I went UG for Accounting. It was a private school ranked well and high in Accounting. After working in the Big 4 I have worked in small to mid-size companies. My degree has served me well. I did get an MBA which I believe has opened doors as well. I will never work for a Fortune 500 or 100 company. That is fine by me.
What I keep hearing is get through UG as cheap as possible and then spend the money on grad school. But that depends on what your area of study.
At most decent UG B schools there is no “general” business degree. It is accting, finance, marketing or management with some having actuarial science, real estate and a few other specialties. The salaries for same vary widely too. Around $40k-$70K would be typical depending on the major. Finance tends to be higher and mkting/mgt lowest.
As a parent with a kid at one of those top 10 biz schools, Storrs is the best option. S2 nearly went in-state to save $10k/year.
It gives him the opportunity to take an unpaid or low-paid internship. Our son needs to work to make money and that limits what is available to him the first couple of summers.
MBA is really falling out of favor these days. Big decline in enrollment.
Low unemployment = less MBA students, high unemployment = more MBA students. Get your undergrad tuition free at a good school and then get an MBA is still a fantastic route.
As someone that frequently interviews and recruits college students, I would push back on some of the criticisms of majoring in business. Sure, if you can major in a heavily quantitative field like engineering, computer science or applied math, then that’s going to open a lot of doors because those demonstrate competency in quantifiable skills that are currently in high demand. At the same time, if you go to an Ivy League/Ivy-caliber school, then you can major in liberal arts or whatever you want and people will give you chances simply because of the prestige of the brand name.
However, the reality is that engineering/CS/math entails extremely hard coursework at virtually every college (with lot of weedouts where a significant percentage of those people end up switching majors) and only a tiny percentage of the population gets into Ivy-level schools.
At most public flagships like UConn (and I graduated from a similar type of school), the career services and recruiting resources are actually VASTLY superior if you are in the undergraduate business program compared to liberal arts (including economics). It’s honestly not even close and it boggles my mind when I see comments that it’s better to have a liberal arts major in colleges where they have a separate undergrad business program. I’ve worked for several employers (including one of the largest employers of recent college grads in the country) that will basically not waste their time recruiting anywhere other than undergraduate business schools (with the caveat that there are different standards if you have an Ivy-level or engineering/CS degree).
In turn, non-business majors are often NOT allowed to take advantage of on-campus interviews arranged through the business program, which means that a company recruiting at the UConn business school (or similarly situated business program) usually doesn’t even see the resumes of liberal arts majors (much less interview them). This is much different than the Ivy-level schools (where your major largely is irrelevant for on-campus recruiting). I’m not sure if many people realize this prior to getting to campus.
To that point, assuming that you’re not getting into an Ivy-level school, be sure to look at the career services pages to see which companies recruit there and, more importantly, which majors/programs that they actually recruit from. Just saying that a company hires from UConn is irrelevant for a liberal arts major if they will only recruit from the business and engineering programs. I can’t emphasize this enough: the business and engineering programs at public flagships virtually always restrict and/or outright prohibit majors from outside of those programs to participate in their respective on-campus recruiting interviews. I think a lot of people on this board have the mentality that on-campus recruiting is like at an Ivy-level school where they will interview everyone regardless of major, but the fact of the matter is that it’s a much different ballgame at public flagships where it’s generally a world of difference being specifically in the undergrad business school versus the liberal arts school in terms of opportunities.
Agreed, Frank. And many large employers with enormous numbers of applicants do a first cut of resumes based on keywords like business degree. Some even use computer programs to sift through the applicants. While I am glad that collegeconfidential has thoughtful HR types who appreciate the value of an anthropology degree, I would not assume that is the norm.
Business careers can start all over the place, i.e., a BBA is not essential. True, there may be something to the recruiting/interviewing practices of large employers focusing on BBA’s because such degrees imply that students will have a core of skills or knowledge that is valuable. But I’d like to see figures on what proportion of first jobs by college graduates are gained through the career services at the college – and how this varies by college major.
I would describe my kids’ occupations now as “business” broadly defined. #1 majored in economics. That’s a good major because the students have exposure and hopefully skills in quantitative analysis, computer use (if not programming) as well as broader training in the liberal arts. It’s also good background if students later want to earn an MBA – for which having a BBA doesn’t matter at all.
Neither has a BBA. One of them has a BA in economics, but no advanced degree. The other has an MBA (at a top 10 school) but an undergraduate degree (BFA) from an art school (with a major in industrial design).
This is not an argument against BBA’s as a route to a career in business. It’s an argument that there are many ways for talented (and skilled) students to move into a business career.
