I recently graduated from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business a few years ago. While making my college decision, I regularly followed this forum and made use of the valuable guidance provided by others. Now that I am in the working world, I often reflect on my college experience and consider what I wish I had done differently. I wanted to share my advice with others so that they can learn from my mistake.
As a wide-eyed, 18-year-old high school senior, I was very academic and eager to go to the best college possible. I graduated at the top of my class and secured early admission to my top choices: Georgetown, UChicago, and UMich LS&A (in state). I was interested in investing and was confident I wanted to attend business school. After being rejected from UMich’s Ross preadmission program, I committed to Georgetown. My family and I decided that the security of being accepted to a four-year business program outweighed the uncertainty of applying to Ross after my freshman year at UMich, despite the significantly higher tuition. I had graduated as a valedictorian of my high school class and scored in the top 99% on my standardized tests, giving me a lot of confidence that I could replicate this success at Georgetown (like most other incoming students at Georgetown).
Growing up in Michigan, I was a UMich fan throughout most of my childhood. Although I always held UMich in high regard, I downplayed its prestige. The fact that in-state admission standards for UMich were noticeably lower than those of other prestigious, out-of-state universities heavily influenced this thinking. In my hometown, at least, UMich did not quite have the same “wow” factor as schools like Georgetown or UChicago. Since I understood that success in the business field depended heavily on where one goes to school, I felt that the added prestige was important. My desire to attend Georgetown was also fueled by the fact that I had heard horror stories about the unpredictability of Ross admissions for first-year UMich applicants. That was a risk I was not willing to take.
At Georgetown, however, I felt that the quality of education was a disappointment. While I was fortunate to have some great professors and insightful experiences, I do not feel that Georgetown offered good value for what it offered. This is not the case simply because it was difficult; the consensus among myself and friends was that several courses were not as well taught as they should be. I worked very hard at Georgetown and graduated with honors (~3.6 GPA) while being involved in several extracurriculars. I now work at a middle-tier consulting firm making ~$65K / year. While I could have potentially made more money working on Wall Street, I decided during recruiting season that investment banking was not the route I wanted to take. I am still content with this decision, as nearly all of my banking friends are similarly miserable at their jobs despite their much higher salaries.
As I reflect on my experience, I wish I had focused more on the end rather than the means to that end. In other words, I should have paid more attention to the potential jobs my education would lead to rather than merely the education itself. I wrongfully assumed that being above average at Georgetown would lead to a lucrative career. At the same time, I assumed that majoring in finance would put me in a good position to begin some sort of investing career. Georgetown recruiting, despite what you may hear, is focused almost exclusively on finance and consulting. Finance jobs are essentially all geared towards Wall Street, where analysts spend 80-90 hours building financial models, pitch books, etc. It is nothing more than meaningless grunt work.
I often compare my career path to that of my peers from high school who selected fields like dentistry, medicine, etc. I am shocked by just how much more difficult the business path is. At schools like Georgetown, not only do you have to get accepted at a school with a ~12% acceptance rate, but you also need to be the cream of the crop among the 12%. Meanwhile, several of my high school peers went to very easy undergrads and finished with 3.8+ GPAs with minimal effort. Since fields like dentistry and medicine are so heavily focused on GPA, my peers merely played the system to secure admission to their desired professional schools. They benefited from studying under programs with very lenient curves and rampant grade inflation – the exact opposite of Georgetown. Most of these peers would not even have a chance of getting into schools like Georgetown in the first place, let alone graduating with credentials strong enough to succeed in the recruiting process. I say this not to belittle these peers, but rather to put this comparison in better context for others to understand.
Even if I had opted to go into business, I would definitely choose UMich over Georgetown if I could redo my decision. As a high school senior, I wrongfully assumed that being in business school was a necessary prerequisite for business school. This is not the case; firms actively recruit non-business majors. In fact, one could argue that it is advantageous not to be in business school for recruiting, as this sets you apart from the pack and makes it much less likely that you’ll be drilled with technicals during interviews. I have several friends in the SFS and College who did just as well in recruiting as my McDonough friends. Even if I had gone to UMich and failed to get into Ross, I would have been just as well off in peripheral majors like Economics. Even better, I would have done so by spending around half as much as Georgetown.
I am very fortunate to come from a wealthy family where my parents make upwards of $400K+ per year. My parents generously covered the costs of attending Georgetown for me. While my parents fully supported my decision to go to Georgetown and realize that I gave my best effort as a student (I spent countless hours studying and was not the partying type), I feel a tremendous amount of shame for not giving them a better return on their investment. I imagine other graduates of higher education programs feel the same, and I can only imagine how graduates with student loans feel about their experience.
In summary, I consider my decision to go to Georgetown the worst decision I have ever made. Despite working very hard and graduating with honors, I find myself in a miserable low-paying job. While I am trying to dig myself out of this hole (studying for and taking the CFA exams, looking for new jobs, etc.), I still have a long way to go. The worst part about my decision is that, by spending so much on Georgetown, it is now very difficult to spend more money to get myself out of this position. I am very hesitant to consider additional education like an MBA, PhD, or even pivoting in another direction altogether. My life would be so much easier if I had selected a cheaper and easier undergraduate school with a more linear path towards future earning power. Please let me know if you have questions; I am happy to answer and help you avoid making the same mistake as me.
What enabled me to pivot and think critically was my education. It taught me how to be a good problem solver, but it was my own hard work that got me where I am today.