I got admitted as a direct admit to Indiana Bloomington Kelley School of Business (under Business Exploratory BSB - not sure what area of business I want to major in yet and I am out of state) as well as UC Davis with a major in managerial economics (I am in state). I’m having trouble choosing between the two.
I know Kelley has good career services and outcomes based on their page about salary statistics by geographic location (although the best jobs obviously go the top graduates and not everyone since the school is so big and thus competitive). I am not sure about the career outcomes for UC Davis for that major (which is their unofficial business major) and if I’ll end up fully liking it or not. While IU Kelley seems great, it’s also in Indiana… and I have friends there who say there is quite literally nothing to do (especially as I’m not interested in joining Greek Life so it might be harder to make friends), that Indianapolis isn’t great, and there is bad weather. If I went to Davis, there is a lot more for me to do, more opportunities to make friends (as the school isn’t so heavily based on Greek Life), but also I’m not sure if the school is a good choice for my major/future career.
Also this probably doesn’t matter but UC Davis is a better school overall in terms of ranking compared to IU although IU Kelley is ranked pretty highly.
So, the question is do I want to go to IU Kelley with most likely better career outcomes but possibly four years of boredom or UC Davis where I’ll have more to do overall but am less certain on where I’ll end up with my choice of major?
(sorry if this is the wrong thread but I have about a month before the deadline and am panicking)
Davis is a nice little town, but there’s not necessarily tons of things to do around campus. I can’t compare it to Bloomington since I’ve never been there, but I’d think they are comparable college towns. You’d probably have to drive or Uber to Sacramento about 20 minutes away or drive to the Bay Area 60-90 minutes away for more restaurants and activities. If you haven’t visited, I’d suggest you do so if you can since you will get a feel of what both schools and towns are really like and if you could fit in.
I would recommend you take some time and look at the online course catalogs. Compare the coursework for a managerial economics major and an undergrad b-school program. Both paths are great, just consider if one is more appealing to you.
I have experience with both schools. My oldest son is currently a sophomore at UC Davis and my second son is currently a high school senior who was also direct admit to Kelley (finance). My oldest son’s experience at UC Davis has been quite a struggle. They support their TA’s, employees, and researchers, but the students seem to not be a priority. He is an aerospace engineering major, and I know various departments may be different, but it is nearly impossible to get academic advising when he needs it. Appointments are not available, and they only staff the phone number for about one hour a day, if that. He has had at least two quarters of the five he has done there so far where TAs went on strike and just became unavailable with no alternative options which affected his grades. He had twice where he was sick and student health was on strike, so his only option was to go to an urgent care in Davis and self-pay.
IU Kelley has a long-established business school and well-recognized program, unlike UC Davis that seems to just now be developing a major. Poets & Quants ranked IU Kelley number 23 overall and number 1 for student experience for 2025 (Poets&Quants for Undergrads - Indiana University Kelley School of Business). All of the top firms recruit at Kelley. It is kind of in the middle of nowhere (so, in our experience is Davis), but they have 750 clubs and a Kelley business school specific freshman living learning community where you are likely to find friends with common interests.
I do agree that the weather at UC Davis is likely to be much nicer than IU-B, so if that is something that would affect your decision, definitely take it into consideration. You don’t want to be miserable if you can’t stand being cold for a few months in the winter.
Also, UC Davis is ridiculously expensive for us a out of state (TN), but if you are in state, the two schools may be closer to comparable financially.
Whatever you decide, I am sure you can make it the right choice for you. And if you end up not being happy with your initial choice, you can always transfer!
Yeah I’m visiting both IU and Davis within the next two weeks, so I’ll see if anything changes then. It’s probably true my opinion of the Bloomington area isn’t correct so I’ll definitely have to learn more about that when I visit.
And while some of you were saying the college towns of Bloomington and Davis are comparable, I’ve heard Bloomington isn’t actually as open to college students? Like bars or things to do downtown are often hard to get into so there’s not much to do? I could’ve heard wrong. I also keep hearing that Greek Life at IU is pretty overwhelming and defines the social scene, but I can look into the freshman living learning community at IU. IU also definitely seems to have more school spirit than Davis, so that’s a bonus.
As for Davis making a new business program, I’m not sure how it would be if I transferred in there 2027 (as I’m set to graduate 2029, the program would be extremely new and I’m not sure how well connected to different career outcomes it would be). But I’ll look into the courses for man econ at Davis. Originally I didn’t want to do a B.S. but maybe it would be interesting.
Even if I decide that I don’t want to go into IB or finance at IU, Kelley overall still seems pretty great for outcomes for the other business majors. I’ve also heard that the top firms in the Bay Area tend to not recruit from Davis as it’s too far? I’m not sure if that’s believable.
Thank you for contributing your experiences and all this helpful info!
(btw idk where I want to end up after college, so I was wondering whether Kelley and IU as a whole is as reputable nationwide as UC Davis is to get a job - or maybe just specifically in California)
Since you mentioned Greek life at IU, I did a little Googling. I thought this article was interesting: IU frats and sororities pause social events over health and safety concerns | wthr.com. Not sure that it means anything in terms of Greek life being too intense or that the university is trying to get a handle on keeping it safe, but it is good recent info to have.