Poets & Quants, a media company focusing on business content, named Lehigh students Katrina Fett, ‘23, and Tobey Bill, ‘23, as two of the top 100 Best & Brightest Undergraduate Business Majors of 2023.
Fett is a double major in economics and marketing, and Bill is in the Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program (IBE), majoring in finance and industrial engineering.
Katrina Zalatan, associate dean for undergraduates in the College of Business, said Poets & Quants ranks the top undergraduate business schools, including Lehigh. For the past seven years, Poets & Quants has invited Lehigh to participate in their Best & Brightest feature about students from the leading 50 business schools annually.
Zalatan said schools ranked in the top 50 business schools by Poets & Quants can nominate up to two students for the honor of the top 100 Best & Brightest Undergraduate Business Majors to represent their respective schools.
According to the Poets & Quants ranking, Lehigh was ranked No. 27 out of the 50, based on “admissions standards, student experience and career outcomes.”
Zalatan said in order to qualify for a nomination for this honor, students need to be a part of one of the three business programs at Lehigh, as well as be highly accomplished, excel academically, and have a variety of extracurriculars and leadership roles.
“It’s a great honor for Lehigh Business students, especially among the set of peer schools of which we’re part of,” Zalatan said.
Within the nomination process, she said faculty support for the student and the students’ agreement to participate are important. She said students who are nominated typically have other recognitions celebrating their accomplishments.
Katrina Fett, ’23, was named as one of Poets and Quants’ 100 Best & Brightest Undergraduate Business Majors of 2023. She will be working at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (Photo courtesy of Katrina Fett)
Fett said she is grateful and she could not have accomplished it without the support from her professors, family and friends.
“It’s a really great honor,” Fett said. “It is very validating because I feel I did dedicate a lot of time during college to academics and extracurriculars and leadership opportunities.”
During her time at Lehigh, Fett said she was a designer, data graphics editor and reporter for The Brown and White. She was also a TRAC Fellow, an apprentice teacher for an economics class, researched anti-vape messaging for the Mountaintop Initiative and interned at the Silicon Valley Innovation Internship.
Fett said Lehigh has given her a network of peers who will continue to help her in her transition to the workforce. She said her peers were able to provide her with useful advice including interview tips, resume feedback, cover letter guidance and presentation skills.
“Of course I learned so much from my professors, and they really taught me how to think like a marketer and solve problems in business,” Fett said. “But, I think the really great network of peers taught me a lot about the ins and outs of how to present yourself, how to solve problems and think in the business mindset.”
Bill said through the IBE program, he explored his interests and gained different perspectives.
He said this academic combination allowed him to develop his resumes and perfect applications.
“The IBE program has been very very influential, particularly because of the different instruction and how it teaches you both to think in a business mindset but also using that kind of engineering analytical thinking process that engineers have,” Bill said.
He said during his time at Lehigh, he has been involved in the Lehigh Consulting Group with roles ranging from analyst to president. He was also involved in Lehigh’s investment portfolios, New Ventures Club and Theta Chi fraternity.
He said the Lehigh experience is unique because it allows for diverse involvement.
“There isn’t so much pressure into having this defined path and following that path from the very first day,” he said.
Bill said he appreciates the ability to apply knowledge from his classes to his internship and the real world.
Last summer, Bill said there were other people at his internship who did not know how to use Microsoft Excel, a skill taught in Lehigh’s business courses. Over the past four years, he said he had become comfortable with the program due to its use in his classes.
“These are people that come from these high-fly Ivy League schools, getting to this fast-paced, really rigorous internship, and their first task is to do something in this program that is common for a lot of us,” Bill said. “For some people, they’ve never touched it before.”
Fett said Lehigh provides many opportunities for career growth, personal growth and leadership. She said she appreciates how Lehigh has helped her build her resume with the different extracurriculars, including co-authoring a research paper in her first year.
Post-graduation, Fett will work as a Chase Leadership Development program analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and Bill will work at Bain & Company as an associate consultant.
Even though some people may want to find the job where the most money is offered, Bill said it is important to find your passion to make work more enjoyable.
“(Fett and Bill) really epitomize excellence,” Zalatan said. “We’re so proud of them.”
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