTIONAL in a field that I am actually passionate about. Otherwise, I would've chosen to major in General Management or something.

I wouldn't take the rankings too seriously. I remember Dean Keeley sent out an e-mail asking students to opt out of the survey used in determining the rankings. I chose not to opt out, but there's a problem there....you're either going to get the person who's going to rank 5 (EXCELLENT) on every question just to complete the thing, the person who's marking down random stuff, and very few people who take it seriously.

I would HIGHLY suggest visiting Fulton (CSOM) and speaking with people in the department that you're interested. On a side note: Some may find the undergraduate core and the CSOM core to be a bit overwhelming so think about that as well.

Hope that helped. If you have any more questions, let me know.

Just to add:
Don't misconstrue this as BC being a horrible school. It is far from that. I'm having a great time, met some freakin amazing people and have taken great classes that aren't in my major that will resonate with me for a long time. With any school, nothing can be perfect. I'm just pointing out flaws that can easily be fixed. I just want CSOM to be a better undergrad school for future classes. :-)

laxdad1953

In light of randongrandeur's comment I would like to hear anyone's perceptions of CSOM's reputation for economics or Finance. S is trying to decide whether to attend BC CSOM and pay roughly $45,000 or several other schools (some jesuit) with honors business programs and significant merit scholarships. How are CSOM finance and econ students doing with internships and employment after graduation?

metfan2121

good to finally hear from someone in CSOM, how is the course load randomgrandeur? im not sure what my concentration is going to be yet, but im very curious to hear about how much work business students typically have outside of class.

Reddune

To answer laxdad's question about economic at BC, the department is solid all around. It has several top 100 economists in the world on the staff. A study done by a European university ranked BC's professors 24th in the U.S., but the Econ department is in A&S, not CSOM however. You can take class and major in it even if you're CSOM so no big different there.
The Boston College Chronicle

Finance has become BC's most popular major and this I suspect might create a strain in getting enough professors to teach all the students that want to take it. Nevertheless, Finance is CSOM's strongest department (or at least most advertised) it's ranked in the top 25. CSOM allows students from other schools to take courses in it, but I believe this practice is being curtailed or eliminated all together to decrease class size. I don't know a single thing about the Marketing department so won't be commenting on it. I do agree with random on large requirements CSOM students must take, it's a bit too much.

randomgrandeur

metfan2121:
The courseload is not that bad. It's just the core that is frustrating. It's not that it's hard. It just seems like some of the classes should be substituted with more classes dedicated to your actual concentration. Example: Organizational Behavior = common sense, but yet it's apart of the core. Of course, there are alot of group projects which can be great because they usually substitute a final exam. I only had two finals last semester which was amazing.

I think I've had more work in my A&S classes than in CSOM. That's due to papers, papers, papers. I'm a history minor too. In CSOM, if you regularly study the material after each class, you should be fine. So, if you're a regular cramalogist, stop it.

P.S. Word of advice: Operations Management = death, LOL.

metfan2121

thanks

im going to minor in history too (maybe double major?) ill have to see how things go