Should I go to the University of Illinois for my undergrad and then do an MBA or should I just get an undergrad from the University of Notre Dame?
First of all, it might be helpful if you shared what you want to do with your future college degree in order to initiate more responses.
I am the parent of two Gies kids. DD17 majored in Finance and Supply Chain. She works in Chicago at one of the Big 3 consulting firms. My DS19 is a Finance and Accounting double major. He has a post-graduation Finance Consulting job in Chicago lined up and will begin taking the CPA exams this coming semester as a senior.
Here are some things we especially valued/value about their Gies experience:
- very generous AP credit. This allowed them a lot of flexibility with fulfilling graduation requirements.
- strong, established study abroad programs. Both of my kids did a semester abroad that they loved.
- strong job placement and connections with Chicago area businesses. Look at employment stats.
https://business.illinois.edu/bcs/recruiters/statistics/ug-stats/
https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Fuofi.box.com%2Fs%2Fi6pc5ob8grxpzuictd0udkr2f7t7rnm0 - incredible network and lots of friends in Chicago. My DD lives with 2 other Gies graduates. I know she has kept in touch with and sees a lot of her ex-business frat friends and Gies kids in general. My son plans on living with 3 Gies friends.
I don’t believe either of them have any regrets. We have ND family members, but they weren’t business majors so I can’t make an informed comparison. Good luck with your decision! Be sure to consider your personal financial situation as well as fit.
@88jm19 Thanks for the reply! According to https://business.illinois.edu/bcs/students/undergraduates/statistics/ bachelors in accounting who specialize in “Investments” ( click salary by function and look under accounting: investments) make $86,250 from the graduating class of 2015. What kind of concentration in accounting is required for this kind of job and could you find some jobs which are related to this field? Looking forward to a response!
@88jm19 If you take a look at https://illinois.edu/about/rankings_ug.html it shows the departmental rankings for undergrad business majors. The accounting department has a fantastic ranking of “2” however the finance department has a ranking of “31”. This seems like a huge discrepancy to me as they do have quite a few courses that overlap in between accounting/finance. Is there any reason for such a huge difference between the accounting and finance department rankings as it is offputting if I were to decide to major in Finance. Looking forward to a response!
Accounting at Illinois is outstanding, but it is at Notre Dame as well. Illinois is ranked #2, while Notre Dame is ranked at #6. Neither are ranked in the top 10 for finance.
An interesting option might be Indiana University-Kelley School of Business which is ranked in the top ten for both accounting #8 & finance–also at #8.
University of Texas–Austin is ranked #1 in accounting & #5 in finance.
@Publisher Could I get a source for these rankings? Thanks 
US News Best Business Schools 2019 edition. Undergraduate programs ranked by business school deans & program directors.
P.S. An MBA degree is most valued & most valuable for one who has 3 to 5 years of post undergraduate work experience before enrolling in an MBA program.
@Publisher That really helped, thanks! I noticed that Umichigan was #4 in finance undergrad but when I searched for the finance major at their school of business, I only found a bachelors of business administration. What is that #4 ranking for umich in finance referring to in that case?
You are a sophomore. You need a larger list than 2 schools.
@Eeyore123 I do have a larger list, it’s just that I have questions for a few specific schools.
You asked
I am “just” a parent and can’t supply a definitive answer. My guess is that these are accounting graduates who have taken investment banking jobs. IB jobs in general are very high paying. However because of the high pay, a lot of students are initially attracted to it until they are confronted with the reality of the competition, high stress and long hours. And as an aside, when comparing starting salaries is the very real difference in cost of living and how far one’s salary will go.
In case you are interested in IB I would suggest doing some research, before choosing a school. At U of I look at IBA, the Investment Banking Academy. https://business.illinois.edu/iba/
Getting into the program is competitive, as it would be at any school. Look at the numbers. At Gies there’s about 25-30 students out of a class of roughly 800 students.
As for the ranking discrepancy between Accounting and Finance, the school is aware of it and has been making changes. There are many threads on rankings. All I can say is that my kids didn’t find the Finance ranking to affect their job search and ultimate placement. I also think UIUC’s strong College of Engineering attracts a lot of companies.
@88jm19 So the accounting/investment jobs are all in Investment Banking? Based on what I’ve looked at online, IBanking Analysts (entry level Ibankers) have to work 60-80 hour weeks which sounds like an unhealthy amount of time in the workplace. Are there any other jobs that are included in “Accounting/Investments” which have more healthy work-life balances and better pay than most accounting functions?
