University of Alabama vs Indiana University (Business and Undergrad)

College Search & Lists
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Hey everyone,

I have gotten through with college decisions - (I didn’t get into my tops:( - but I have decided to choose between UA and IU. I am really stricken between the two, and would appreciate any help y’all could give me to help me decide.

For some details, I got direct admission into Kelley School of Business and IU honors, and I also got into UA CulverHouse Business and their honors college. I live in Alabama so I will get instate tuition for UA. I will get OOS for Indiana. I am getting the top merit scholarships (presidential) for both universities, along with some extras for Bama. So, I am paying around 5k for Indiana, and around 3-7k for Bama (a year). I also really doubt I will get any financial aid from the FAFSA.

My parents are gratefully paying for 2 years of my tuition, and the other two years I will get a loan for. My dad wants me to go to IU because he argues that I can pay the ~100k debt off fairly quickly because I will be single and he feels like I can budget correctly. And he believes if I work hard enough and strike a job in a top firm, my salary will be really good. He is telling me to not worry about the tuition so much, but it still is a big deal.

I saw a similar post from ScreenName77 and that person had some good stuff on the pros and cons of each university, but I wanted to ask again. Here is the link to that sitehttps://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/alabama-or-indiana/1794620. I am going to copy and paste some of the pros and cons that person listed cause it’s a really good list.

"Education
Bama: Alabama is ranked somewhere in the 80s for my major. That speaks for itself. I won’t have to worry about not getting classes I want.

IU: Kelley has the 8th ranked program in the country for my major. I was stunned after attending direct admit day, which is a massive presentation on Kelley for incoming students. They are a machine that provide their students incredible opportunities and prepare them extremely well for the real world. With their connections training it seems hard not to be successful. Also, a degree from Kelley can help me get into good grad schools. "

Another thing I know is necessary for success in the business field is a more elite program within the business school. I know Bama’s business school has a business honors program that is 90 students and very competitive and cycles into top companies. Bama also has the CulverHouse Investment Management Group and the Investment Banking Academy (IBA), both of which are really elite and the IBA has 100% placement to top wall street firms.

Kelly (IU business school) has something similar. Kelly has the Investment banking and investment management workshop, and they also have a HUGE networking group. Top in the country.

I plan to get an MBA after working a bit after college, where I plan to go to a top MBA school for finance. I don’t know for sure what I want to do as an occupation, but I love the stock market and Wall Street seems interesting. So maybe something finance related like investment banking, investment management, or something similar.

Thank y’all so much for actually reading my huge post and helping me decide between Bama and IU. This is my future and any help will be appreciated so much. Thanks again!

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For MBA, the where won’t matter.

What is the outcome or goal?

In general, IU is going to have better outcomes than Bama but both are great schools. IU will also place in more expensive places to live.

Just to verify - you are saying the cost of both is the same? The only Presidential scholarship I see at IU is for in state students and you are OOS.

Kelley is huge…but the Bama campus is huge.

Have you been to both?

Most would honestly choose Kelley unless there was a cost delta. As you know, Bama buys kids in

Please verify IU will only be $5K tuition (or is that tuition room and board)? The normal cost is $60K minus a little merit aid - but that’s a different scholarship.

Ultimately, I go by name, desired outcome, and then feel (campus, etc.).

Best of luck to you.

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That is supposed to be 55k… definitely not 5k

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tuition for Indiana is 55k. NOT 5k. sorry

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Got it - what’s your desired outcome.

So the question is - your parents are paying for two years - at $55K. Who is paying the last? That’s $110K - so you can’t afford it - and you can’t borrow it. Your parents can - but it doesn’t sound like they want to.

Sure, you can make a small dent with summer jobs - but it’s simply not realistic.

Now, if you go to Bama, are they paying four years?

So - that might make your decision for you.

I tend to think in most careers (not IB, consulting, etc.) the salary outcomes differential won’t be that huge. IU will show higher but they’ll be placing in Chicago whereas Bama will be Bham, Atlanta, etc.

But no matter what the outcome - the first and foremost question is - how will you pay the final two years - because I don’t see that you can?

Money often makes the decision for people…

But in my mind, there is no logical reason (and often time ability) to borrow 6 figures (which has to be paid back with interest and fees) for IU over any other flagship and Culverhouse is excellent.

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Hey everyone the first post had an error so here’s the corrected information:

I have gotten through with college decisions - (I didn’t get into my tops:( - but I have decided to choose between UA and IU. I am really stricken between the two, and would appreciate any help y’all could give me to help me decide.

