If you were looking at it strictly for career-potential, then yes this decision would be retarded. However, there's more to college then "omg how can i get into IB". It sounds like you would be a lot happier at UMich and Ross is a top-notch program. It places very well into IB and Consulting. You would probably do a lot better at a school where you were comfortable and familiar rather than some random school anyway.

Just one more consideration for the network: chances are, a lot of people entering Ross are thinking the same way you are so you'll probably get along with people at a school you like more. This has professional and non-professional advantages as well. Its worth less having IBD/consulting all stars in your class if you don't really fit in or get along with any of them. Plus, it'll make your overall experience a lot more fun.

go to wharton. a good school will open doors you don't know even existed.

Go to Michigan, plenty of kids from Ross going to top places this year - meaning GS TMT, MS M&A, JPM, Blackstone, Lazard, McKinsey, BCG, etc. You will likely be one of the better students at Ross, but you will have plenty of peers.

This is a no-brainer. Wharton is far and away the BEST undergrad program for Finance. It may not seem fair or right, but the Ivy stamp really does have it perks over other schools. While Michigan may have very good networking opportunities, they don't even compare to Wharton (just wiki some of the big name financiers out there - I swear to God it's 90% wharton and HBS).

That's not to say you couldn't achieve any desired career path at michigan, you'd just make it "easier" on yourself if you went to wharton.

I'd never make the same decision, but to be honest it sounds like for you the best option would be to go to Michigan and enjoy yourself. The reality is (1) yes it substantially hurts you chances of one day being in top PE etc. (don't let anyone tell you otherwise), but that (2) you'll still be fine if you get good grades coming from Ross. You'll also get laid more in college and you'll probably be one of the smarter kids in all your classes which will make it more enjoyable and give you more confidence and so forth.

To put it another way:

If you think that memories of college and becoming a prominent alumnus at Michigan who goes to games with your old college buddies for the next 40+ years and talks football/frat legends is going to make you happy, then go to Michigan. If you think that your life simply will not be complete until you have a Netjets plan and fully staffed weekend home in the Hamptons, then you'll greatly improve your chances of success going to Wharton. To each their own.

Do you really want the rest of your life to be based on the fact that you want to follow some stupid college sports teams? And you'll make new friends at Wharton, assuming you have at least some semblance of social skills.

Some things you can kiss good bye: learning more advanced material during your undergrad years, getting into the buy-side straight out of undergrad, a better alumni network, a lower probability that you will actually "need" an MBA, me actually reading your resume once I get past the "education" section. Why are you going to make things harder on yourself? You can still watch Michigan games on TV, lol. Take some summer classes in Michigan your freshman year if you're so in love with the place, lol.

If someone were a musician or dancer, and got into Juilliard, would you tell them to go to Michigan? If finance and/or consulting are your passion, then you'd have to be fucking retarded to turn down a chance to study at the best undergrad business school. I've met people from economics/business programs at various top 20 schools. Nothing even comes close to Wharton as far as an undergrad business (esp. finance) education. I know I sure as hell wouldn't be where I am today if I had gone anywhere else, even say, Harvard, MIT, etc.

At the end of the day it's your life, so do what you think makes you happy. But career-wise, this is a very stupid decision, especially if costs are the same (kinda similar to a guy going to an inferior college because he wants to stay close to his high school girlfriend (in your case, high school friends and college team) - a decision that seems good at the time, but you end up regretting in the long run). What if your career doesn't go as well as planned and you end up forever blaming it on where you went for undergrad? At least if you go to Wharton, you'll never be able to say that...

What about Stanford? That's basically the best of both worlds, with better weather to boot. (I'm assuming you're a rising HS senior, as otherwise your decision would be already made).

And this is exactly why you don't want to live in the midwest. Wharton it is.

Sure, but these are also the firms that pay 40-60% of net trading revenues and have a plenty of money to put up in capital for a 22 or 23 year-old. I have a few stories about kids from UIC and UW Milwaukee who retired at 28 from trading on the CBOT, but that is another story for another thread.

If you are pretty sure you're good at proprietary trading, you probably want to be in Chicago, not New York. And you do not want to graduate school with a lot of debt. It is one thing to have the opportunity to work for an investment bank; it is quite another to HAVE to work for an investment bank. Lower student debt gives you more options and makes prop trading more palatable.

Chicago pragmatism vs. New York pedrigeeism. To each their own, I guess.

@Penn vs. Amherst, you raise a good point- I'd take Penn State engineering over Amherst or Williams. There are kids graduating from those schools who are having trouble landing jobs, but from top-twenty Penn State engineering, you'll be just fine.

You have the rest of your life to work man - college is the best time of your life and a place that will greatly influence you, so go to a school you will love. Upenn does have a great undergrad student body but seems like michigan is where its at for you, with the friends, sports and larger body of hot girls. I mean Michigan has one of the best finance programs in the country, so I'm not sure the Julliard analogy works here, unless Michigan also has a top notch music program. You don't need to go to Harvard, MIT or Wharton to get where you want to be - sure it will get you there faster, but if you do well in Michigan you will undoubtedly get a good job after graduation. Your parents might kill you for turning down Wharton but do what you feel is the right school for you. You are smart enough to get into Wharton and you can succeed wherever you go.

Yah, so you sacrifice not being able to have Denard Robinson or Brady Hoke trudging the sidelines 6-weeks every fall in your own backyard, but thats why you have DirecTV and the Philadelphia Eagles. The atmosphere at Wharton in terms of kids is very similar to that of Michigan depending on the demographic you hail from. You dont pass up Wharton man.

and working 110 hour weeks while going out once a month? plus going out in NY/SF/Boston/LA is probably a lot more fun when you have tons of friends from college around. of course you can have a blast at wharton to. out of the top schools its one of the most "fun" experiences

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on whether you can talk big ten football, and more importantly, how much P&L you can generate. It is easier to get sleep at night as a prop trader in Chicago without a lot of student debt to pay down. Just bear in mind that if you choose to go to Wharton, you're up against kids with less stress from debt and who are less burnt out from four years of drudgery.

