Down to the wire! Cost not an issue although Cox is 26K more. Cox has established path to IB and business Quandrangle opened in 2024. Daniels is starting IBA (investment Banking Academy) and building new business building in fall 2027 so could have similar opportunity by junior year. Both direct admit but Daniels is in honors college and Larsen Leader. Thank you for any insight!
@Catcherinthetoast would be a good resource to answer this.
Congrats on these options.
What are the benefits of Daniels honors college and Larsen leader and do they appeal to your S? Here’s the IBA announcement, for those who might not have seen it: Daniels School Announces New Investment Banking Academy - Purdue Business
Has your S visited both schools? The vibe of these schools is quite different. Does Greek Life appeal to him?
3 Likes
Weather? There is real winter at Purdue, and real hot in Texas!
There are a lot of finance and finance related jobs in the Dallas Fort Worth area. SMU is highly regarded there.
Paging @cinnamon1212 who should have some good info about SMU.
I can’t comment about the Purdue program because I really don’t know about it.
2 Likes
My daughter’s experience with honors college at Purdue was extremely positive, although she was an engineering major. Besides great housing, there are dedicated honors advisors, built in leadership training, strong mentoring, projects/research, dedicated honors study abroad, opportunities for relationship building with honors profs from day one, a leg up for internships, etc… I can’t speak at all though about your child’s intended major though.
Congrats on great acceptances!
Edited to add the contact information for the Daniel’s honors director: Lindsay Rosokha at lmechem@purdue.edu. Purdue is super good about putting prospective students in touch with current students in the program if they want a first hand account of the program.
4 Likes
I cannot offer any insight comparing the two schools, since I only know SMU Cox.
If IB is the goal I would suggest SMU Cox. It is a target for many IBs, has an established alumni network, a fully developed finance curriculum and a regional recruiting advantage given its proximity to most large IBs Dallas offices.
Not trying to disparage Purdue Daniels program but it is new. Consequently it is not a target school, doesn’t have a deep IB alumni network, is in the process of developing an IB targeted curriculum while trying to attract seasoned professors and is located in a place that dissuades most IBs from recruiting on campus until they grow their qualified IB candidate pool. Given the school’s aspirations and stellar reputation I suspect they will be successful but currently they aren’t there yet.
“The primary faculty advisor for the IBA is Alex Boquist, a former Goldman Sachs banker and clinical associate professor of finance at the Daniels School”
As a heads up Professor Boquist had a total of 4 year career on Wall Street all as a straight out of college analyst at GS. Not judging but reality doesn’t exactly reconcile with the press release’s implied gravitas of a GS banking career.
I will compare this to Fisher at Ohio state where a former coworker of mine now helps run that program. He “field trips” students to NY and uses former contacts (after a 25 year IB career) to facilitate placement. This approach has gained traction and gotten some kids jobs.
Again just food for thought (I know Fisher isn’t an option). I offered them as an example however to highlight how these programs in practice establish themselves and grow. Often it is based on personal relationships, reputations and familiarity all of which take time.
All of these comments are predicated on finances being taken out of the discussion and “fit” being the same.
Congratulations on several great options.
10 Likes