For some details, I got direct admission into Kelley School of Business and IU honors, and I also got into UA CulverHouse Business and their honors college. I live in Alabama so I will get instate tuition for UA. I will get OOS for Indiana. I am getting the top merit scholarships (presidential) for both universities, along with some extras for Bama. So, I am paying around 50k for Indiana, and around 3-7k for Bama (a year). I also really doubt I will get any financial aid from the FAFSA.

My parents are gratefully paying for 2 years of my tuition, and the other two years I will get a loan for. My dad wants me to go to IU because he argues that I can pay the ~100k debt off fairly quickly because I will be single and he feels like I can budget correctly. And he believes if I work hard enough and strike a job in a top firm, my salary will be really good. He is telling me to not worry about the tuition so much, but it still is a big deal.

I saw a similar post from ScreenName77 and that person had some good stuff on the pros and cons of each university, but I wanted to ask again. Here is the link to that sitehttps://talk.collegeconfidential.com/t/alabama-or-indiana/1794620. I am going to copy and paste some of the pros and cons that person listed cause it’s a really good list.

"Education
Bama: Alabama is ranked somewhere in the 80s for my major. That speaks for itself. I won’t have to worry about not getting classes I want.

IU: Kelley has the 8th ranked program in the country for my major. I was stunned after attending direct admit day, which is a massive presentation on Kelley for incoming students. They are a machine that provide their students incredible opportunities and prepare them extremely well for the real world. With their connections training it seems hard not to be successful. Also, a degree from Kelley can help me get into good grad schools. "

Another thing I know is necessary for success in the business field is a more elite program within the business school. I know Bama’s business school has a business honors program that is 90 students and very competitive and cycles into top companies. Bama also has the CulverHouse Investment Management Group and the Investment Banking Academy (IBA), both of which are really elite and the IBA has 100% placement to top wall street firms.

Kelly (IU business school) has something similar. Kelly has the Investment banking and investment management workshop, and they also have a HUGE networking group. Top in the country.

I plan to get an MBA after working a bit after college, where I plan to go to a top MBA school for finance. I don’t know for sure what I want to do as an occupation, but I love the stock market and Wall Street seems interesting. So maybe something finance related like investment banking, investment management, or something similar.

Thank y’all so much for actually reading my huge post and helping me decide between Bama and IU. This is my future and any help will be appreciated so much. Thanks again!

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“The FAFSA” does not give aid to anyone; it’s just a tool to calculate your level of need. IU doesn’t give need-based aid to OOS students, so even if the FAFSA result says that you can’t pay as much as IU costs, there’s no funding source that’s going to fill the gap.

Does your dad understand that you cannot borrow that much in your own name? The maximum you can borrow, via federal guaranteed loans, is 27K over four years. Any additional would be in the form of parent loans. Even if you make the payments, it would legally be your parents’ debt.

And 100K is a lot of debt. You’re interested in the financial planning field, so think of this as your first case study: look up the interest rates for Parent PLUS loans and calculate what your payments would be, and how much total you would ultimately be paying by the time the loans were paid off. Also, if your parents were to invest the difference between UA and the first two years of IU, figure out how much that investment would earn over what would have been the life of those loans, and figure out the total difference: the eventual total cost of the loans plus the value of the invested savings.

Calling it “budgeting correctly” sounds nice, but we’re talking about major sacrifices. Make sure that your dad fully appreciates the burden he’s suggesting, and that he’s prepared to make the payments if, for any reason, you can’t. All sorts of things can happen in life that no amount of college prestige can prevent.

My opinion is that the difference between Kelley and Culverhouse is not worth that big a hit. You can be very successful with a 'Bama education, and an IU education is not a golden-ticket guarantee. Your success will be much more about you than about which of these fine schools you attend.

(Also note that it can be highly competitive to get into the IB stuff at Kelley. You would be pretty unhappy if you spent all that money and then got shut out of the elite opportunities. That can happen.)

'Bama Culverhouse debt-free sounds like the winner to me.
Good luck and congrats on great offers!

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Thanks so much for the reply. I’ll ask him. I never really thought of that. What I think, not what I know, is that they will take on the loan and I will pay them back, or something of the sorts of that. It is also 2:04AM here so I will ask him in the morning. Thanks again

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Thanks so much for the reply. And as stated before, we never really thought out the loan process and whatnot. Your insight about the loans vs investment also helps a lot. I will ask my dad in the morning and show him your reply. Thanks so much. It really helps.

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Congratulations!! For business no comparison Kelley all the way. In my opinion, Bama in business has a reputation as a “cost efficient” choice while IU Honors is a highly respected business program.

Look on LinkedIn and you will see that Kelley kids have far more successful careers and national options.

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So back to the question - how will you pay back $110K?

No question, like I said one will have better outcomes and if you ultimately decide you want IB (it sounds like you are just toying with things now), one is clearly, based on data, better.

