Main focus is on recruitment and on-campus opportunities. Will additionally visit colleges to limit down and check campus life – for sure visiting IU and UIUC and either Northeastern or SMU. I know these aren’t the best IB targets, but most likely to attend the school with the best changes. Don’t know too much about these schools so any insights would be awesome!
UIUC Gies
Pros: A lot of investment being put into business school – seems to be on the rise. Lots of counseling and internships opportunities highlighted in college recruitment. Seemingly high salaries for employment and lots of consulting.
Cons: UIUC overall known for engineering and accounting, not finance. Overall slim chances of cracking IB.
Indiana Kelley
Pros: Overall best regarded business school. Has special programs/workshops such as IBW that once admitted provide best opportunities and salaries out of my university options.
Cons: Some workshops like IBW competitive to get into (ANY INFO about IBW would be appreciated). Otherwise IU and rest of Kelley less prestigious and wouldn’t want to go. Seems higher risk, higher reward.
Northeastern D’Amore McKim (Global Scholars)
Pros: #1 CO-OP program in country that gives job experience and lead to job offers with CO-OP company. University overall is most prestigious (low admit rate due to tons of applications). Kind of the “In-style” school right now – could change in future but not in the next four years. Boston is a large city and great college town, most location-based opportunities.
Cons: University seems overall overhyped. Salaries seem lower than SMU and UIUC (might be wrong). CO-OPs also possibly exaggerated (other universities have internships; how many are getting to work at Morgan Stanley and Fidelity, a couple dozen or 6 people). Global Scholars means living out of Boston my 1st year (Oakland and London), so will have limited access to university resources.
SMU Cox
Pros: In Dallas (where my parents are planning to move) and Texas is an up-and-coming finance and overall job hub. SMU seems to have a good reputation in Texas with a good alumni network that people recurrently talk about. Also is a smaller than other three schools while still holding similar opportunities and decent name recognition. Also has decent salaries.
Cons: Has the lowest ranking out of four (not sure how much to trust rankings) and overall school not as prestigious (although still better than Indiana overall). Don’t have too many cons, but other schools may just be better, just a lack of knowledge (please help!).
FYI cost is not a huge issue, only Northeastern has a slight disadvantage. Thanks for reading.
Personally, I don’t think NEU is most prestigious. Yes, it has the lowest acceptance rate. But few I know say - wow, Northeastern!! Don’t conflate prestige and acceptance rate.
Why don’t you ask each school for a detailed career report related to IB? They are all placing people (and NEU co-ops in IB as it was easy to find some kids via linked in profiles) but as you note, none are slam dunks (not that any school is, including targets).
But also note these are different schools - and you will be spending four years, day after day. You have to like where you are. And when you like you do better.
Let the schools provide you the resources outcome wise to help you make an informed decision.
But please ensure you attend a school that you’re comfortable with being on campus each day.
Congratulations on some great acceptances. Am I correct to assume you aspire to an IB career?
Getting IB jobs is a very nuanced and idiosyncratic process. I would seek out and base your decisions on the advice of those that have successfully navigated that process. Unfortunately, this is a unique career path and is often prone to being misunderstood and underestimated by those who haven’t participated in it. At a minimum I would suggest you screen those advising you for relevant first hand experience.
Haven’t thought of directly asking for an IB job report. I know b-schools release general career reports, but asking for IB specific will also allow these schools to share additional info about IB-focused recources and programs.
Likely expect a good response from IU, will see who else matches their noteriety. Thanks!
Thanks for the comment. I have tried to study as much as possible into the field of IB, particularly interested in M&A. Still, I’m aware that an IB career path is competitive and partially idealistic. I think a common theme is to see the recources and success rates of the university – naturally a better program will allow more oppertunities to network and find those who’ve navigated process. Again thanks for inpit
I will not address IB as I know nothing about it, however looking at your criteria I would say the best fit seems to be UIUC: the overall university is strong (you’ll be surrounded by insanely smart kids - and of course a few idiots because each village has theirs ), good campus life and decent college town, Chicago (major metropolis) is about 2 hours away, solid Business School (UIUC is well recruited), and while the university is nationally known for CS, Business is on-par reputation wise with Engineering.
SMU would be a second choice- less strong academically overall than UIUC but solid and Cox specifically is topnotch.
Thanks. You’re right that UIUC is one of the strongest overall school, and it does seem that the business school is increasingly highly respected/recruited (maybe thanks to simultaneous recruiting at engineering).
SMU is less strong and I still don’t know too much about Cox (I did recently just email each business school as recommended by tsbna44), but their recruitment does seem to equally be top-notch.
Again each school has their pros and cons. I’m always learning more pros/cons, but that just means my pro/con list is longer ! Am visiting UIUC and IU this week however, that’ll provide some clarity.
I agree with the poster above that acceptance rates are not the same as quality of the program. Even going past academics and quality, how much IB and banks like a particular school (target/non-target) - often also does not correlate exactly with acceptance rates (BYU for example easily trounces Northeastern, Tulane or any other school that games their acceptance rates).
I would really consider geography in your case. Which state do you want to practice? The two Big 10 flagships feed mainly into Chicago and NYC (with UIUC having a tech lean). Northeastern is a non-target that places into NYC mainly, and SMU is a growing brand but would be strongest in Texas, and Dallas in particular.
Thanks for the comment. I think I have at this deprioritize Northeastern (it’s co-op and study abroad hype but lacks results). I went to IU today and it exceeded my “good” expectations, going to UIUC tomorrow. NYC would be the preferance, but no school is best there. Overall priority for me is the results (recruitment, salary) and special oppertunities (IBW and PEW at Indiana, what CFP sent about SMU).
Update: I decided to commit to Gies. I do have some potential waitlists, but ultimately my Gies decision came down to the distribution of resources – Gies is 1/3 the size of Kelley – and the environment, which is more collaborative at Gies. All but Northeastern seem to have similar resources, but Cox is possibly too small a school (1/2 the size of Gies) and has a different kind of student (Miami/OC type kids – I’ve grown up in that environment for too long ) and Kelley seems hyper-competitive and a school better suited towards providing specialty resources to the the super best students and uplifting the most bottom kids with decent jobs. Gies, however, was all rounded and UIUC and Urbana-Champaign are simply environments I can envision myself succeeding more in than Bloomington or Dallas or Boston.
Curious if you received any responses from the universities when you asked about IB? My son is considering SMU Cox and there is a report he found that indicated they place well with IBs.
), good campus life and decent college town, Chicago (major metropolis) is about 2 hours away, solid Business School (UIUC is well recruited), and while the university is nationally known for CS, Business is on-par reputation wise with Engineering.
! Am visiting UIUC and IU this week however, that’ll provide some clarity.
) and Kelley seems hyper-competitive and a school better suited towards providing specialty resources to the the super best students and uplifting the most bottom kids with decent jobs. Gies, however, was all rounded and UIUC and Urbana-Champaign are simply environments I can envision myself succeeding more in than Bloomington or Dallas or Boston.
on your decision!