Which is better: elite program at a so-so school or elite school with a so-so program?

PurpleTitan and menloparkmom, please feel free to share actual data that proves that Brown, Chicago and Yale are heavyweights a la Wharton, Harvard, Stern, Ross, McDonough etc…at undergraduate placement into Wall Street firms. And please keep in mind that I am not saying that Wall Street firms do not respect or recruit effectively on those campuses, I am merely saying that they are not heavyweights…that recruitment by Wall Street firms on those three campuses does not match their prestige or selectivity levels.

85bears46, we are talking undergraduate education. There is no doubt that Chicago’s MBA program, now known as Boothe, is a heavyweight in the world of finance. I have seldom seen a Finance ranking that does not have Boothe ranked among the top 2 or graduate programs in the nation. But undergraduate placement is not on the same level. Corzine is a UIUC alumnus, Purcell is a Notre Dame almnus, Peterson is a Northwestern alumnus, David (not Jon) Ruberstein is a Duke alumnus, and Zubrow is a Haverford alumnus. Only Dougan of CS First Boston has an undergraduate degree from Chicago.

I do not believe that at the undergraduate level, Chicago is a heavy weight in terms of Wall Street placement. That does not diminish its standing as one of the top 10 universities on the planet. I am a big admirer of the University of Chicago.

But let us not change topics here. Brown, Chicago and Yale receive more than their fair share of admiration CC, and rightly so. They are remarkable universities. We are here to confirm that Texas and UIUC are also elite, and not merely “so-so schools”.