But you have to borrow $110K. There are fees (so you have to borrow more than $110K to get $110K. Then you have interest - so it’s a lot more than $110K.

For 10 years at 8% interest, $110K is $1334 a month. Over 50K in interest - so you are paying $160K. You are paying rent well over $1K. A car - which could be $1K a month.

If you get a job at $75K, how would you pay that back? And what if there isn’t a job? There have been times where people can’t get a job.

That would be the concern.

PS - your parents would own the loan, not you. You may decide you’re paying - but what if you can’t. It’s on them, not you.

Quite simply - you cannot afford IU.

Like I said above, in specialized fields (if you chose one), no question it will produce better.

But that’s not relevant.

You don’t stay at the Ritz Carlton when all you can afford is the Holiday Inn Express.

There’s a reason the government limits loans to college students to $27K.

In my opinion, when it comes to education, budget is 1A, 1B, 1C.

If your family could afford the $55K a year (and chooses to), then great. If not, then it’s out.

Another thing is you mention an MBA later - and you know you’ll need to work for two years after - and maybe that’s where you land in a top tier program. Where you go undergrad will have near zero effect on where you get in grad - as long as you get in good work experience.

And that difference in salary - will be huge.

IU Kelley reports a mean MBA salary of $140K vs. $76.7K undergrad.

A solid school like ASU reports a $146K salary for MBA (theirs includes signing bonus where IU doesn’t).

But in my mind, that’s where you make your mark.

So strangle yourself financially undergrad, then how will you pay for your MBA? Now you have another issue.

Best of luck.

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Good news is if you attend IU you likely won’t require an MBA to enhance or pivot your career. Kelley is a national brand and will likely provide a platform from which you won’t require an incremental credential to achieve your career goals. I would also consider the fact that many top tier employers will pay for executive MBA programs and IU will give you access to this tier of employers. Bama not so much.

Long term IU will likely be a better financial outcome with better career outcomes.

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Hard to advise based upon this info. 1st 2 years, or equivalent to 2 years? Telling you not to worry, means do not worry or it is up to you whether you should worry? @tsbna44 may be right, depending upon how I interpret your situation. Debt sucks, but you also need to consider @Catcherinthetoast who is right, too. Might IU have more coming, because that is definitely not the top merit they offer?

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Will your parents be able to cosign $100k in loans for you? What happens if they can’t?

My eldest went to Bama business school as that was affordable for us. She worked in Atlanta as a consultant for a Big 4 firm., but debt repayments on $100k would have been very hard to manage, although not impossible. However, she then went to a Masters in the UK at a top tier uni, which we could assist with as hadn’t spent all our cash on UG. She starts at another consulting role in London in the fall (dual nationality).

However, IU Kelley is higher ranked, and has a more recognisable and direct pathway to certain jobs. It was unaffordable for us otherwise D may have looked at it.

Do you first business school piece of homework- what is the monthly repayment on $100k??

Good luck.

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This…if you do undergrad business right you shouldn’t need an MBA these days. Doing an inexpensive undergrad + MBA is going to be WAY more expensive all in. MBA schools are expensive + you lose two years of potential salary.

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Having a $100k+ in debt hanging around your neck is going to make you pass on opportunities coming out of college. You will have to try to chase money but not into a high COA area. That is a hard thing to find.

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I would say no one knows the future - so we (including OP don’t know what he’s going to do in 7-8 years) but he did mention that is the current desire and there are zillions of MBA enrollees each year so I think it’s fair to offer advice based on OP’s request.

In my industry, which like any industry is unlikely to be OPs, a graduate degree is a plus.

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Or return to living with your parents after college.

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You don’t want to go to Bama if your goal is a prestige industry like IB. Wall Street firms don’t target Bama and it does not have an alumni network.

Of course LinkedIn will have a very small sampling to contradict this (you won’t know the back stories) but similarly you can google lottery winners and a sampling of winner’s names will appear.

Don’t gamble on your professional ambitions when you have an alternative option like IU that ticks every box.

FYI the vast majority of Wall Street analysts (which is your stated career path) no longer pursue MBAs. Many alternatively get their CFAs while working. Banks no longer encourage their employees to get MBA and doing so is now extremely rare.

Lastly if looking for a career in IB I would suggest taking your advice from people specifically familiar with the field. It is a unique and idiosyncratic recruiting process. At a minimum I would suggest asking people their experience level relative to what you are interested in doing to ensure you are getting sound advice.

Good luck.

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Fair enough. Maybe it’s a “go big or go home” scenario, if the student wants a shot at IB. This is just a big financial limb to go out on, and I’m glad I don’t have to advise one of my own kids as to whether it’s too much risk or not. But I guess that’s what finance is all about…!

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