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 a lot of factors to consider. Have you thought it all through? We might be able to help. To start, I'm sure you want to attend the top school available to you. But how do you decide this? You can draw upon undergraduate business school rankings. When you think about it a bit deeper, though, it turns out to be not quite so simple a process.
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.
On the other hand, if you haven't figured it out or you have doubts about the direction in which you're leaning at the moment, choosing a school with a full menu of options may well be the way to go. Not only will you get a taste of alternative options, but if you conclude you made the wrong choice, changing into a program more suited to your goals will be a lot easier if it's just a matter of filling out a few forms and going to the classroom down the hallway.
And in like-manner, the truth is, whatever your thoughts about business school at the moment, unless you're absolutely certain of the choice, you'd hardly be history's first undergrad to switch major mid-course. In that scenario, the logic from above applies and maybe even more so. Attending a larger university, with many more disciplines, will cover your options much better if you suddenly fall in love with economics, engineering or mathematics, etc.
And here's a further consideration that you might want to keep in mind. There's still a lot of romance attached to the brick and mortar college. And there are obvious advantages to it. However, if you're certain about what you want to study, an online education could be the way to go. Huge savings are a real possibility. Wouldn't it be nice to not graduate into debt slavery? Yet, you may not be sacrificing as much as you first think. In fact, the sophisticated tools for online group cooperative work employed in these educational settings are remarkably similar to the kinds of skills and technologies that drive the modern global business world.
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 a lot of factors to consider. Have you thought it all through? We might be able to help. To start, I'm sure you want to attend the top school available to you. But how do you decide this? You can draw upon undergraduate business school rankings. When you think about it a bit deeper, though, it turns out to be not quite so simple a process.
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.
On the other hand, if you haven't figured it out or you have doubts about the direction in which you're leaning at the moment, choosing a school with a full menu of options may well be the way to go. Not only will you get a taste of alternative options, but if you conclude you made the wrong choice, changing into a program more suited to your goals will be a lot easier if it's just a matter of filling out a few forms and going to the classroom down the hallway.
And in like-manner, the truth is, whatever your thoughts about business school at the moment, unless you're absolutely certain of the choice, you'd hardly be history's first undergrad to switch major mid-course. In that scenario, the logic from above applies and maybe even more so. Attending a larger university, with many more disciplines, will cover your options much better if you suddenly fall in love with economics, engineering or mathematics, etc.
And here's a further consideration that you might want to keep in mind. There's still a lot of romance attached to the brick and mortar college. And there are obvious advantages to it. However, if you're certain about what you want to study, an online education could be the way to go. Huge savings are a real possibility. Wouldn't it be nice to not graduate into debt slavery? Yet, you may not be sacrificing as much as you first think. In fact, the sophisticated tools for online group cooperative work employed in these educational settings are remarkably similar to the kinds of skills and technologies that drive the modern global business world.
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.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar