An undergraduate business degree is a great choice for your education. Well done on arriving at this difficult choice. The thing is, though, making that decision may in fact have been the easy part. Now you face the fairly daunting challenge of deciding to which schools you should apply. Or, if the applications are in, what if you are accepted to more than one school? How do you choose which one to accept?
There are some important decisions you have to make. But what considerations should inform your decision? First, we know that you prefer to attend the very best school that you can. Perhaps you'll check the undergraduate business school rankings. There are a lot options, but simply looking to see who is top of a rankings list isn't necessarily going to get you the education you want and need.
For an obvious example, well, what does business mean to you? It is a pretty generic term. Not all schools cover all sub-disciplines. What if you get there and get all excited to specialize in marketing or global supply chain management, only to find the school you chose doesn't offer that specialization or they do provide it, but aren't considered an especially strong program? Time to transfer schools? Or compromise on what really excites you?
Consider a couple of possible scenarios. If you've had the foresight and/or good fortune of knowing before applying which sub-discipline of business in which you'd prefer to specialize, don't automatically choose a high ranked school with a full menu of options. Their high ranking may be based upon specializations that don't interest you. A school that provides highly regarded streams in real estate, quantitative analysis, information systems and insurance is of not benefit to you if you want a marketing program and theirs is poorly regarded. If you've settled on a specialization, get to a school that offers the best program in that sub-discipline.
However, you may not have yet determined your direction of study. Or at least you may feel a bit ambivalent about your choice. If that's your situation, then definitely, selecting a school with a full menu of options could be just the right call. Besides giving you a sampler of various options, you'll be better covered if you find something with a better taste. Changing into a program more suited to your evolving interests and aspirations will be far less burdensome if it's only a matter of doing some paper work and switching your attendance to a classroom down the hallway. Rather than changing schools and likely also cities!
Incidentally, let's be honest, as keen as you are on business at the moment, you wouldn't be the first student in history to change majors mid-stream. Following the same logic as above, attending a larger university provides you a lot more options if part-way in you decide an undergraduate business degree isn't the thing for you after all.
One last point you might want to keep in mind: there is still some cultural romance and even a kind of glamour attached to the notion of attending brick and mortar colleges. We wouldn't want to be underestimating the real advantages involved. However, if you do already have a clear picture of what you want to learn for the launching of your business career, a program online may be the better call. There's no doubt it can save you a crazy load of money. Hey, imagine not graduating as a debt slave to some bank! Interestingly, though, particularly in the field of business studies, these online programs have an advantage beyond tuition and residence savings. The technologically advanced tools employed for group collaboration and other kinds of virtual work used in these programs actually offer immediately relevant experience in just the skills and practices that drive today's modern global business economy.
Evaluating undergraduate business school rankings isn't just about who gets the best overall grade. Don't fixate on the gold star winner. As we've seen, there's much more than that to take into account. You have to think through your own circumstances. It is your education. Information should be a tool you guide, not a harness that guides you.
There are some important decisions you have to make. But what considerations should inform your decision? First, we know that you prefer to attend the very best school that you can. Perhaps you'll check the undergraduate business school rankings. There are a lot options, but simply looking to see who is top of a rankings list isn't necessarily going to get you the education you want and need.
For an obvious example, well, what does business mean to you? It is a pretty generic term. Not all schools cover all sub-disciplines. What if you get there and get all excited to specialize in marketing or global supply chain management, only to find the school you chose doesn't offer that specialization or they do provide it, but aren't considered an especially strong program? Time to transfer schools? Or compromise on what really excites you?
Consider a couple of possible scenarios. If you've had the foresight and/or good fortune of knowing before applying which sub-discipline of business in which you'd prefer to specialize, don't automatically choose a high ranked school with a full menu of options. Their high ranking may be based upon specializations that don't interest you. A school that provides highly regarded streams in real estate, quantitative analysis, information systems and insurance is of not benefit to you if you want a marketing program and theirs is poorly regarded. If you've settled on a specialization, get to a school that offers the best program in that sub-discipline.
However, you may not have yet determined your direction of study. Or at least you may feel a bit ambivalent about your choice. If that's your situation, then definitely, selecting a school with a full menu of options could be just the right call. Besides giving you a sampler of various options, you'll be better covered if you find something with a better taste. Changing into a program more suited to your evolving interests and aspirations will be far less burdensome if it's only a matter of doing some paper work and switching your attendance to a classroom down the hallway. Rather than changing schools and likely also cities!
Incidentally, let's be honest, as keen as you are on business at the moment, you wouldn't be the first student in history to change majors mid-stream. Following the same logic as above, attending a larger university provides you a lot more options if part-way in you decide an undergraduate business degree isn't the thing for you after all.
One last point you might want to keep in mind: there is still some cultural romance and even a kind of glamour attached to the notion of attending brick and mortar colleges. We wouldn't want to be underestimating the real advantages involved. However, if you do already have a clear picture of what you want to learn for the launching of your business career, a program online may be the better call. There's no doubt it can save you a crazy load of money. Hey, imagine not graduating as a debt slave to some bank! Interestingly, though, particularly in the field of business studies, these online programs have an advantage beyond tuition and residence savings. The technologically advanced tools employed for group collaboration and other kinds of virtual work used in these programs actually offer immediately relevant experience in just the skills and practices that drive today's modern global business economy.
Evaluating undergraduate business school rankings isn't just about who gets the best overall grade. Don't fixate on the gold star winner. As we've seen, there's much more than that to take into account. You have to think through your own circumstances. It is your education. Information should be a tool you guide, not a harness that guides you.
About the Author:
Thomas Ryerson is a regular contributor to the blog, Undergraduate Business School Rankings, click here.
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