Hi guys!
Im a senior from Long Island in NY, and I’m trying to decide between UConn, Pitt, and Marist as undecided biz (leaning slightly towards HR Management though). They’re all roughly the same price. I’m at a complete deadlock between the schools as they have a bunch of pros and cons each so maybe y’all can help!
Pitt:
Pros:
- Amazing Career/Internship opps for Biz(both in Pittsburgh area & national)
- Biz school has great rep
- Has HR Major, might be interested in pursuing for carter
- Very helpful career services
- The city of pitt is at fingertips as it is located in the city
- Many diff neighborhoods nearby for change of pace + easy to get around w/ buses
- Has great variety of clubs to choose from
- Ppl seem nice
- Amazing study abroad opps
Cons:
- Located in busy area of Pitt (grew up in suburbs + always thought that I’d prefer a traditional campus— big deal for me)
- No traditional campus (limited green areas outside of Schenley park, and couple of grassy areas by cathedral)
- Much farther from home than other 2 options (8 hr drive vs 2-3 for other options)
- Food+ Dorms aren’t great
- Large intro class sizes
- Can’t fully picture myself here still despite liking a lot about this place
UConn:
Pros:
- Absolutely loved the campus, very traditional and layout made sense, felt very comfortable here walking around and could picture myself here
- Lots to do around campus (clubs+ ECs, great marching band program I want to be involved in)
- Lots of school spirit
- Much closer to home
- Ppl seem nice here!
- On campus food seems decent
Cons:
**- Biz school rep not as good as Pitt+
doesn’t have HR major
- Large Intro class sizes
- Study abroad isn’t as good as at Pitt (particularly business specific options)
- isolated location, nearest things to do off campus+ Restaurants 30 min away (except town of Storrs which is small)
Marist:
Pros:
- Absolutely beautiful campus, also felt extremely comfortable + at home here
- Much Smaller class size vs Pitt+ UConn
- Not too far away from home, but also far enough away for a change from what I’m used to (like UConn)
- Less isolated compared to UConn
- Has HR major which I might b interested in
- I’d be in their honors program
- Decent opps for internships+jobs in NYC for biz
- Excellent study abroad program
- small, but Active alumni network who rly cares about students
Cons:
- Biz school doesn’t have national rep, unlike Pitt+ UConn (jobs+ might be more limited to NYC after grad)
- Since smaller school much less EC options (80-90 clubs vs hundreds at others)
- Still not much to do off campus, w fewer options than UConn
Sorry for the insane length of this post, but rly hoping you guys can help me out with any insight!!! Thanks so much in advance
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They’d all be close to same price so that is not rly a important for factor for me here.
Sounds like Marist is the best choice based on your list of pros/cons: you can’t see yourself at Pitt despite liking the city, UConn has the same downside of large intro classes but is isolated on top of it, and your 2 main downsides for Marist (limited to NYS/NYC, number of clubs) aren’t real problems – you’ll find more opportunities in the area but since that area includes the largest city in the US as well as major east coast cities on its regional outskirts, I’m not sure how that’s a problem + Since you can, at most, participate in 6-8 clubs, 100 v. 200 isn’t a real problem, and if you really cannot find a club you like, find 5 like minded people and create your own.
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I’ve spent over 35 years in corporate HR- you do NOT need to major in HR to have a career in it, and in some cases, it will hurt not help you. The companies I’ve worked for have hired Psych majors (huge help for HR) sociology, anthropology, marketing, etc. I have a degree in Classics- but got an MBA.
It is typically the least quantitative and analytical disciplines in a business program- heavy on content which becomes obsolete in a few years, and light on analysis. You can get an MBA down the road with an emphasis or concentration in HR, you can get SHRM certification (more highly regarded by some employers than an undergrad HR major), you can attend any one of 10 excellent programs for working professionals (Wharton, Harvard, etc.) that deal with talent management, you can get a Master’s in Labor Relations if that’s the area of HR you want to focus on. But the undergrad programs are not that challenging, and do not teach you what you think you are going to learn.
