The best bang for your buck is the best state college in your state. If you live in Ohio the best bang for the buck would be OSU... if you are in WV I am not sure you have much of a selection, but I would imagine WVU would be the best and cheapest there. Unless you get into a top 10 school (Penn, Harvard HBS, MIT, Northwestern ect...) IMO go to a respected school in the area you plan to work and get out of college debt free.

OneBuckeye wrote: The best bang for your buck is the best state college in your state. If you live in Ohio the best bang for the buck would be OSU... if you are in WV I am not sure you have much of a selection, but I would imagine WVU would be the best and cheapest there. Unless you get into a top 10 school (Penn, Harvard HBS, MIT, Northwestern ect...) IMO go to a respected school in the area you plan to work and get out of college debt free.

This is good advice, and I agree with it.

I disagree with that. I'm sure if you do the math some of the more prestigious schools are a better bang for the buck considering what you're likely to get paid.

fan_from_texas wrote:

OneBuckeye wrote: The best bang for your buck is the best state college in your state. If you live in Ohio the best bang for the buck would be OSU... if you are in WV I am not sure you have much of a selection, but I would imagine WVU would be the best and cheapest there. Unless you get into a top 10 school (Penn, Harvard HBS, MIT, Northwestern ect...) IMO go to a respected school in the area you plan to work and get out of college debt free.

This is good advice, and I agree with it.

Same here, which is why I went to the State University of New York at Binghamton, a very good school for the money both for in-staters and out-of-staters.

I Wear Pants wrote: I disagree with that. I'm sure if you do the math some of the more prestigious schools are a better bang for the buck considering what you're likely to get paid.

I disagree with your disagreement. Unless you are going into I Banking, your undergrad degree in business doesn't really make a difference as long as it is from an accredited school. For undergrad it's basically your top-10 schools, then everyone else.

Back on the subject at hand, I completely lost respect for Wharton when I learned that my old boss was now director of their new interactive media program. This man is one of the biggest BS-ers I have ever known and knows almost nothing about digital media. Not saying that means the program has gone down hill, but it has made me question its leadership.

IMO I would bet one could get a better business education from working than he ever could in a classroom.

fan_from_texas wrote:

mucalum49 wrote: In 2009, the college was recently ranked by BusinessWeek magazine has having the 93rd best undergraduate business program in the country, after Iowa State University and before the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Business Administration, placing it in the top 6% of the 1,600 such programs in the United States.

The college has been recently featured in The Princeton Review's "The Best 301 Business Schools: 2010 edition". This is the sixth consecutive year that the CBA has attained this recognition.

While these are interesting numbers, some perspective is in order. If this were a college basketball team, 93rd would make Akron a perennial powerhouse like . . . Iona, or Sam Houston, or Duquesne.

Being in the top 301 means they'd beat out basketball powerhouses likes South Carolina Upstate, Central Arkansas, NJIT, and Alabama A&M.

Again, whether that's "good enough" for your purposes depends on your end goals. But keep in mind what those numbers actually mean.

I wholeheartedly agree with your statements. I feel bad I started to stick up for Akron in the beginning and taken this off topic from the OP.

I think that a top 6% business school is still a good ranking. I didn't go to undergraduate here so the 93rd doesn't really matter to me. The Princeton Top 301 is not listed in order, only alphabetically so it is hard to see where Akron would really rank unless I went through each school.

For my purposes I wanted to get into a good grad school and did at Case, OSU, Indiana, Miami, Cincy and Akron. While Akron may be near the end on that list of prestige its entry requirements are higher or close to comparable with each school listed.

That is all I was trying to say but I took the long way to get to it.

Websurfinbird wrote: I completely lost respect for Wharton when I learned that my old boss was now director of their new interactive media program.

To extend FFT's analogy, Wharton would be a 2- or 3-seed.

OneBuckeye wrote: The best bang for your buck is the best state college in your state. If you live in Ohio the best bang for the buck would be OSU... if you are in WV I am not sure you have much of a selection, but I would imagine WVU would be the best and cheapest there. Unless you get into a top 10 school (Penn, Harvard HBS, MIT, Northwestern ect...) IMO go to a respected school in the area you plan to work and get out of college debt free.

You could make the argument that Miami has the best undergraduate business school in the state, but I don't think there's necessarily a right answer to that question.

LJ wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: I disagree with that. I'm sure if you do the math some of the more prestigious schools are a better bang for the buck considering what you're likely to get paid.

