Any advice on how to weigh the cost of an education with the reputation of the school? If presented with the options of only paying room and board at UK’s Gatton College of Business vs paying for IU’s Kelley School of Business or SCU’s Leavey School of Business (the latter two with merit scholarships but nowhere near the low COA at UK with the Presidential Scholarship) to study accounting, how would you determine which is best? Is the fact that Kelley is ranked #4 in accounting worth the extra COA for an OOS student?
Interesting question - I do think Kelley degree is highly desirable by employers. Also, where do you want to live after graduation - this impacts which employers are visiting campus and which Big 4 offices are typically making offers (ie Chicago Big 4 recruits heavily at Kelley, not sure about UK). Also need to consider that 5 years may be required to get the hours required to sit for the CPA.
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Recent accounting graduate pay for those who use federal financial aid, according to College Scorecard:
| School | # Graduates | Median Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky | 193 | 67805 |
| Indiana (general business) | 2002 | 89404 |
| Santa Clara | 86 | 101411 |
Note that Indiana does not break out business majors into accounting, finance, marketing, etc., so the aggregate of all business majors may not be directly comparable to accounting majors.
Note that Santa Clara is in a very high cost of living area, so the pay levels may reflect the pay levels needed to attract people to jobs in that area.
Also note the CPA exam prerequisite for 150 credits (5 academic years worth). Consider where it may be easier to get to that number (e.g. by the school’s acceptance of AP credit and the like).
The other question is whether the higher prices of the more expensive schools are affordable to you and your parents without loans greater than the federal direct loans ($5,500 first year, slight increase later years).
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I’d send mine to UK. But that’s because I know a couple that attended and met at UK and did very well for themselves in the Chicago area. They sent their kids to UK, and they have also been successful, though none ended up in Chicago or Kentucky.
Did you have a chance to visit UK?
https://analytics.uky.edu/t/iraa/views/FDS/Public1200?%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y
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Deleting because apparently I’m wrong!
Here is link to career outcomes for Kelley Accounting: https://careers.kelley.iu.edu/outcomes/#!Accounting
Note that many continue with education due to hours requirement for CPA (30%).
50% end up in Illinois:
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Im guessing 50% end up in Illinios because: 1) they are from Illinois and it is where they want to stay or 2) they want to be in Chicago.
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Yes - agree and may influence decision on where to attend based on likelihood of where employers are hiring.
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Here is another resource. It shows salaries 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation by field of major. If you play around with the buttons on the left side, you can also see roughly where they were employed (and what industries). It’s high quality data, but they don’t have it on every university because it’s a voluntary program. As mentioned above, there are significant biases in salary by geography so be very careful with equating salary to quality.
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I’m a CPA as is H and S. I would note the following:
–If all schools are affordable with no loans, no hardship then you can let your child decide where he/she would like to attend college.
–It is unlikely that the job outcome will be markedly different for an accounting major assuming the Big 4 recruit at UK and that your child does well. Your child can inquire about career outcomes for accounting majors from the top options.
–Keep in mind that to become a CPA one needs 150 credits (a typical bachelors degree is about 120 credits). Some can get to that threshold in four years with a combination of APs (must be accepted by the undergraduate institution and on the transcript), overloading, summer courses but many do go on for a one year MS in Accounting. You should factor the potential for an extra year into your financial planning.
–Many students do stay at their undergrad for the MS (most have some kind of auto-admit program) but one can go on for a MS at another college.
–The Big 4 accounting firms recruit nationally so one can get a job in any office from any college. Typically the first interview is at the college and the follow-up interview is with the office of choice – either remote or in the office. FWIW my S did his MS in Accounting at a university in the Midwest and had no problem getting multiple job offers in NYC.
Congrats on the excellent options!
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My daughter is majoring in accounting and was in the same situation, full merit scholarship to her safety school, partial to another school, and no merit to the higher ranked schools. I’m not sure which ranking you’re using, but I noticed the ones I was looking at, the job placements rates were slightly different. It’s really hard to know from the ranking data what causes those placement differences, and there are other factors in the ranking data that can mean anything. I’m a CPA, so I have an idea of what my daughter sort of wants to do with her degree, so I just checked to see what companies recruited at the job fairs at each schools. I also looked at each school’s outcome reports to see where the kids ended up. This helped me to get comfortable with where she wanted to go.
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Very personal question - and much of what you’ll see in salary disparity will be the “where” they are hired - hence the higher SCU #.
It’s personal - because not everyone has the same budget.
To me the first criteria is - where can I afford with no or minimal loans?
If I have to take out substantial loans, it’s a hard no. Again, it’s a personal call - but the federal guideline is $27K, so that might be a good usage.
After that, I think it’s:
-
What can I afford ?
-
If it’s full pay (say $80-90K), then what do I want to afford?
Obviously IU is less than full pay for a private (like SCU) - even OOS although it sounds like maybe you got both schools to a similar cost. So let’s say it’s $50K - whereas UK is $15K.
Is the student going four years or needing a 5th year? That’s another concern.
Accounting is a hot field. My nephew has done quite well from UNLV. He’s in corporate/lease accounting, not public.
There are, I believe, more accounting jobs than qualified accountants.
But I think it first comes back to affordability - because it’s not worth harming yourself or the student financially - for any degree.
And then you have to weigh - if school A is “superior” but $35K more than “school B” or whatever the delta may be times 4 (that’s a large #).
what is both your ability…but also desire…to make that leap?
Only you can answer.
I know where my kid would be going in this situation - but they aren’t yours!!
I have no doubt the student can find success at all three schools mentioned.
Best of luck.
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My daughter graduated with a 5 year masters in accounting from in state Rutgers. It was very easy to get an internship and job offer. Big 4 recruited there. She was able to defer her job offer until she passed her exams.
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I guess my question is…what did you tell your student about college costs before they applied? Did you put cost limits on their ability to choose a college? Did you tell them they had to choose the lowest cost college?
We were in the position where we were able and also willing to pay for any college our kids got accepted to. So when the acceptances came, we let the kids make the decisions.
You mention Santa Clara University as one of the choices. Our kid is a SCU grad and we paid all but $6000 a year for her to attend. She was accepted at her second choice college which would have cost $10,000 per year…I’m not making this up.
But since we had already discussed finances, they didn’t enter into the decision once acceptances were received.
Having said all that, we parents did not need to take out any loans to fund college for either of our kids for undergrad school…and we would not have done so. Full stop.
Only your family can decide whether you want to pay for a more costly college, and can do so without feeling financially strapped. Some parents (like us) are willing and able to pay the full costs. Some parents could pay but choose not to. And some parents would need huge loans to fund undergrad school.
My opinion, I would not take out huge parent loans to fund undergrad school if I had the option not to. Only YOU can define what is huge…to you.
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The one thing to consider is whether your student is 100% committed to accounting. My DD got an accounting degree and while she enjoyed her studies, she quickly realized she didn’t want to practice. So did many of her classmates. That’s where the better name school comes into play.
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If all are affordable without student loans, then select on the basis of personal preference as all three offer solid accounting programs.
If your student prefers a west coast location, then the answer is clear.
If no preference and all are easily affordable, then IU-Kelley as it has a large undergraduate business program–lots of variety & opportunities. Students do learn from classmates, therefore a larger group of undergraduate and graduate accounting students should be viewed as a resource.
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Please keep post on topic for the OP. Since they are not considering Rutgers, that conversation is best in its own thread or a PM. Thanks for your understanding.
ETA: link to the appropriate thread to discuss Rutgers