I am interested in pursuing a career in finances and one day I would like to own my own hedge fund. My GPA is not good enough to get into Marylands Smith School of Business. My options is to major in Economics and Maryland in than possibly enroll in their 4+1 masters in finance program. My other option is to major in Finances with a concentration in investments at Salisbury Purdue School of Business.
One of my worries is that for investing and finances the prestige of your school matters. I think Maryland is more well known than Salisbury Business School. Also another thing to note all of the Ivy Leagues and Stanford do not offer undergraduate business degrees except for Cornell and Wharton. With this I do not think that you need a finance degree to get on Wall Street.
I also have to stay in state and I am not interested in the other schools in Maryland.
Smith is top-50 business schools in the country - not even a close call if you want to stay in MD. A business degree isn’t required as all of the Ivies and the top LAC’s send plenty to Wall Street with Econ degrees, but as I said Smith is one of best so no worries about staying in state.
Smith is ranked #46 by Forbes https://www.forbes.com/business-schools/list/#tab:rank, and #47 by USNWR https://www.forbes.com/business-schools/list/#tab:rank (when I attended in the 1990’s it was in the top-30 so some slippage, but still very good).
My only problem is that I do not think my gpa will be high enough to get into their undergrad program which is ranked at 22. But by the end of college it should be high enough to get into their masters.
You may want to check with the CC guidance department as they should be able to give you insight - if you can get into Smith that would be best. That said, you can also do great in undergraduate school and go there for your MBA. Good luck!