I disagree with your disagreement. Unless you are going into I Banking, your undergrad degree in business doesn't really make a difference as long as it is from an accredited school. For undergrad it's basically your top-10 schools, then everyone else.

University of Akron -93rd ranking from Business Week:
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 34,248
Median base salary: $ 43,000

Drexel- 68th ranking from BW:
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 49,496
Median base salary: $ 50,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 5,051
Median signing bonus: $ 5,000


Ohio State University: 42nd ranking

Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 47 < That was like that in the source, not my typo
Median base salary: $ 47,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 3,910
Median signing bonus: $ 3,000

Miami University (Ohio) -18th ranking
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 48,206
Median base salary: $ 48,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 3,896

Just a bit of sampling. By the way their top ranked schools had mean base salaries starting $10k+ higher than most of the state schools we're talking about.

But if your planning on getting a graduate degree the Undergrad really isn't that important as long as it's accredited and your grades and scores and such are good.

mucalum49 wrote: I wholeheartedly agree with your statements. I feel bad I started to stick up for Akron in the beginning and taken this off topic from the OP.

I think that a top 6% business school is still a good ranking. I didn't go to undergraduate here so the 93rd doesn't really matter to me. The Princeton Top 301 is not listed in order, only alphabetically so it is hard to see where Akron would really rank unless I went through each school.

For my purposes I wanted to get into a good grad school and did at Case, OSU, Indiana, Miami, Cincy and Akron. While Akron may be near the end on that list of prestige its entry requirements are higher or close to comparable with each school listed.

That is all I was trying to say but I took the long way to get to it.

No, I agree with your sentiment. I think the missing part of the equation is what the OP wants, as those goals are likely to drive the decision.

E.g., if someone wants to be a high school teacher, does it make more sense to go to Harvard or Ohio State? There may be some marginal advantage to going to Harvard, but the relative career trajectory at both is going to be fairly similar (I assume, if the end goal is to be a high school teacher). In that case, Ohio State would probably be the better option.

If the short-term goal is to be a high school teacher, but the long-term goal is to be the Secretary of Education, suddenly paying the extra coin for Harvard makes sense. It really just depends on the end goal.

If the goal is to work on Wall Street or simply maximize financial return on investment (without regard to quality of life), then the credited answer is either (1) go to a legit top 10-15 school; or (2) go to the flagship state school and finish at the top of your class. If the goal is to simply get a degree with some decent options without taking out too much debt, then on the undergrad level, the difference in employment options may not differ as much as the difference in tuition. On the grad level, that's a tougher call, as marginal reputational increases can translate into wildly differing career trajectories (e.g., a student at the bottom of Kellogg may not be any smarter than a student near the top of Ohio Northern, but you can bet your life that they're going to have wildly different employment opportunities).

Without knowing the end goal, it's tough to figure out the best way to get there.

I Wear Pants wrote:

LJ wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: I disagree with that. I'm sure if you do the math some of the more prestigious schools are a better bang for the buck considering what you're likely to get paid.

I disagree with your disagreement. Unless you are going into I Banking, your undergrad degree in business doesn't really make a difference as long as it is from an accredited school. For undergrad it's basically your top-10 schools, then everyone else.

University of Akron -93rd ranking from Business Week:
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 34,248
Median base salary: $ 43,000

Drexel- 68th ranking from BW:
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 49,496
Median base salary: $ 50,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 5,051
Median signing bonus: $ 5,000


Ohio State University: 42nd ranking

Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 47 < That was like that in the source, not my typo
Median base salary: $ 47,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 3,910
Median signing bonus: $ 3,000

Miami University (Ohio) -18th ranking
Graduate compensation:
Mean base salary: $ 48,206
Median base salary: $ 48,000
Mean signing bonus: $ 3,896

Just a bit of sampling. By the way their top ranked schools had mean base salaries starting $10k+ higher than most of the state schools we're talking about.

Those median starting salaries are all pretty damn close. BTW the median is more important than the mean.

I Wear Pants wrote: OSU is a good school but stop acting like it's prestigious or something. It isn't exactly hard to get into or anything.

$10 says you would not get into Ohio State. 10 years ago sure, but like I said they have made it increasingly difficult because their goal is to become the next public Ivy like a Michigan or UC Berkley.

As far as Ohio State rankings, I give you:

http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/about/ranking-and-statistics/rankings

Websurfinbird wrote:

sleeper wrote: Remember, if you aren't working for an Ohio State grad, you probably aren't working at all.