A student whose record isn’t competitive to get into high-prestige undergraduate business programs like Wharton or MIT will also not be competitive to get into high-prestige undergraduate non-business programs from which it is entirely possible to start a great business career.
Lots of interesting stuff in this discussion, but the question the OP asked has a definite answer: A kid who is not competitive at the Ivy-and-equivalents level will not find an undergraduate business program that would admit him that would provide enough value to justify paying significantly more than he would pay at Connecticut.
It’s arguable that Connecticut might provide better value even for a kid with top credentials. But there’s no need to have that argument in this case.
Just to add to my preceding post. If a high school student is keen on accounting, finance, supply chain management, or another specific business skill, sure maybe they do want an undergraduate major in business. But many students who major in other areas will have careers in “business.”
Many students who major in other areas besides business will have careers is “business,” but unless they are competitive for admission to tippy-top schools they, too, are unlikely to get more value out of a full-pay college education somewhere realistic than they would get from a tuition-free college education at UConn.
There’s no bachelors degree that’s worth $250,000. If he can go to UConn tuition free, that’s a big set-up for success, especially of he decides to get an MBA.
As a UConn alumni who is doing very well (in a business career) my answer is none
@CTDadof2: @Frank The Tank post #25 above & to @JHS post #28 above: I agree 100 % with both of these posts.
Yep, @FranktheTank is spot on in my experience as well.
MIne also. Look hard at what sort of career services office(s) they have and what data they report. We had separate very professional offices for biz/econ and engineering/CS. Strictly limited to majors. Business & Engineering typically get 400-500 on campus recruiting firms per year.
“A private school would likely cost around $250,000.Are there many colleges whose business degrees are so valuable that they are worth the approx. $180,000 differential? If so, who?”
There’s only one and it’s Wharton. I’m not saying you go there, but if your child is fortunate enough to get in, consider it. There are other things that would come into play, is your child only going to get a bachelors, what field is he or she interested in? If your child says I"m only getting one degree and I want to be an investment banker or consultant or work on wall street, Wharton would be easier for that path. However, it he or she wants a career in marketing, then maybe uconn undergrad, work experience and an MBA from a top marketing b-school like Kellogg or Ross would be better.
My vote is for UConn with free or minimal cost. Nevertheless for Wall Street IB placement, these are the top 25 schools:
NYU-Stern
Harvard
Cornell
UPenn-Wharton
Columbia
Texas-Austin
UCal-Berkeley
Chicago
Michigan-Ross
Virginia–Darden
UNC
UCLA
Duke
Boston College
Yale
Cambridge
Georgetown
Princeton
SMU
LSE
BYU
Northwestern
Rutgers
Vanderbilt
Brown
NOTE: I am not sure which banks were used to compile this list as Northwestern, Princeton & Brown usually rank much higher–but the top 5 are consistent.
Typical salaries & bonus are: $134,000 for a first year analyst; $153,000 for 2nd years & $172,000 salary & bonus for third years. Associates = $250,000 salary & bonus. VPs = $400,000+
For management consulting (MC), I typically focus on MBA placement into MBB (McKinsey, Bain & BCG). On that basis, the leading MC placement in the US for MBB in 2017 was:
Columbia Business School–118
Northwestern (Kellogg)–104
Chicago (Booth)–96
Duke (Fuqua)–76
MIT (Sloan)–66
Michigan (Ross)–46
Typical starting salary was $147,000 plus a $25,000 signing bonus.
P.S. MBAs not opting for MC (think Stanford), often prefer technology or entrepreneurship. Notably, the top 3 MBA schools (Harvard, Stanford & Wharton) are not included in the short list above. MC has very long hours & lots of weekly travel–but offers exposure to a variety of issues that make this a great training ground for managing Fortune 500 companies.
I’d have another perspective: how likely is your child to succeeded or flounder in a large public university environment? I’ll he be autonomous enough? Does he have strong social and time management skills? Does he suffer from ‘adolescent wishful thinking’ that could result in filing a class? Is he disxiplined? Can he advocate for himself? Could he be sucked into a pledging vortex so that he becomes too social and not academic enough?
Is UConn free tuition regardless of his results?
it’d be worth investing something into universities that would be able to support his needs - if they exist - because B students can struggle and loose their footing.
If he’s able to handle the environment, then UConn is totally fine - and, with free tuition, a great bargain.
Note that he’ll have to compete with all other would-be business majors admitted to Storrs - admission is based on a GPA, a resume (college ECs and leadership), and an essay, during the 4th semester.
So, having a direct admissions university in the list may also be a good idea if you want him to have choices including different types of programs.
UCONN is an excellent option. If your child really does not want to go there, does her union offer tuition exchange at other universities he may prefer?