It's official - The Gabelli School of Business
For those of you who didn't see the press releases late last week, Fordham University's College Of Business Administration has officially been named the Gabelli School of Business, and all it took was a cool $25 million donation.
Here's the link to the article:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10870141/1/bronx-n…
Now I know that Fordham is considered a non-target, but I thought it'd be interesting to get everyone's thoughts on whether the name change will have a significant impact. For marketing purposes alone I think it will help tremendously. Personally, I think that the university is doing a tremendous job of expanding and looking to grow its reputation, but obviously I'm biased in that regard. I'd like to get a more objective opinion on whether the Gabelli School of Business is poised to become a target school in the future or whether you believe that the list of target schools is a static list that's virtually impenetrable.
Oh and one last thing, what's your opinion on the pricetag to have a school named as a way of further cementing a legacy. Is $25 mill too high/too low?
As long as they don't name it something like "The Jacob Moore School of Business," or even worse, "The LaBeouf School of Business" then I'm indifferent as to the name change.
I will say that $25 Million is absurdly low to have an entire Business School named after you and (no offense) the number speaks to the current strength of the Fordham brand. If we look back at a precedent transaction here, we see that David G. Booth paid 12x the Fordham price ($300 Mil) for the naming rights to Chicago's Booth school of Business back in 2008. Admittedly, Fordham is no Chicago, but if the price tag of the naming rights is any indicator, Fordham isn't even close to being a Chicago.
Fordham has grown and its location does help it, but it has a long way (a very long way) to go before it becomes a target. It has a hard time placing students into FO positions.
As for the $25 MM, that is a decent price for Fordham pretty low in the grand scheme of things. I know of several schools that are looking for $50 MM and are no where near Ivy, but still above Fordham.
for another comp, tepper paid $55mm for CMU's business school in 03
I thought it seemed low also. Thanks for the info about the Chicago naming, I was looking for comparables before.
Gekko21: I agree with you about the school's trouble placing it's students for FT positions. We're typically seen as a Big 4 campus. Hell, I could be bowling with the KPMG recruiter this week (seriously they have these events all the time.) Personally, I think a big part of it is that we don't have a career services specifically for the business school. That, and there isn't as much internal competition amongst the students as there should be.
The positives I take away from it, is that it's much easier to stand out and sort of become the big fish in a small pond. With an alumni network that has been tremendously helpful, it's better for me if I'm one of three kids emailing an alum as opposed to 30.
Fordham is on the way up, but it will take a while. My theory on the matter is that's school can increase it's reputation all it wants, but none of it matters until they start building recruiting relationships with companies. also it doesnt help that the economy sucks and the availability of positions is slim. For instance Fordham could be an ivy but if there are only 30 spots at GS IBD, then there are only 30 spots. It is all about getting companies to recruit oncampus and 'guarantee' spots to Fordham kids.
In short as of now it is a back office and Big 4 feeder. We shall see
First Shia LaDuesh calls Fordham a “Top” program and now this. Fordham’s on the way up. And I thought Vince Lombardi was their only notable alum
Don't forget Denzel Washington!
cut Fordhad a little slack. Their endowment in 2009 was $330mm compared to Chicago's $5bn, Carnegie Mellon is rollin in around $750mm.
so I would think that $25mm isn't poor is we taking endowment as an idicator or appropriate naming cost.
So to answer your question...for Fordham that's about right.
On the topic of endowments and naming rights, Chicago's B-School should be named "The Rockefeller School of Business." That would be so much more badass!
In an older script, Shia's character came from Yale, not Fordham. I wonder if it's a marketing ploy by the school to get more exposure.
@Jonny Cage: I think you're absolutely right about building recruiting relationships. it's just like individual networking only on a broader level.
I still believe that the burden of responsibility always falls on the student to take the initiative and the university just needs to provide the means and resources through which the students can access those opportunities.
@Logger54: your point about the disparity in endowments definitely helps put things in perspective.
The president of the school, Fr. McShane is a visionary and an excellent fund-raiser. If the recent changes at the university are any indication of what's ahead, I have faith in what the school is doing.
So what do you think, should I start selling t-shirts that say "I'm a Fordham Gabellionaire." haha i know it's lame but college kids buy plenty of stupid t-shirts
who gives a fuck about fordham.
fordham students, fordham professors, fordham alumni, just to name a few
@Don Corleone: When there's a forum entitled "Business School," I assume topics that don't involve the ivy's are open for discussion. Considering that Gabelli, ranked the 937th richest person in the world by Forbes, just had the school named after him it's something that should be brought up on this site.
fuck fordham, im curious how much will hbs sell its name for, if they did.
