Anyone have any insight into Poole? We attended an info session in the fall, as well as the fall Open House, but I don’t think we received hand outs. Just curious if anyone has direct experiences and could share. I know plenty of kids that have gone/going to State, but none are business majors.
D24 accepted as a Bus Admin major, NC IS. Frankly, her top choice was UNC-CH, but she was waitlisted, so we’re pivoting. Only applied to UNC, NCSU, VT & Elon. Accepted into all, but UNC. Elon has fallen off her radar so we’re down to State & VT.
Frankly, I can see her at both. I’m a Pamplin Alum, so I’ll be honest, I’m a little bias, but I can’t deny Poole has a great location, close to RTP employers. Sounds like alot of kids are able to intern, if they’d like, during the school year. She would prefer to land back in NC after school, another perk for State; Pamplin estimates they send 10% to NC, so coming back isn’t impossible, but is open to VA (she was born in NoVA). I hear advising maybe isn’t great at Poole? Looks like they have an advising team (non faculty), as opposed to VT, who assigns a faculty advisor before you freshman year. VT tuition is doable…but it a $24k difference per year in tuition - that’s almost $100k over 4 years. If she felt strongly VT was the best fit, it wouldn’t be a problem, but she’s struggling. There are pros & cons to both.
She has a pros & cons list going, and removing cost, it’s neck & neck. However, she’s practical and wants to focus on finance. She keeps coming back to whether the ROI is worth it on VT. Education wise, no, but you can’t put a price on fit/happiness.
We walked around State on Sat (we live half way between each). She looked around SAS’s website last night, since it looks like several of the Poole leaders mention interning there, and that’s peaked her interest. Truly, I don’t think there is a bad decision here based off of what we know, but trying to figure out if we’re missing something.
At the end of the day, I think it’ll come down to college town experience vs urban.
If the addt’l $100K is affordable (meaning not needing loans beyond the $27K undergrad total in fed student loans), I would also go with fit and not ROI. I expect job outcomes are similar to Pamplin and Poole…so ROI could be higher at Poole, but one really never knows how things will play out. Does she really want to intern during the school year?
Has she looked in detail at business core courses, gen ed requirements, major requirements, prof research areas, and the like? Maybe there would be a clear preference academically (not considering outcomes)?
Thanks @Mwfan1921 - part of my struggle is I feel like Pamplin has given us a ton of info, but I have little to compare with Poole. We have Program Curricula/check sheets (classes broke out by semester) for most of the majors in Pamplin. I can’t seem to find comparable info like that for State. I also have post grad report for Pamplin, but nothing like that for NCSU…State touts their analytics focus, so give me some analytics!! My kid has cross checked her APs, and both with give her similar credit.
I’ll give a nod to the Pamplin Asst Director of Recruitment - Coral Rojas. She has informative handouts, is passionate, and her student ambassadors are impressive. She does a great job of selling Pamplin.
Is Poole similar on a day to day basis, and in the classroom, but just not as good at selling it?? I asked about Poole on Reddit a few weeks ago, since I figured I’d get more input from students. The general consensus was it was fine. One recent grad even said they felt like Poole “was just a ticket to punch to get to post grad jobs”. A current sophomore (finance concentration) said they’ve had a very positive experience, and are wowed by career fairs and access to opportunities; however, said “as far as advising….good luck. The advisors know almost nothing in my experience and are either indecisive or give misguided information.” Yowza. Unfortunately, that backs up some other info I’ve read. Another mentioned they often had local guest speakers in 400 level classes to talk about their opportunities and sometimes hold interviews on the spot. So my take away from their comments is it’s fine…not great, but fine. It’s like everywhere else, it is what you make of it. My kid is interested in being involved so I believe as long as she gets involved and networks, she’ll be fine. She’s savvy enough I think she could self advise, especially if she connects with a professor. The students all repeated that the best thing going is proximity to opportunities. So while she may not want to intern during the school year, as a student pointed out, they were able to stay over the summer to intern without subletting their apt. That’s a perk.
Financially, we wouldn’t have to borrow anything to go to VT, nor would it impact retirement, etc.
Thanks for reading this far… I realize I’m overthinking all of this, but I’m sure I’m not alone on this forum! Most of our D’s friends are just flying by the seat of their pants, and have barely visited the colleges they’ll be attending.
