Hello there,
I just finished my freshman year in college at a no name school in upstate new york. I got into Stern as a rising sophomore transfer, numbers wise I'm really surprised I got in. My goal is to land an analyst gig at a BB after graduation. However, I'm going to graduate with significantly more debt than if I stayed at my current no name school.
How big of a difference in recruiting will graduating from Stern make? I'm trying to weigh the benefits against the cost of attending.
Suppose I land a 70k a year analyst gig and don't fuck up and land a decent bonus while I'm there (30-40k) how much student loan debt is manageable at that income level?
Thanks for your help.
Although I'm not in Stern I am at a NYU and have experienced recruiting here as a sophomore:
Everyone in Stern wants to go into IBD or S&T. Thus, as a student here your resume almost certainly will be viewed by someone, but ultimately it seems like, because there's so much competition here, it's tough to be a standout student.
If you're confident in your ability to kill it here academically as well as network effectively simultaneously, I think it may be worth the debt. However, I personally would never come here to get decent grades and have fun like most college students do, if my goal is IBD out of college.
I interned with someone in Stern, who just graduated with a 3.8 rounded, internships at Morgan Stanley sophomore summer and also interned during the year at our small PE shop, also interned at BB in S&T his junior summer. He landed a S&T position at a BB. He's got 150k in student loans and I'm assuming he's found it manageable with his potential salary. However, this guy is no joke - all he does is work/network/study - which I totally respect.
Thus, if you're down to put in the work here I'd say go for it, otherwise I'd kill it at your current school and network your way in.
That is very reassuring. I would be in a similar position in terms of student loans. My main focus is setting myself up for IBD after graduation. My biggest concern is putting in the time and effort only to still fail to land a solid job after graduation.
Going to a target school would add significantly to your advantage over a flagship state school, but not as much as you would think. A top 10-20% kid at SUNY is going to get the interview; so is a top 40% kid at NYU or Columbia. And then it all comes down to five half-hour conversations. So I would recommend getting the best education you can get for in-state tuition. Baruch is really ideally situated if you can afford the NYC cost of living.
Bottom line is that standouts at state schools make it in and above-average kids at target schools make it in. About 50-60% of the kids who make it in from a target could make it in from a state school, so net net, you're looking at paying a $30K/year premium for a few years to perhaps double your chances at getting a $100K/year job vs. getting a $70K/year job.
You'd be better off transferring to a competitive private school somewhere in the northeast (if it's not too late). Stern is a great school but Nyctola is right about everyone wanting to go into IBD and S&T. I'm sure the career days and information sessions are like going to a Best Buy on Black Friday.
I think you'd have less competition/better networking opportunities at a place like Colgate, Villanova or Bucknell.
I think Illini is speaking some truth. Baruch is a good alternative for lesser expense and I would wholy suggest that move due to the # of companies that will at least collect resumes there. I went to SUNY Buffalo (probably the no name upstate school you are refering to) and not many financial services recruit there. The main firms are the Big 4 and Citigroup. I only started getting serious about life recently after the haze of college wore off so it's awesome you're on here taking inititive early. In my experiences on some interviews and what my friends from college saw too is the effect of branding. As one partner told me once "You're coming from a school we just starting interviewing from so you have to be exceptionally better than a student from a target to get the job." So maybe NYU is the right choice if you have the right work ethic and focus.
Villanova and Colgate produce a lot of smart and ambitious students- I know a number on the street, including an MD from Villanova- but they're not quite fully-fledged targets and that works to your disadvantage.
Villanova or Notre Dame with a scholarship that gets your tuition down to $5-10K/year more than in-state like a lot of Catholic schools hand out is worth it. But then you have to be a standout there.
if youre at plattsburgh or oswego or something like that id definitely xfer to NYU... or at least stony or baruch as illini said.
im rather confident if youre at one of the former schools yuoull have 0 .0001 chance of getting in off the street
That said, if you're the kind of kid who is a real standout at a state school- IE doing crazy research, Summa Cum Laude, Pac Ten football, you're frigging golden. Harvard pedigree; state school pretense (and debt); you'll make friends with everyone in the interviews. Actually, research in the right area is what gets you in as a niche candidate in trading or research, so that's a sort of double-whammy right there.
If this is a fairly big state school- maybe like Buffalo- and you're doing great there and getting papers published in well-read journals, there's no reason to upset everything by leaving. If the BBs somehow miss you, just spend a year or two in grad school at a target and come back.
I actually wasn't at a state school, I spent this past year at Siena College. Its a small liberal arts school 10 minutes from U-Albany.
Do you:
-Have any amazing research there? -Have anything that could attract national attention in your field? -Have a 4.0 GPA?
If so, and the tuition isn't that bad, I say stay where you are. If not, consider transferring to Baruch or Stonybrook.
I'm carrying a great GPA here and could do an internship at Ayco during the year (I know its only pwm but it is owned by GS) which would give me pocket money throughout the year as opposed to having to find a job in the city to have any sort of cash to work with.
I'm having a really hard time deciding between the schools. I don't really like my current school but it really isn't a financial burden and I could make good easy money if I stayed here. NYU however would give me the alumni base and target school branding however it is going to be real tough financially and if I can't land a IB job after graduation I'm pretty much screwed, I wouldn't be able to take anything that pays much less.
Is a private or target school education worth going into debt for? (Originally Posted: 07/08/2015)
I'm entering my second year at a large southern state university with 45 credits, about a 3.8 gpa, 35 ACT and ~2100 SAT, and just about nothing extracurricular (though I am in an honor society and will be joining more clubs this year). I went to a private high school and earned about a 3.5 there. I would love to work as an analyst for a BB bank after college but I have few connections if any and my college has a poor academic reputation. I guess nobody is supposed to mention specific schools or companies on this site but I go to a state university known very well for beer, football, and (at least among my former private HS classmates) students who couldn't get in anywhere else. I go there because I liked it better than the other in-state schools and I couldn't afford out-of-state.
The school I currently attend costs me next to nothing for tuition and, no matter where I go, I will likely have to pay for the rest of my education with student loans after this year when my college fund runs out. Are the education, recruiter presence, and prestige that a private/target school could give me worth transferring and paying for private or out-of-state tuition during my junior and senior years? Or would it be better to stay where I am and get a couple minors or finish a semester or two early? I like it where I am and it would save me like 50k to stay but I feel like I would need a significantly better GPA/resume than my competitors to get hired over a graduate of a private/target school, which may be hard or impossible to attain.
Either way, what else can I be doing right now to advance my career? I know I need to start now in order to improve my resume and get it on the right desks when the time comes but how do I go about that? Based on what I've read on this site and others, the next move is to secure an internship in NYC for next summer but how do I even get myself considered for that?
There are people from my high school that I'm not friends with in finance, and there are relatives of my friends in finance, and I have a relative who is chairman of a small community bank, but I don't know how to turn any of that into a job or internship at a BB.
Bonus question: If you think I should transfer, where would you recommend applying?
Thanks for your help everyone, qp99
Transfer. I am transferring law schools now. I went to an unimpressive undergrad, and it follows you. It translates into lower shots at grad programs. (to be fair I didn't get the scores either You get worse jobs on average. Your friends are unlikely to be able to help you. I am throwing this number out a bit randomly, but throw apps into the top 20. Transfer admissions aren't as hard as normal plus you have great scores anyways. If you get top ten you'll pay off the extra debt in no time because you won't HAVE to go to grad, law school
NYU > SUNY Buffalo. If you graduate from NYU, sure you'll have debt, but if you do well, you can expect to make 70 - 120 k your first year.
If you graduate from SUNY Buffalo, you'll have little debt, but you can expect to make 40-50k if you're lucky enough to get a job ( and that's being generous).
NYU has tons of banks/ consulting firms who come to on campus recurring and each take ~10 students.
SUNY Buffalo has one bank to on campus recruiting to place ~10 students in their Buffalo office.
An NYU degree will get respect globally, a SUNY Buffalo degree will get your resume thrown in the trash.
This is real life, don't let the low tuition fool you, SUNY Buffalo will gladly take your money and their career services coach Ed Broka will be clueless as to how banks recruit.
Why exactly are you replying to a 7-year-old post?
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