A little arrogant don't you think?

Sorry didn't mean to get off topic ...

It's not arrogance if its true.

fan_from_texas wrote: (e.g., a student at the bottom of Kellogg may not be any smarter than a student near the top of Ohio Northern, but you can bet your life that they're going to have wildly different employment opportunities).

You know I'm standing here, right?

Quake_N_Bake wrote: One other thing to consider.. The population of Ohio State compared to other universities is staggering. That alone means that there will inevitebly be more people who are successful.. Its pure numbers.

I'm 100% sure I said

sleeper wrote:Now, over a million, or infinite, number of people attending Ohio State vs. an infinite number of people attending Akron, BG, other mediocre colleges, more people will be successful from Ohio State even adjusted from the differences in college attendance numbers, and you can take that to the bank.

Learn to read, thanks.

sleeper wrote: ...

It's not arrogance if its true.

I disagree. Overbearing pride is not validated based on accuracy of the foundation that the pride comes from.

Arrogance exists and can be present with or without truth.

sleeper wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: OSU is a good school but stop acting like it's prestigious or something. It isn't exactly hard to get into or anything.

$10 says you would not get into Ohio State. 10 years ago sure, but like I said they have made it increasingly difficult because their goal is to become the next public Ivy like a Michigan or UC Berkley.

As far as Ohio State rankings, I give you:

http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/about/ranking-and-statistics/rankings

Or like Miami, which was one of the originals.

I know they are pretty close but people tend to be looking at explicit costs of the school. Without factoring in how much aid he's likely to receive and, as you said, his career goals for the degree we can't really give a good recommendation.

I mean, Drexel (I keep using it as an example because I know a bit about it) is really expensive but gives an average aid package in the $28k area. These things people tend to overlook when starting to shop for schools.

sleeper wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: OSU is a good school but stop acting like it's prestigious or something. It isn't exactly hard to get into or anything.

$10 says you would not get into Ohio State. 10 years ago sure, but like I said they have made it increasingly difficult because their goal is to become the next public Ivy like a Michigan or UC Berkley.

As far as Ohio State rankings, I give you:

http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/about/ranking-and-statistics/rankings

Should I give you my address so you can mail me my money or do you just want to do it over Paypal?

I Wear Pants wrote:

sleeper wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: OSU is a good school but stop acting like it's prestigious or something. It isn't exactly hard to get into or anything.

$10 says you would not get into Ohio State. 10 years ago sure, but like I said they have made it increasingly difficult because their goal is to become the next public Ivy like a Michigan or UC Berkley.

As far as Ohio State rankings, I give you:

http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/about/ranking-and-statistics/rankings

Should I give you my address so you can mail me my money or do you just want to do it over Paypal?

You really are going to go through the whole trouble of forging your transcripts and ACT/SAT scores just to win $10? Hell, the application fee for OSU is $50, so you'd be down $40 just to try.

Smart man! LOL

This is entertaining.

Lol sleeper. I don't get why you rub people the wrong way. You are consistent in your belief about OSU and make it well known. They have a great business school so you should be proud.

FFT, I agree prestige opens a lot more doors for someone from Kellogg over ONU. My mother actually works for a Northwestern MBA alum and I can't believe some of the boneheaded moves that are made. Textbook, rookie mistakes.

I am the eternal optimist so I continue to look at it as I want to be one of the guys to put Akron on the map. Work for every opportunity based on my performance rather than the piece of paper I was given.

Any school you go to will teach you essentially the same basics. What you end up doing with that knowledge is what matters the most.

sleeper wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote:

sleeper wrote:

I Wear Pants wrote: OSU is a good school but stop acting like it's prestigious or something. It isn't exactly hard to get into or anything.

$10 says you would not get into Ohio State. 10 years ago sure, but like I said they have made it increasingly difficult because their goal is to become the next public Ivy like a Michigan or UC Berkley.

As far as Ohio State rankings, I give you:

http://www.cob.ohio-state.edu/about/ranking-and-statistics/rankings

Should I give you my address so you can mail me my money or do you just want to do it over Paypal?

You really are going to go through the whole trouble of forging your transcripts and ACT/SAT scores just to win $10? Hell, the application fee for OSU is $50, so you'd be down $40 just to try.

Smart man! LOL

I was joking about the address thing but you're an idiot if you really think I couldn't have gotten into OSU had I applied.