Just a follow up in case someone searches Poole on here, since there is limited discussion…
Last week D24 sent emails to Poole Admissions and Pamplin Career services. She asked Poole 4 questions: where to find degree planning sheets, how does advising work, is there a post graduate report, and any chance to visit a class. She asked Pamplin only 1 question: more details on post-grad’s in NC.
Poole Admissions was asked more intensive questions, but honestly, I didn’t think they were difficult questions. It took Poole 3 full days to answer. They sent a link to their degree planning sheets. Advising is a “team approach so students can shop around and can use whoever is available” (but in looking at their website, the team generally doesn’t have any business or teaching backgrounds, which I think is odd, but maybe not?). The post grad response was really generic and non specific…literally they gave average starting salaries for their 3 majors (Acct, BA, Econ) and said “most students are from NC, so stay in the state and are spread out, not just in RTP.” Finally, it’s not possible to sit in on a class.
Pamplin’s career service responded in less than 2 hours, giving her the link to class of 2021 post-grad report for the entire university. You can easily sort by college, then by degree. It lists the employer, job title, location (city & state). Pretty interesting.
Maybe we should give Poole some grace since they are in the middle of reviewing regular decision apps. But…D was pretty disappointed that it took 3 days to answer her. She isn’t crazy about their team advising style, and their rather generic response to post-grad data (maybe we’re high maintenance, but who isn’t on this forum! …but when you tout your data analytics focus but then don’t provide it for admissions…). She feels that’s indicative for what to expect as a student, so is pretty certain Pamplin is the better fit for her.
I’d say definitely go look. I’m not very familiar with OSU/Fisher, so I can’t compare. D24 & I really wanted to love Poole; we tried! It would have saved me $$$ since it’s IS for us. I couldn’t really find much Poole insight on forums like this (that’s likely indicative right there). Reddit has a little more - I asked on there about advising and got some input from current students/recent grads. I know ALOT of kids at State but oddly enough, only one business major. She’s a transfer student (completed our high school’s “early college” option, so went in as a Jr). Her mother said she is happy with their program, and had an internship lined up pretty quickly for this summer at a local bank. Getting jobs in the RTP doesn’t seem to be an issue. We attended a Fri info session early last fall - there was a ACCT major senior that was from NJ, had been interning there, and had a job offer back in NJ. I don’t really know where else their grads tend to end up - I tried asking but got a generic answer.
Poole just celebrated their 30th anniversary…frankly they haven’t been in the “business school” business as long as alot of other schools. My DD is going to VT/Pamplin (I’m an alum so I’m bias perhaps). We questioned the advising/support available at Poole. They use a “team advising” approach, and per students on Reddit, it isn’t great (but honestly we hear the same thing happens down the road in Chapel Hill…it’s pretty much self-advising, every kid for themselves). They tout their data analytics focus, which is great…but literally they don’t give you much in the way of hard data when you go to these info sessions. Like give me some handouts. Show me your post grad results, tell me who is hiring your grads…not hard stuff. Alot of our daughter’s friend group and classmates are going to go to NCSU (mainly engineers, sciences), so candidly, another perk for our D was that VT was stepping out and going somewhere different (plus the overall fit at VT).
But you may come away with a totally different opinion! Poole is housed in Nelson Hall, which is at the NW corner of campus, right on Hillsborough St. When living off campus, you could probably be strategic and live within walking distance. They’re raising money to build a new business school building, but they’re just in the preliminary stages (entering freshmen won’t see that building). Talley Student Center is a great building, my D loved the gym (it’s seriously super impressive). The dairy program provides milk for ice cream at Howling Cow Creamery (available in Talley). It’s not walkable from main campus, but Centennial Campus is home to engineering (and maybe a few other design majors). The Hunt Library is also incredible. They may be giving tours of the library robot system on Sat (they did during Open House in the fall)…that was cool to see “behind the scenes”. There is a lake right there students can use. If you want an urban campus, honestly it’s probably alot safer than Columbus (I’m not familiar with OSU, but am with the fairgrounds area there…). PNC Arena is right there that host basketball, but also pro hockey, major concerts, etc. RDU airport is super close, making access easy. There is alot of cool stuff happening in RTP. Google & Apple are coming in. It’s hard to ignore all of that. Good luck! Hope you have a great visit. Would be curious to see what you think.
Most of our D’s friends are just flying by the seat of their pants, and have barely visited the colleges they’ll be attending. 