My son is trying to decide on the best undergraduate business school and could use some help deciding.
UMASS Isenberg (in State) $35K
Providence College with $24K in Merit $52K
Bentley College with $28K in Merit $52K
Clemson College with $5K in Merit $54K
IU Kelly $54K
Best for what? There is no such job as “business”.
Marketing is different from accounting is different from supply chain is different from operations. If a kid is undecided- and doesn’t really know enough about business to discern the difference among different industries and functions- go for U Mass. Wonderful education and why pay for “maybe/kinda/sorta”?
Isenberg is a good school, and being in-state is a huge plus from a cost as well as proximity perspective.
Kelley is ranked higher, and has an edge on some competitive finance roles (which will be very competitive, and very few will be able to fetch them), I’m not sure it’s worth paying more and being OOS.
In general both these schools have excellent career outcomes.
What can you afford and is there a desired outcome ?
Bentley has strong outcomes and is very different than the rest.
He applied for a reason. What was the attraction there vs a state flagship ? Might it fit better ?
Some very different options.
–Do your son have a favorite?
–Do you know what area of business your son wants to pursue (it is fine if he doesn’t know yet)?
–Are all schools comfortably affordable for your family (no hardship,no or minimal loans)?
Are you saying that your son has already been accepted into Isenberg and Kelley? My impression was that isenberg does not do direct admit out of high school and that you could not be accepted into your business major until sophomore year while Kelley does limited direct admit and adds more by sophomore year. I may not be current on this.
What college has your son been accepted into at Clemson. I thought that the Powers College of Business also required a completion of a pre-business curriculum before you could be admitted.
The biggest difference among these 3 aside from the obvious geographic differences is that UMass has something close to an open curriculum with no core requirements. Students work with their advisor to plan their academic program. The other two each have a pretty structured pre-business core with a combination of liberal arts and business requirements. Before making a decision, I would get to know these requirements to see if that’s what your son wants.
The other difference is size. Kelley is the largest of these business schools with more than 13,000 students in a university of 37,000 undergraduates in Bloomington. UMass Amherst and Clemson Powers have much smaller business schools, about a third the size of Kelley, in universities with undergrad enrollments of about 23,000.
Bentley and Providence are very different than the 3 big state universities. Each has an enrollment of about 4300 and I believe that admission to business is guaranteed. But the similarities end there. Bentley is 60% male; PC is 54% female. Bentley is at its core a business school from its origins; PC is at its core a liberal arts college which offers business majors. Both have extensive core requirements. Bentley says that its core is future oriented. The pride of PC’s core is its multi-disciplinary study of the development of western civilization. Both also have business core requirements. I suggest that you look closely at these core requirements and understand them before making a decision.
I know graduates of all of these schools. All have gone on to successful careers in business. Your son can do the same regardless of which college he attends, but he’s going to have to work at it.
I’ll try to break the decision criteria down to simplistic examples:
Most cost effective? Easy. UMass Amherst.
Most flexible curriculum? UMass Amherst
Highest ranked? Indiana Kelley
Most like a liberal arts college? Providence
Small business school? Bentley
Best football team? Clemson
Best college town? Amherst and Bloomington are still arguing about that one.
Isenberg directly admits majority of students out of high school now.
Thanks. Good to know.
Clemson is pre business but requires a 2.5 Clemson GPA - what it doesn’t say, are you assured your choice of major.
We know IU is Kelley - Direct admit.
Bentley - the entire school
Providence - the entire school
UMASS - they have a “connect with a student ambbassador” on their website. You can chat with a current student.
Obviously, if money matters (and convenience - close to home), UMASS win.
Clemson - easy pre business - can you pick your major with certainty or the top GPAs pick first and you get what’s left? That’s a question to ask. More rural campus with a lake. Better weather.
IU - huge school in the midwest, gorgeous campus - the biggest name but for 90%+ of kids probably doesn’t matter.
Providence is Catholic. Does that matter?
Bentley is business focused - it’s not going to be that full campus experience. They have more majors - or combo type majors. And you can take courses at Brandeis or Regis.
Are there any that can be eliminated to reduce the choice - either the two “different” - Providence and Bentley - or perhaps those smaller schools should be the only ones to stay??
Here’s some career outcomes for you to review - for UMASS, scroll down to Career Prep and Outcomes by Major and click on each major. For Clemson, I had to click the “bachelor” majors as they include the Masters. Providence doesn’t show much data.
The salaries at Bentley, IU and UMASS are far more than Clemson - but that could be location generated.
Hope this helps.
18873_Bentley_Career Profile.indd
Salary Statistics | Undergraduate Career Services | Indiana Kelley
Undergrad Outcomes for Success : Isenberg School of Management : UMass Amherst
Outcomes and Data – Center for Career and Professional Development | Clemson University
Outcomes of Recent PC Alumni | Alumni Outcomes | Providence College
Where does your son want to work/live after college? Bentley is well known in the northeast, but less so in other parts of the country. If he wants to be in the Boston area, then consider picking a school that’s well known in this area with strong alum in his field of interest. Networking and specifically networking with alums is a big part of landing an internship or full time job after graduation.