I like the idea of applying to a variety of schools that seem like a good fit for other reasons and by spring of senior year he will likely have a better idea about his academic or career interests. My S (who ended up in an MBB consulting company) went to a university without a business major. He was ok with Econ as a major but didn’t love it. So he designed his own major (which is possible at many universities and LACs) and combined Econ with environmental science and ethics (kind of a sustainability major). So something like that is an option also if he decides he really likes LACs but isn’t sure about a specific career path.
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Look at sites like springpod and forage where he can do a virtual job simulation of various positions to see what interests him. Cyber security in particular is very distinct from accountancy and finance. He can watch a capture the flag tutorial or check out a comptia security plus tutorial playlist.
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It’s usually more complicated than this. Sure employers have a set of schools they visit for recruiting or are happy to see on an application but usually that’s just step one. They can care about what clubs they belonged to, what projects they did, internships they’ve held, prof recs, interview skills, and so on.
And taking part in clubs may not be as easy as it sounds. While your kid is looking at smaller schools here is a story in the school paper about how many clubs at UCLA screen prospective members Selective admissions processes for competitive clubs create challenges for Bruins - Daily Bruin I wouldn’t be surprised if this happens even at smaller schools.
The point is rather than thinking just attending some “best” school will open doors your kid needs to know that what he does with his time in college is going to play a big, perhaps bigger role.
Washington & Lee University is a prestigious LAC with a business school. Excellent track record with finance jobs. Extremely strong alumni network (not limited to athletes!). No idea about their computer science offerings. Perhaps worth researching.
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This happens at many universities, particularly in business and engineering clubs. Big flagships like UCLA, Ivy League schools, small LACs, and well, basically every size and level of school. Not all clubs are competitive, but oftentimes the ones with the best “career benefits” are competitive.
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The skill set & solid internship experience will matter for entry-level business & management career possibilities after four years of college.
While I agree that a recruited athlete has advantages, this is my recruitable athlete’s twin. Recruiting is not an option for this kid.
This will make for an interesting pair of “Chance Me” threads next year. I look forward to them.
Thanks! I hadn’t heard of these. We will check them out.
My guess though is that even if he does some simulations, he’s not going to enter college set on a path. He probably needs experiences like college classes, internships, and clubs to help him figure out the best fit. So, the goal will be to find a college that has options, and prepares him for multiple paths.
I’m really just asking what role prestige should play. For my oldest, who is in an allied health field, I think the answer was that prestige didn’t matter. So, I’m asking whether, as their Dad says, business related degrees are different.
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I agree with that 100%. Wherever he goes, he’ll need to be intentional about how he spends his time, and builds his skills.
But right now, for him, the focus is on finding the right college, so my question is what role should the prestige of a school play in that decision. Obviously, it’s not the only factor, but should it be one at all? It sounds like it probably should be, in a way that it wasn’t for his older sister.
I love Catholic schools, but I don’t think they’re a good fit for him.
Prestige matter to a greater or lesser extent in many of your indicated professions. It matters in business, consulting, finance (if the intent of the business degree is to go into finance), tech (cs) and cybersecurity.
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My daughter works for a consulting firm (not MBB). She has colleagues from various schools including state schools that are not flagships. The intern she coached this summer was attending a state school never been on top 30 or 50 list. School name matters but it’s not a deal breaker.
It’s harder for students without a strong alum network; however, my impression is that the virtual communities extend beyond school, where applicants and candidates can communicate with current employees. My daughter is in her alumni group coaching current students. She and her colleagues often cross into each other’s alumni groups. Students attending UTSA may not have as many available alumni to coach them in preparation as the Rice students may have; however, after putting in some effort, they can certainly find high quality mentors. On the other hand, once pass the resume screening, applicants with less prestigious school names are more likely to stand out.
no matter what school or major he’ll choose later, it is vital to have strong math foundation, solid reading comprehension, and great writing skills.
Networking is wonderful, if one can do it successfully. It’s not easy.
It’s also likely not the way most jobs are found.
Cornell used to show the source of how kids found jobs. Most were application via social websites - i.e. Linkedin and Indeed.
No question kids who network have another angle of advantage, but it’s not the be all and end all.
Look at people who are on linkedin - it’s mostly people who reach out looking for jobs. Some are looking to help people, but not most. Some of us will send jobs to people if we see a fit but that’s not the norm.
I feel like maybe there is some “assurance” or implied items going on in the thread - and they may become true, but they may not - just as if they might from any school.
I think, ultimately you find the right place by defining the student’s needs and desires - and it sounds like it’s not even close.
The student, not dad, is going to schoool, spending four years on campus, day after day.
I agree - this will be an interesting chance me - and perhaps match me.
As several said, it depends.
If he wants to be at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, likely a lot.
If he wants to work at Hormel as a finance analyst, little to none at all.
An accountant for a company or big four - some schools may do better but my nephew was at UNLV, and they had all four and the BDOs of the world. Plus companies.
Cyber - skillsets, not name, will matter.
In 98% of business jobs, maybe more than that - a nice name is nice but unecessary, hence I put the real world examples above.
In 1 or 2%, absolutely.
It depends on the path they’ll ultimately end up on.
Schools matter for some fields in business, as has been mentioned in the thread. For accounting or cybersecurity I don’t think the school is as important.
In fields like investment banking and consulting school choice matters a lot since much recruiting is done through on-campus visits and alumni who bring in kids from their school. For example, DS pulled in about five sophomores for junior internships from his university to his prior investment bank last spring. DS moved to a private equity firm a couple of months ago.
His former bank recruits very few students from non targets. It has nothing to do with nontarget kids being less worthy; the system just doesn’t give many of them a shot at the bulge bracket banks and big four consulting firms.
I don’t know if the term “prestige” is really accurate. There are targets, semi-targets, and non targets for IB and consulting. I second @NiceUnparticularMan in recommending Poets & Quants for information. IMO your son will be better served going to a school with a strong business program to get access to recruiting pipelines.
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The other thing I wanted to say was that not every NESCAC athlete goes into business and not every NESCAC student who winds up designing software at Google got there through alumni contacts. Wesleyan has a Career Center that is right in the middle of campus and the gripe against it is that it pays rather too much attention to the ibanking and consulting recruitment calendar and not enough to the Arts and Humanities students who feel a bit left out of the process.
ETA: Other sources (like reddit) would argue that The Gordon Career Center (GCC) spends too much time stoking a steady supply of interfaces with non-profits, academia and “lifestyle jobs in the arts”.
So, there’s no pleasing everyone. 
Totally agree that the child has to actually want a small college experience. Being happy where you are will make the arduous parts (like sending out 100 resumes) bearable.
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I am interpreting your post to mean your son is leaning business, likely finance. On the other hand, he might want to become a forensic accountant someday, or possibly work in cyber. Dad thinks the name on the diploma matters, and he should aim for the best school he can get into. Economics or applied math from a NESCAC is a “reasonable” possibility but not where my mind would go first. Based upon your son’s interests, he is clearly career oriented. Assuming he is a 3.8+ unweighted with a 1500+ with strong extras, I would choose a larger school (and not a SLAC) that would allow him to pursue all of his interests - Business, Finance, Accounting, and Computer Science.
My question for Dad is, “why does a related degree such as business have to be from a lower ranked school?”
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Tradeoff being one has to be careful in that a lot of big schools don’t make it easy to switch between CS and business schools (or get classes between them…) My kid is at a school and it is even hard to get into “intro to cybersecurity” if you aren’t a major
Obviously middle-grounds exist, but sometimes harder than it sounds IMO
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