Business Degree Bachelors, does the university for undergrad matter?

Question

Hi,

I was just wondering, if I decided to get a degree in business, would the university that I got it from matter if I were going to go get a masters after and even get a job with my bachelors degree in business. OR is it all about the marks.

I currently live in Ontario, so if I go to a decent university and get great marks will that be better then going to a hard university and struggle to get the best possible marks?

On a side not, I'm 16 and I was wondering how I can get hands on experience about management consulting or financial banking.

Like a job or volunteering.

Thanks

Answer 1

If you're interested in management consulting and investment banking, where you go to college matters a great deal. Firms in these industries only hire from top colleges. These are elite, high paying jobs and the competition for them is stiff, you will need high grades at a top school.

You don't go straight to grad school from college for an MBA, you need to work several years. That job will be very important for getting into a top MBA program and what that job is will largely depend on where you went to college.

Answer 2

Not sure about the politics behind education in Canada, but in the U.S. it is a combination of both: your GPA (grades) and the university which you attended.

Which is perfectly understandable, since for example person A got a perfect 4.0 GPA and graduated with a B.S. in Business Management and scored a 670 on the GMAT but graduated from Wichita State University. While a person B only graduated with a 3.6 GPA and scored lower on the GMAT, say a 650, but graduated from somewhere like Yale. Then both future employers and graduate schools would look more favorable on the Yale grad than the Wichita grad, even though person B as lower overall scores.

So yes, in the professional service industry it does matter where you got your degree from. However if you plan to go to grad school, then which grad school your go to is more important.

Answer 3

First and foremost is just GETTING the degree.  Having said that, I think it does make a difference where it's from.  I've been out of college working now over 10 years and what I see is that your FIRST JOB out of college determines the path you take and influces all your later jobs.  AND, that first job is likely to hinge on the college, gpa, activities, etc.

For example, if you start out with a big name company like IBM, you're much more marketable for your second job, and it's a chain effect.

That's just what I have seen over and over.