brezeck

Hi everybody.

I am an international student. I did not do very well in my college app so i only got UW Seattle, IUB, and Hobart and William Smith. I don't feel like going to graduate school because i think the experience is always much more important to a biz major (i want to major in Finance). So could u please give me some suggestions?

Here are some of my thoughts:

IUB Kelley:

I just got directly admitted to Kelley. And I have the offer from Honors College. I get 9k dollars/year but money is not that crucial to me. I know Kelley is a great b-school and is reputable. However, I am a little bit worried about the location where Kelley is situated. I wonder if i could get opportunities and great internships there, esp that i am an intl student who has to acquire an H1B visa to work.

UW Seattle:

Location might be way better, even though I hear that Seattle is kind of for old people, without that many opportunities.
I did not even apply for the Biz major (intended), but CSE. I am not sure if Foster Bschool is good enough, and my plan at UDub might be seeking a career track of quant, starting from CS major in UDub, which is very very prestigious. But no big deal, Foster is a two-year Bschool. I am also considering Udub because some of my relatives live there so i get free housing and caring.

Okay, this can be a little bit messy. So, to sum it up, where do u think is better for me, an international student, to seek a career in Finance? Also, tell me more about HWS if u think it is even better....

Thank U Very Much!!!

openedskittles

IU Kelley is definitely the best one here. For finance, ranking matters, and Kelley is in the top 10 while the others are no-names in comparison. You do your meaningful internships during the summer, so you could go anywhere from New York to London to Dubai if you do well at Kelley, whereas you will be pretty limited to Seattle at UW.

barrons

Seattle is NOT for old people. That's about as wrong as you could be. It attracts 1000's of young people to work at Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks HQ, and other local companies. Dumbest thing I have ever heard here. Really.

If you want to work in Seattle later UW is great. Same for the west coast. Otherwise IU is better.

Kulakai

I lived in Seattle for a while and agree with Barrons. It is *not* a city for only old people and there is a reason so many people want to move there and to Portland.

brezeck

Thank U All for replies...

I might be rude to say Seattle is only for oldies.... that was my fault..

I bet for business school, IUB Kelley is definitely better than foster. But I just want to know if Foster along with Seattle, such a great city (I love Seattle), will also provide me with job opportunities, esp in financial sector. Otherwise I might be trapped into the dilemma of choosing between UW CS major and IUB Finance.

Kulakai

If you are sure you want to live in the PNW, I'd go to foster. Check their placement survey to see what job sectors and companies graduates went on to. All of the big consulting firms are in Seattle due to the tech sector and Vancouver/Seattle both have plenty of finance firms there, lots of VC.

However if you are looking at jobs outside of the PNW then I'd consider Kelley instead.

openedskittles

All of the big consulting firms are not in Seattle. In fact, only 1 of the big 3 (McKinsey) has an office there and only 2 of the top 8 (as ranked by Vault) investment banks do. Credit Suisse has an office in Portland and that's it for the entire PNW. Chicago alone has more big consulting firm and top finance firm offices than the entire PNW.

Seattle's a pretty place with a few very good companies, but it does not make up for the difference between Foster and Kelley in my opinion.

barrons

You have a MUCH better chance of getting on with a start-up in Seattle and getting rich than being another consulting drone working 80 hours a week and not getting stock options, etc. If you want to be another corporate drone Kelley is fine. But Seattle is where things are happening and they hire locals first. In Seattle young people can get very rich and 1000's have. They do it creating companies. Not screwing people in IBanking.

brezeck

hi, u buddies are really kind. i am doing a research about Seattle.

creating company seems to be somewhat difficult to me, but who knows. If seattle has a better job opportunity, i might choose seattle.

agian, thank u all!!

barrons

I did not mean you personally. I meant joining a young small company. For example one of our temps where I worked got a full-time job with a new company called Amazon. She was a state U grad with normal skills. She retired with $10 Million a few years later at 33. She was among the first 250 employees there.

brezeck

thank u barrons, u r really really a nice person...

I shall say thank u in Chinese, sincerely, 谢谢。

barrons

For Asians I think Seattle is a great choice. They are the largest group in Seattle after whites and have a long tradition of leadership in the area. I believe the first Asian governor in the US was in Washington. I also think the midwest/northeast is less welcoming for Asians.

openedskittles

Please take barrons' comments with a grain of salt. He/she is clearly from Seattle and is being extremely biased toward the city with complete disregard to choosing which program is actually better.

Your chances of being a part of a start up company are extremely irrelevant because the chances that you will stumble into the next Amazon are extremely small and the chances that you will have opportunities with good start ups may very well be higher at Kelley seeing as it's simply a stronger program and there are startups popping up all over America, many of which are bound to have a lot more potential than the average startup in Seattle.

The comment about how people in the Northeast and Midwest are less accepting of Asians is completely unsubstantiated and it is very unlikely that you will run into any problems because you are Asian in either location. Seattle does have a large Asian population due to it's Pacific coast location, but the population of Seattle is the same percentage Chinese as the population of Plano, Texas, so it makes this very irrelevant argument a weak one as well.

The bottom line is that Seattle is a nice city with some nice opportunities, but it really does not offer anything influential enough to rationalize choosing Foster over Kelley, because the same opportunities and even a whole lot more are available in other cities, especially to grads from stronger programs.

If you want to go to the stronger program that will be respected and recruited more by anyone outside of Seattle (and possibly even in Seattle for those who are familiar with business programs), Kelley is your school. If you want to treat that laughable comment about the pure luck of a single woman, or the flimsy argument about race as if they are legitimate arguments for going to Foster, then that's your choice, but it wouldn't be mine.

ifailedcalculus

I'm from Kelley and I can tell you that their is a huge international presence in the Kelley school. With an overwhelming number from China and Korea, and a few from Indonesia.

barrons

I grew up in NJ and worked 10 years in the Chicago area before Seattle. Your opinion of Kelly is grossly inflated. For most Kelly grads it's just another good midwest B school. A chosen few--emphasis on few--get IB jobs in NY. The vast majority end up in Indy, Chicago etc working for accounting firms and regional banks and companies.

From the Kelley Placement Report 2009

Kelley students accepted employment in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and five countries worldwide. The greatest concentration of hires (75%) was in the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota and Iowa.
The top states were Illinois (37%), Indiana (24%), New York (6%), and Ohio (5%). The most popular city for employment was Chicago, followed by Indianapolis, New York, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh.
Industry Distribution:
The top hiring industries were public accounting (18%), retail (13%), investment banking (9%), consulting (7%) and financial services (7%).

Top Full-Time Hiring Companies
Deloitte (22)
Ernst & Young US LLP (18)
KPMG LLP (16)
Bank of America (12)
Dick's Sporting Goods (11)
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (11)
Sears Holdings Corporation (11)
Crowe Horwath LLP (10)
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (10)
Target (10)

https://ucso.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/Rep...ts/current.pdf