As for the finance ranking, I’m glad that you mentioned that they are aware of the problem and are actively trying to fix it. I’m currently a sophomore in high school so this finance ranking could very well become much better by the time I have to apply to colleges.
And yes, I’m aware of UIUC engineering (especially the comp sci. which apparently has a 5-10% acceptance rate) which is fantastic for the university as a whole. Looking forward to a response
It takes time to change rankings since they’re based on perception and those take a long time, probably more than two years. Also, the top-10 in finance on the usnews list is going to be tough to dislodge - you’re talking UM, Texas, NYU, Berkeley. If you’re off put by the 31 (and it’s ok to be so), then you’re better of as Publisher mentions to consider Texas, Michigan, IU, depending on grades and affordability of course.
CPAs tend to have less stress than IBankers, at least after tax season, if you want non-accounting, then probably corporate finance roles. Good luck!
I didn’t say that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most are. You will have to ask the school.
I have no idea what jobs the university includes in that category. However I will say that my DS’s future job has a solid starting salary and reasonable work hrs and travel demands…he’s doing financial consulting. Just keep in mind that high starting salaries often involve long work hours and competition. It’s the reason why the salaries are so good.
If you were my child I would encourage you to be less concerned about ranking. I would tell you to focus on access to growth and skill-building opportunities. It will require some research coupled with honest self-assessment.
@88jm19 Is corporate finance the way to go if I want a balance of good pay and reasonable work hours? Also, wouldn’t higher ranked schools (in your department of specialization) have more access to growth and skill-building opportunities for their students?
@theloniusmonk I think that I’ll probably go to UIUC if I choose Accounting as my major (In-state tuition and #2 ranked sums it up nicely), but I am surprised that an institution like Indiana University (which is worse than the University of Illinois at UC in pretty much all respects) is better than UIUC at finance. I’ll def. apply to IU and UMich tho for Finance as they seem to be the only good schools for undergrad finance that aren’t too far from Illinois. Any other good schools for finance which are less than 5 hours away from Illinois besides UMich and IU?
Ok, at the risk of throwing a curve, you could consider depending of course on affordability and your application, majoring in econ at Northwestern or Chicago, then taking classes at their b-school. I know that Kellogg (NU) offers a finance certificate for undergrads, and well, having Kellogg or Booth (if Chicago has something similar) on your resume is pretty big step up from UI and IU, there’s now way around that. Only Ross would compare. The econ major at schools like NU and Chicago are similar to the finance major at colleges that offer them in their undergrad b-schools.
Accounting and investment banking are totally different animals. Let’s put it this way; you probably would have a higher chance to land an investment banking job with an engineering background than accounting.
There’s no such thing as accounting major with specialization in investment. I think the data in that report simply mean 10% of the accounting majors end up in investment field. My bet is many of them probably double major in finance. In any case, accounting is not close to investment banking. Most people in investment banking came from elite schools that don’t even offer accounting.
I agree with the post above which asserts that accounting is not a common pathway into IB. But there are some specialty areas in which accounting functions & accounting folks are involved in investments & deals engineered by IB firms as well as PE firms. Accountants & their firms would bill by the hour rather than earning large sums for consummated deals.
I’m sorry. I’m not the person to ask this question. I originally replied to your thread to share my family’s experience at Gies and why we chose UIUC.
In my opinion this question doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Something to keep in mind is that while schools have various strengths and offer varying high-quality growth opportunities, these schools often limit participation, which may come as a surprise to students still in high school.
For instance I will say one of the best skill-building activities for my kids was their business frat. There are only a handful of co-ed business frats on campus…and you don’t have to be a business major to rush. At U of I there’s about 600 freshman in Gies. Each business frat may take around 25-30(?) new members…and not all of them are freshman. Most require an application and a couple of rounds of interviews.
So while some clubs are open to everyone, many organizations with quality “growth opportunities” are selective. This is why I mentioned ‘honest self-assessment” in my previous post. When you are considering the “fit” of a school, keep this in mind…competition doesn’t end when you enroll at a university.
Lastly, I want to share my feeling about Gies in general. If you work hard, in and outside of the classroom, it can provide a wonderful college experience. I think both of my kids would say once they were selected and became active participants in their organizations, the environment was very collaborative. They developed mentors and eventually became mentees. They made a lot of friends. So although I understand your desire for a ‘high-paying, reasonable work week’ post-graduation job, I’m not sure it’s a realistic pursuit at this point in your life.
Sorry if I rambled.