NormalGuy88

Meaning if I was to attend a well-ranked Indiana University over a decently ranking University of Wash-Seattle or U of Arizona, would a grad school such as NYU-Stern see any difference in that? Thanks

Japher

No.

Your Welcome.

UW and Arizona are good schools and I don't see much difference between them and Indiana.

calicartel

IU is not perceived as "better ranked" or "more prestigious" than UW or U of A -- they're all equally solid schools.

Myrmidon73

Well, from what I've gathered, MBA schools focus on your work experience more than your undergraduate school. However, your undergraduate school may set you up for better job placement.

dallas808

True. Your undergraduate school is usually considered along with GPA, major and GMAT to get a sense of your overall academic abilities.

Likely true post college. Your undergraduate school is usually a lesser concern post MBA.

NormalGuy88

Thanks for all the answers. The reason I ask this question is because I have learned how important pre-grad school work experience is. I am about to transfer schools and trying to determine how important location is. Right now, it is seeming important for landing a job post-undergrad to get some work experience for a few years before applying to grad school. Maybe a school near or in a (large) city??

VectorWega

You should be able to land good jobs from any of those schools. If you want to work in a certain place, then location is important. Otherwise, it's not a big deal. Graduate business school students come from all acroos the country and all across the world.

dut99002

I don't have an MBA myself, but from what I've read and like what others have posted here, where you go to college is likely not as important as your post-undergrad work experience.

With that said, where you go to undergrad and how well you do in school will have a large influence perhaps on where you work and your post-undergrad opportunities. The bigger and more 'prestigious' the school, the more opportunities you'll likely have to land a better job. The better job will in turn help you get better experience to land admission to the best business school possible. Make sense?

Arizona and Indiana will likely provide greater job opportunities in their immediate regions, the Midwest and the southwest respectively.

I, too, am working towards going to business school. I got my undergrad from a smaller and less know private school in the rocky mountain region and have found it more difficult to find jobs then some of my friends who went to a school that was recruited at much more heavily by large companies. My education wasn't necessarily worse than theirs, I just have to work extra hard to get my foot in the door. In fact, I moved to Dallas and am also thinking about going to graduate school next year, purely to open up more doors for myself.

In theory, you could go to any business school you want with the right work experience, GMAT score, GPA, extracurricular activities and an undergraduate degree. In reality though, the top business schools have the best candidates and the toughest competition. You'll make your life a lot easier (with respect to b-school admissions) by picking the best undergraduate school you possibly can.

If money or location aren't too much of an issue for you, I'd look at each school you're considering and carefully examine who recruits where and how each schools' graduates are perceived by companies. Prestige and school name recognition can go a long way with helping you get your foot in the door for an interview.

Of the schools you have listed I'd personally choose Indiana first and it would be a tie between Washington and Arizona. That is just off of the top of my head. Indiana would put you in the Midwest, closer to more opportunities in Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Ohio, etc. Close to Arizona is Phoenix of course and LA perhaps as well. I don't know how many LA companies recruit over into Phoenix though. Washington gives you obviously Seattle and Redmond (Microsoft) and perhaps Oregon as well.

If you worked hard, got some good internships and a respectable GPA, you could likely get a quality job coming out of any of those three. Good luck.

cbreeze

Graduates of small top10 LACs are well represented at Wall St. jobs also. But Dut is right, generally,the higher ranked your school is, you will get better job placement.