Please match my son [MA resident, 3.55 UW, 1250 SAT for Business or Economics]

Even if there’s an “all things being equal” preference for Maryland over Wisconsin (which I’m not even sure there should be, but will let the resident experts on business programs weigh in on that), all things are not equal, and I personally wouldn’t sacrifice direct-admit to business for whatever increment you see between the two programs.

Wisconsin has a strong business program, and if making connections in the DC area is deemed important, they also have this: UW Wisconsin in Washington, DC Internship Program It’s also a top-ranked school for Econ, should he decide he prefers that to business.

At Maryland, he’d need to accept going in that there’s a strong possibility he won’t end up with the option to major in business. Even straight A students get to college and discover it’s not as easy to have a flawless transcript as it was in high school. A student like your son, who doesn’t always make flawless grades his priority, is even more likely to have mixed results, grade-wise, in the first couple years of college. And that’s okay, but then why choose a situation where the ability to study what he wants will hinge on his GPA?

It doesn’t seem as if your family is particularly price-sensitive, but the full-pay cost of Northeastern seems like an insane amount to pay for a school your child isn’t even excited about - and one that isn’t a heavier hitter in business than UW/UMD anyway. I can’t imagine what the draw would be, and it sounds like you’ve more or less already ruled it out, although congrats to him on the admit.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. He scored a great admit at UW, and TBH I think you’re second-guessing his preference too much. Let Wisconsin be the default plan, unless the IU Kelley direct-admit comes through - and you can cross that bridge when/if you come to it.

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Hi all,
How’s about MSU, Rutgers NB, MSU, Umass and Drexel business schools vs IU, Wisconsin, Maryland and Northeastern? We know them just by online sources.

By ranking the four later are better. But are there other values we don’t know if we just look at ranking and online sources?

" Your kids can go to school anywhere and get anywhere. My Charleston grad is going to Denver. My Alabama son has been out West and now Naples Florida. And his offers were all over the country"

What my friends mean by location is the cost of communication. In big cities where there are many companies, you can easily know and hop in their event, presentations, job fairs, hackathon, etc, and even conferences. If the colleges are far from those centers, you have to fly to meet them, to be interviewed, to present your works, etc. The kids these days have to send out 300-700 CVs for internship searches and tens of trips for networking and interviews, I heard, so a close location can save a lot of time and transportation costs.

I think your friend is mistaken. IU will have many more companies than UIC - in Chicago.

Yes some kids today will reach out to hundreds of job listings but most interviews are on zoom. Someone from UNC recently noted this and it’s smack dab in the perfect area.

My son had 19 interviews. 6 job offers. Only one flew him in. He didn’t get that one. Most, not all, but most hiring is done online today.

Like I said, it’s 2025. Not 2005. Your friend is not correct - IMHO of course.

Job fairs are mainly at schools and if there’s presentations, some companies might come but more often they are online as well.

As for the latest schools, they’re fine but not as reputed than the first batch.

That said, MSU (Michigan State) is the top supply chain school or one of in the country, Rutgers and Umass are excellent public schools and will each have plenty of kids who either got into IU or could but chose their local school, and Drexel is like Northeastern with co OPs but much less selective.

Your student should visit and see where they feel most comfortable.

By a ‘pedigree’ pov, the first group is better but kids from every school mentioned will do as well as the other schools - in most cases.

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All of my finance major’s internship interviews were online, several got each one. She’s in SC but the jobs were in charlotte NC, New Haven CT, NYC and NJ, she had many offers. She chose the one that made the most sense based on what she wanted to do after graduation, received a job offer at the end, starts in July. She knew she wanted to come back to the NY metro after graduation.

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Could you tell how difficult, in acceptance rate, to get to IU Kelly after submitting the review request?

The list from MAmom111 is much more likely. A 3.55/1250 is just not competitive enough for business school acceptances at universities with acceptance rates < 50%. OP might get into some of those universities, but not the business school. OP probably needs 1350/29 to move up a rung.

OP’s son raised the SAT score to 1460 and has already been accepted at a number of direct admit business schools. :+1:

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See what happens with Kelley but I’m a big fan of direct admit programs. Good luck!

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My son is in the same boat as yours (submitted a review request), so I have only anecdotal info…but it seems unlikely. I have only heard of a few kids (all girls) getting in so far. Looking at last year’s info on CC, most didn’t hear about petition results until April.

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Thanks. Just saw the SAT increase post. 1250 to 1460 is awesome!

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Bryant University is another good choice for business majors. Not as selective as the others, but a fine program.

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My son is waitlisted at IU Kelly. So now his choice is UW Madison, UMass Amherst, Fordham and Bentley (he did not visit Rutgers, Purdue and MSU). All direct admit to business.

UW Madison seems raised the tuition about 5% everyyear, now it’s $44K, to the total cost for OOS is $68K. With FA, Bentley and Fordham come to same level. UMass Amherst is cheapest, with total cost about $38K for us as in-state.

I don’t really like WWisconsin as the city of Madison is very cold and windy, and far from the next big city Chicago. And they raise tuition a lot every year. My son likes its ranking vs UMass’ Isenberg, Fordham or Bentley. But does the ranking matter more than the location here?

I don’t think ranking matters more than location+value. I’m not even sure the rank difference is that meaningful. Isenberg is very well-respected. I would try to avoid falling into a “familiarity breeds contempt” trap vis-a-vis one’s in-state flagship.

Given your son’s experience with the business investment club… how would he feel about being put in charge of investing the $120K that attending UMass would save? It could be very interesting and motivating to see how much he could grow that investment while earning a business degree that in all reality is just as strong as the other three options.

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All of the colleges being considered are strong options. The post-graduation opportunities will be determined by what the student accomplishes during college rather than which one of these fine schools they attend.

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Yes I agree. Just the boy probably likes ranking and the campus vibe of Madison most. He just said “don’t know” when I asked about the alternative of using $120K difference.

Bentley will have the best placement - as least as reported.

There’s really no reason - other than preference - to choose Wisconsin over UMASS - so unless it’s affordable, it wouldn’t make sense.

Good luck.

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As a fellow MA resident and someone in the “business world”, IMO unless there was something that was a show-stopper at UMass, that is where I would be encouraging my child to steer towards. Isenberg is a VERY good program and while we could debate if the other options might be better or not - they’re not $100-$150K (over 4 years) better. That’s money that would pretty easily fund a graduate degree after. Do well at Isenberg and you’d have your pick of some very good Grad programs. My $0.02.

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There is a great example of the flaws with outcome reports. Highly doubtful a Bentley grad will fare better than a UW-Madison grad (and perhaps also an Isenberg grad).

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You continue to want to say that but reports are consistent across the board (majors, schools) - yes, there are issues with some not reporting and others calculating differently.

But Bentleys career center is highly rated - Princeton Review says #1 - and if you look at initial stats of all three and long range stats, Bentley is superior.

You can continue to doubt data - but the #s as the #s as one other poster just said.

Are they lying?

Of these schools, Bentley is the one that delivers most - on an overall basis (not an individual basis, as all individuals in life vary).

Best Colleges for Career Services | The Princeton Review

Undergraduate Admission- - Return on Investment | Bentley University

Employment Statistics – Bentley CareerEdge