Looking to find my path

Midas Mulligan Magoo:

You can never go wrong with Wharton but it sounds like you are already firmly entrenched in Israel. Considering the prestige effect of IDF or any military service in the country of origin, for that matter, you would need a real good reason to leave. As for VC, it all depends if you are looking to work at a fund or actually be the entrepreneur. In spite of the fact that people will always trumpet: econ, finance, accounting and the usual "industry majors"...if you want to be in tech and really really know what you are doing, engineering takes the cake. You can teach yourself most of what you would get out of econ/fin/acc by reading the textbooks and astutely studying markets and reading relevant publications.

Most people who have access to non-U.S. price tags when it comes to education are wise to take advantage, especially if you are considering a top-tier MBA later. I'm no expert on the Israeli telecom scene, but I know it's a top market and you can likely find similar comp and opportunities there that you can in the U.S. Also, considering the growth of MENA and various parts of Africa which are inevitable, you may be in a better place than you would be here. In general, when you can get something that costs a buck for the price of a nickel, you spend the nickel...there's your first fund management lesson. Good luck.

well said, Midas - I agree with everything above.

To further what Midas has said, there is a pretty good amount of venture funds in Israel (either based there, have operations there, etc.) I would suggest trying to score some sort of internship when you are in school there (given the prestige of your unit, I think it would be rather easy to score a part-time internship with some sort of fund there, especially if some of the guys were in/are can related to your situation).

Midas Mulligan Magoo:

You can never go wrong with Wharton but it sounds like you are already firmly entrenched in Israel. Considering the prestige effect of IDF or any military service in the country of origin, for that matter, you would need a real good reason to leave. As for VC, it all depends if you are looking to work at a fund or actually be the entrepreneur. In spite of the fact that people will always trumpet: econ, finance, accounting and the usual "industry majors"...if you want to be in tech and really really know what you are doing, engineering takes the cake. You can teach yourself most of what you would get out of econ/fin/acc by reading the textbooks and astutely studying markets and reading relevant publications.

Most people who have access to non-U.S. price tags when it comes to education are wise to take advantage, especially if you are considering a top-tier MBA later. I'm no expert on the Israeli telecom scene, but I know it's a top market and you can likely find similar comp and opportunities there that you can in the U.S. Also, considering the growth of MENA and various parts of Africa which are inevitable, you may be in a better place than you would be here. In general, when you can get something that costs a buck for the price of a nickel, you spend the nickel...there's your first fund management lesson. Good luck.

well said, Midas - I agree with everything above.

To further what Midas has said, there is a pretty good amount of venture funds in Israel (either based there, have operations there, etc.) I would suggest trying to score some sort of internship when you are in school there (given the prestige of your unit, I think it would be rather easy to score a part-time internship with some sort of fund there, especially if some of the guys were in/are can relate to your situation).

blastoise:

he isn't going to be able to get into a ivy unless his school grades are good

blastoise, I'm not looking to turn this into a CollegeConfidential "Chances" thread. Even though I feel my stats and other information put me in a pretty solid place for top school admissions, it still is much of a crapshoot. This isn't the point.

To me this thread is a "what if" thread; my question should be read as "if I get into so and so" what would give me the best education and furtherment of my career goals?

TechBanking:

Ignoring the Israel connection, if I wanted to do VC in the US and could get into any school, I would go to either Stanford, Berkeley or MIT and study EE or Comp Sci, while also taking some finance classes.

VCs tend to value engineering backgrounds more than finance grads.

This is good advice, especially if you are looking to break into VC out of ugrad (albeit very, very difficult)...funds will hire this type of background for an analyst position - if they are looking for one.

delete

TechBanking:

Several of the top US VCs have offices in Israel, including Sequoia, Battery and DFJ (affiliate fund). Plus, there are some great local funds, like Pitango.

I believe that Israel has the highest amount of VC and R&D per capita of any country in the world. Many people in the US don't realize it, but there is a thriving tech/biotech community there. A lot of Soviet scientists and engineers moved there after its collapse, which provided a solid talent base.

This is all true - very good info. Most top funds have operations there, you would definitly have a broad reach in terms of VC funds in Israel (much, much more than UPENN) and would surely have some networking opps