Maybe 1 billion. otherwise not worth it.
Mark my words, in the next 5 years "Barack Obama School of Business" HBS will be no more
i will go to Columbia, become the richest man in history, and pay HBS 20 billion to re-name itself the "We suck at life" school of business
haha jc I would gladly contribute to that fund
I always hear how naming a school is good for branding reasons. In this case I think the Fordham School of Business was much better.
I think Fordham is a decent school. Obviously not a T10, but in the universe of potential colleges you can go to with breaking into WS in mind, I think Fordham is an ok choice if there is nothing else to go with.
So....Fordham: an ok choice if there is nothing else to go with.
If that's not a tagline for their marketing materials, I don't know what is! I'm sold!
Fordham won't become a target in the foreseeable future unless alumni become top execs at major banks and make the push for it. Your career services cant do shit, what kind of leverage do you think they have? "We are NOT gonna let you recruit for back office if you dont give as FO spots?" Riiight.
The school's career office is shitty as they get and it is still far from target, but standards to get in are rising and students are some of the hungriest you can find.
My school "Thunderbird School of Global Management", as of now, has changed its name many times in the past. It is no big deal.
I think the 25Million was a bit low, but it was only for the rights to the undergraduate business school. Fordham isn't target, but last year JP Morgan started recruiting here and we placed a decent amount of kids at Goldman.
If you're an accounting major its a great place to be, but if you're not you have to work the connections. There are a lot of kids there, especially in the liberal arts college, who's parents are MDs at major banks or high up in Hedge Funds - hell the son of New's Corp's CEO goes there.
It will take a while for us to get ahead, but we're making progress.
Gabelli sounds like a great name for a Waste Disposal business in Staten Island.
better yet: If a you wanna be a mobster, come a to Gabelli School of a Business.
Alright, I'm a Fordham senior at CBA (now GBS), and I feel the need to clarify some things for the WSO community and for prospective students on this board thinking about going to Fordham. I
Everyone here is correct, we don't have much OCR for FO positions. We have a few small banks coming here (KBW, Fieldstone Private Capital), and I think Nomura is coming in October for S&T and research.
However, plenty of people still get FO jobs (mostly in S&T though). I know guys who graduated in the last two years working in S&T at CS, GS, JPM, BoA, etc. The school also has plenty of alumni in S&T at most (if not all) BB banks. I've met with many of them and they are generally willing to help out Fordham grads in any way.
As for IBD, the school has a few alumni at a boutique (Greenhill). My roomate is going to be working IBD at Barclays next year, so its definitely possible to get a FO job. I've also met with an MD at a BB who told me the only reason he met with me was because his wife went to Fordham (he went to Colgate).
Most OCR is for Big 4 Accounting (Though Big 4 also recruits for their valuation groups here), and for BO groups at BB's.
The school has made some substantial progress in improving its credibility. I can't find older rankings online, but the school has gone from 83 (around 2005,2006) to 56 in US News Ranking.
The business school does have a mock trading floor similar to the one at Villanova (I saw that one when I toured 'nova years ago)
Honestly, if you are going to go to a non-target, Fordham is probably your best bet, simply because you are in NYC, which makes networking is easy (I've been to trading floors/banker offices at MS, CS, UBS~in CT, DB, GS, BoA, Standard Chartered, Citi, RBC, plus some hedge funds. Try doing that coming from UMD)
If you are interested in the school, or you want to call me a cunt because you think I go to a shitty undergrad, feel free to PM me. Thanks.
OK looks like at least 1 person really hates the new name...
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/28/2010-09-28_fordham_unive…
[quote=Guest1655]OK looks like at least 1 person really hates the new name...
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/28/2010-09-28_fordham_unive…]
This was totally uncalled for...
[quote=Guest1655]OK looks like at least 1 person really hates the new name...
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/28/2010-09-28_fordham_unive…]
Immoral retard, if you find humor in that
AmandaMak 7:56:11 PM Sep 28, 2010
I'd hang myself too if I went to Fordham. Go Baruch!
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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/28/2010-09-28_fordham_unive…
WOW hahahah. This girl has some serious hate.
Are you really surprised someone did that Sean?
Apparently this guy went to Fordham. +1 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/jon_wertheim/09/28/nebras…
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