Frankly, I think your major is a lot more important than your school for landing a job in a tough economy. As long as humans are still building and maintaining stuff, the world always needs engineers. As long as humans are paying taxes and running publicly traded businesses, the world always needs accountants.

It is very easy to graduate from Amherst or Williams without a job. If the bottom falls out of the market, it will also be very easy to graduate from Wharton without a job that will pay the interest on your student debt.

The ony truly certain thing if you go to Wharton is that it will cost more money- money that either your parents will have to pay or you will have to borrow. Berkeley and Michigan are two good business schools that make a lot of sense-even against Wharton- if you can go in-state.

I'd respectfully disagree. I don't care what major you are as long as you are smart, driven, and curious. While pedigree is not the best proxy for that it is a decent one, and I'd rather have kids who have been driven their whole lives to do well, who are leaders, who are intellectually curious, and have a strong work ethic than kids who simply know the material. You can teach finance and accounting (engineering is different, I'd give you that, especially since it's such a brutally tough major that just majoring in it helps you develop those qualities), but you can't really teach someone in a few months to be smart and driven

Fair enough, but not all of the Chicago prop shops would agree with you. Perhaps you can teach finance, but you can't teach competence. Regardless, Michigan is a much better-known signal for competence and aggressiveness than Wharton in Chicago. More importantly, the question is how much P&L you generate your first 2-3 months. And that has very little to do with where you went to school or perhaps even how driven you are.

A bad hire is a cheap mistake to fix in Chicago- part of the risk of starting work there, but the upshot is that this makes it easier for an aggressive personality from a community college or UIC or Illinois Eastern to land a job. And the irony is that kids off the street often make some of the best traders.

Michigan gives you the best of both worlds; a cheap education and a world-class degree. If you can tolerate lots of student debt- that can't be forgiven in BK- then maybe Wharton makes more sense.

Illini> Stop trolling. Not everyone wants to be a prop trader. Hell you aren't a prop trader. I also don't know what prop shop you are talking about where they haven't heard of Wharton. I say this from having worked at one for a few years consistently and having friends at big names all of whom recruit at all top-10s. Thirdly, dude if you have such a hard-on for prop trading and Chicago why are you working at a BB and in NYC? Walk the talk or go home (and hang glide or whatever).

OP> Go to Wharton. You aren't an athlete where big 10 football should dictate your college choice. Don't be an extreme fanboy. Penn has a great social scene with tons of frat life and good city life. I say this from going to a big name sports school. Its cool but really not that important. You aren't going to get laid just cause the football team is doing well.

And dude, if you think 4 years in the first 1/4 of your life is going to be the best it is, why live for 60 more years? After getting that piece of paper, kill yourself. Sounds ridiculous right? That's because the only people who think college is the best years of your life probably didn't achieve their goals afterwards. College should be a stepping stone, not the end game.

Only reason you should be going to Ross over Wharton is: if its cheaper or if you have a BIG family reason. As neither applies to you, decision is straightforward.

You missed the part in the OP's post where he mentions the cost of attendance is the same for both schools.

As for risk appetite> I would estimate most posters on WSO are risk averse.

THANK YOU! Seriously.......go to the best school with the best connections that you can get into....period.

The OP also specifically stated he wants to work in banking or consulting. Neither of those is prop trading, so I don't know why you keep citing prop trading in your posts. He has also said cost was the same, I think OP is smart enough to know when in-state tuition applies...

It matters a lot for business school admissions and private equity firms. Go look at all the bios of PE professionals on the PE firms' web sites. How often do you see Wharton, and how often do you see Michigan? Case closed. It seems you want Wharton's education/pedigree and Michigan's social environment. I went to Wharton and only knew like 2 people going in. Everyone is there looking to make new friends, and it's really easy to avoid the tools.

It's all about what you value in life. For me, it was quite simple. My main requirement was to go to the college that would prepare me for a career in business better than any other. Since that was basically my sole criteria, I didn't think about anything else.

Like let me put it as plainly as possible, using some hyperbole.

If your goal is to make millions as quickly as possible, live a luxurious lifestyle in the northeast, be able to retire in your 40s, and just plain old be a baller, then Wharton is a better fit.

If your goal is to be successful, but not wildly successful, live in the midwest, work until you're 65, and just plain old be your typical "mass affluent" individual with a nice "Michigan" sports bar/room in your house, then go to Michigan.

To me, it wasn't even a choice (I did ED), I like making it rain. I love models and bottles and just plain old love finance (like actually LOVE it). I know that if I do well, I'll be able to retire in 10 years (probably won't, because I like it, but w/e). I know if I went to Michigan, that would be impossible. After going to Michigan, I would then have to go get an MBA just to get to where I was when I graduated Wharton (i.e. an analyst at a PE shop). That's a good 6 years delay to your timeline, not to mention debt from having to get an MBA.

It's about who you are and who you want to be. Judging from your posts, you strike me as someone very different from me (your dad is probably more similar to me, since at least he's smart enough to double deposit and leave the Wharton option open). Your consistent push back on this issue (it's like you're hoping that someone will just tell you what you want to hear) tells me that maybe you really would be best served in Michigan. As a Wharton alum, I sure as hell want people that go to Wharton to actually fucking want to go there, lol. If you don't value what Wharton has to offer, then don't go there.

Go to Wharton first. If you don't like it, then transfer to Ross.