U Conn and Pitt- can’t go wrong with either. Marist is nowhere near them in terms of academic chops and reputation.
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Thank you for this response! I really appreciate it. Going into this whole decision process I did not realize that undergrad HR programs aren’t necessarily as important as I thought for a career in HR, so thanks a lot for that perspective!!!
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Yes, I’d say a BS in psychology with a quantitative business minor would serve you best. Add internships and enough American studies/women’s studies classes and you’d be good.
My advice would be to go for fit at the undergraduate level, work for a few years, then get an MBA at a top university.
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Pick the school you like - it seems like PItt should be out. You like it least. Great school though.
So do you want a smaller school or a state flagship. I would disagree that Marist doesn’t have the academic chops. They may (or may not) have the recruiting heft - but today most jobs are filled off linkedin/indeed, not via the campus - so that wouldn’t be a concern. If you like the smaller college feel and attention it provides, Marist is absolutely a winner. It’s not Vassar (same town), but it’s a fine school.
I would highly recommend you not major in HR and no school should offer it, maybe just classes.
It’s very automated field today - so those jobs are leaving. Even recruiting is done by Artificial Intelligence today. Are there still HR people? Yes. Will there be? Yes - but it’s going to be a more and more narrow target and a lot of work is in India now (for the big companies) and through consultants that companies are hiring (outsourcing).
Good luck.
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Thanks a lot for this perspective! Definitely a lot to think about with the HR field as you brought up, and that’s definitely something to consider for sure.
I don’t mind either a small or state school as both have different things I like about them (ie. Small class sizes vs lots of club options)
Heft is important if your interest is in HR because so many Talent/People problems these days are quantitative.
CFO wants to know why health insurance costs went up last year even though there were fewer employees. Do the analysis, get the answer back in two weeks. President of one of the International Divisions wants to know what the cost would be to set up a customer service center in Eastern Europe, assuming that none of the employees now in the center in the UK will move. Legal wants to know how many employees will be promoted/transferred/moved around the world in the next two years, and can you help them figure out if they should retain the current immigration counsel or hire their own immigration team, and oh by the way, has the timeframe for visa application through approval gone up, down or stayed the same in the top 10 countries where the company does business? CEO wants a benchmarking analysis of the top 10% of company execs- how many are NOT white men, what’s their average tenure with the company, compare their salaries to industry averages and figure out what next year’s performance increases need to be in order to stay above the industry median salary.
I love hiring statistics majors, especially ones who have worked with large datasets. We don’t need someone who does regressions on census data-- but that kind of mindset is fantastic training.
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Four of my kids were/are business majors, applied to Pitt and UCONN (UCONN was by far cheaper after merit), did not Marist (they did college research themselves). My daughter was an accounting major at Rutgers, accepted her job offer junior year. My friend’s daughter graduated from Marist without a job offer. I don’t know how much there is to do at Marist (2 of my daughter’s best friends are there). I hear it’s a beautiful campus.
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100% spot on…why not to get an HR degree.
Here is the latest Marist career report.
There are kids at every school - even Harvard - that don’t find jobs.
As for an accounting major, it’s a hot major - my nephew went to a lesser school - UNLV - and they were placing people at Big 4s.
Every situation is different is all I’m saying - you can’t generalize off one or two people. I encourage the OP, in this short amount of time remaining, to dig deeper.
Layout 1 (marist.edu)
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I guess my point is I was surprised she didn’t have a job months after graduating college because she was an accountant ting major.
UConn is a lot closer to Hartford than Marist is to NYC. Hartford is no New York City, but it is home to more than half a dozen major insurance companies, including Aetna, CIGNA, Travelers, and The Hartford as well as other major corporations like United Technologies, Otis Elevator, Eversource Energy, Hartford Health Care, Stanley/Black & Decker, and Hartford Financial Services. The point is that there are internships available in HR and other business sectors which are accessible from UConn. And you can access summer internships from your home on LI. It doesn’t matter where your college is for a summer internship.
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Thanks for this post! This is a very interesting way to view the different business schools.
That’s a bit concerning. Those are some of my concerns about Marist as well @Mjkacmom