I am interested in getting opinions on the merits of Ross vs Kelley. We live in Ohio, and my son has been accepted to the ACE program at Kelley with a merit scholarship. He is accepted at UM waiting on Ross decision. While ACE will give him some good benefits, the Ross reputation may provide a stronger national network and job placement. Without aid, Michigan will be nearly double the cost (30K vs 60K per year). I would love to hear how internship, job placement, and starting salaries stack up.
Many undergrad business schools do report their employment statistics on the website. [url=<a href=“https://kelley.iu.edu/recruiters-companies/undergrad/statistics/salary-statistics/index.cshtml%5DHere’s%5B/url”>https://kelley.iu.edu/recruiters-companies/undergrad/statistics/salary-statistics/index.cshtml]Here’s[/url] Kelley’s, and [url=<a href=“https://michiganross.umich.edu/programs/bba/careers/employment-data%5Dhere’s%5B/url”>https://michiganross.umich.edu/programs/bba/careers/employment-data]here’s[/url] Ross’s.
More discussion below, but my sense given both the data and my personal experiences working in both New York and the West Coast is
-Michigan’s alumni network is deep and wide AND has a lot of strong connections of support.
-The data below seem to indicate that Michigan alumni make significantly more on average (although that could be because of the careers they choose to enter) and
-Michigan alumni seem to be more likely than Kelley alumni to enter the desirable, high-paying career fields that business majors often want (consulting and financial services, particularly)
-Also, Michigan alumni seem to have further reach - aka, they are more likely to land outside of the Midwest than Kelley students. Whether that’s by choice or not is unknown. Michigan does have more OOS students (41%) than Kelley (34%), and my guess is that Kelley’s OOS students are more likely to come from surrounding Midwestern states. So the Indiana grads may simply choose to stay closer to their home and family networks, whereas some of the Michigan grads may be returning to their home and family networks. But regardless, what it does mean is that a Michigan Ross student or alumni is more likely to find another Michigan Ross student or alumni interning or working at one of the big firms in the Northeast or the West Coast.
My personal experience is that the world is crawling with Michigan alumni - two of my closest friends are both Michigan alumni; lots of my grad school friends and classmates were Michigan alumni; I was invited to a Michigan business alumni mixer here in Seattle and there were SO MANY of them. I joke that I feel like 48% of my friends are Michigan alumni and another 40% are Penn State alumni. Michigan alumni, and particularly Ross alum have a STRONG network in a variety of fields. I definitely know more Michigan alum here at Microsoft than I know Indiana Kelley alum.
Whether or not that makes it worth it to pay double the cost I don’t really know…$120K is a lot of money!
Kelley
95% of graduating Kelley seniors say they have a job lined up within three months of graduation. Median starting salary is about $60,000 with a signing bonus median of $5,000; these range from $55,000 for management majors to $65,000 for business economics/public policy majors.
The top hiring industries of Kelley grads were public accounting (21%), consulting (12%), retail (9%), consumer products (8%) and technology (8%).
Graduates found jobs in 31 states and DC. However, the PDF report that you can download seems to indicate that nearly half of Kelley graduates end up in Illinois, probably Chicago; another 13% end up in Indiana and 11% in other places in the Midwest. Altogether, about two-thirds of Kelley grads stay in the Midwest; only 12% go to the Northeast (the center of the financial services world) and only 6% to the West (where the tech business jobs mostly are).
94% of Kelley students who sought an internship said they got one. The hourly salaries are posted at the above site; they are pretty good. The top three firms are all accounting firms (EY, PwC, Deloitte).
Ross
At Ross, 98% of graduating seniors have a job lined up within three months of graduation. The median starting salaries here are listed in terms of the fields graduates went to and not their concentrations/majors; the overall median is $72,500, with the individual medians ranging from $52,500 for media/entertainment/sports-related careers to $85,000 for financial services.
You can also see the percentages of students who went into specific fields; nearly 40% of Michigan Ross BBA grads go into financial services, and another 21% go into the next-highest-paying career, consulting (median = $75K). Median signing bonuses seem to range from $5K to $10K depending on the field.
Most Ross grads end up in the Midwest (37%) and Northeast (42%), which makes sense given Ross’s location plus the Northeast being big business hubs. About 12% end up on the West Coast, and their destination cities (SF Bay Area and Seattle) seem to indicate tech business jobs). Ross also has more ways to slice and dice the data and has a fuller report in PDF format you can download.
D was also admitted to Kelley directly with $6000 scholarship per year. She’s an international.
She was admitted to economics at UT Austin too. No scholarship at all.
Cost may be ignored. Which program is better for her? Any input is appreciated.
Thanks.
This is great information! Thanks so much for that research data. @maplefall - my son also did get accepted to UT Austin but no merit aid. We are fairly certain the Kelley Honors outweighs McComb without Honors, but I’d be interested to hear what others think on that also.
@maplefall - I am curious what information you’ve received to help your daughter with her decision on Kelley vs McComb. That is where we are now 
@mythreesonsOH Both McCombs and Kelley are highly ranked b-schools. We think UT Austin is more prestigious than IU Bloomington in general. In terms of location, Austin as the capital of Texas with booming economy is much better than Bloomington, which is beautiful though. Daughter prefers an urban life and more intern opportunities. I hope she can successfully transfer to McCombs, whose undergraduate program ranks 5 vs Kelley ranking 11.
Yet, if your son is admitted into Kelley Honors, it should be an excellent choice. Congratulations to your son’s achievements and good luck to him.
Ross
UT
Because your son has not yet been admitted to Ross, IU Kelley with scholarship is the only choice on the table.