Recruiting at HBS vs. Wharton

I recently talked to a friend who's in wharton MBA. He was saying how although most top firms recruit at both HBS and wharton, there are a number of smaller boutiques that only recruit at HBS and nowhere else. He didn't give me any names, and I didn't press him about it. Sounded pretty implausible though.

 

It's not that hard to believe actually. Same goes for Wharton undergrad, which also has a small number of "elite" firms only recruit at Wharton undergrad and nowhere else.

Can anyone actually name these firms at the MBA level though?

I've heard Bridgewater, is that true?

I'm surprised about Harvard Law though, I would have thought that Yale law would have been even more elite.

 
Best Response
monyet:
It's not that hard to believe actually. Same goes for Wharton undergrad, which also has a small number of "elite" firms only recruit at Wharton undergrad and nowhere else.

Can anyone actually name these firms at the MBA level though?

I've heard Bridgewater, is that true?

I'm surprised about Harvard Law though, I would have thought that Yale law would have been even more elite.

Bridgewater has a lot of Yaleys....I don't think they are exclusive to Wharton but do have a lot of employees that went their no doubt.

And Yale law only passed Harvard in the past couple of years. I used to be on the Law School path (maybe still am?) but Harvard Law runs way deeper than Yale Law...alot of super super elites laugh when they hear the word Yale, it has always had a some what liberal reputation in that community. If you ever hear someone from Harvard talk about Yale Law it's pretty funny.

Yale's a great law school (Best in the Country for 2 years according to US W&N) but I'd go to Harvard just for the networking.

 
m.c.trader:
monyet:
It's not that hard to believe actually. Same goes for Wharton undergrad, which also has a small number of "elite" firms only recruit at Wharton undergrad and nowhere else.

Can anyone actually name these firms at the MBA level though?

I've heard Bridgewater, is that true?

I'm surprised about Harvard Law though, I would have thought that Yale law would have been even more elite.

Bridgewater has a lot of Yaleys....I don't think they are exclusive to Wharton but do have a lot of employees that went their no doubt.

And Yale law only passed Harvard in the past couple of years. I used to be on the Law School path (maybe still am?) but Harvard Law runs way deeper than Yale Law...alot of super super elites laugh when they hear the word Yale, it has always had a some what liberal reputation in that community. If you ever hear someone from Harvard talk about Yale Law it's pretty funny.

Yale's a great law school (Best in the Country for 2 years according to US W&N) but I'd go to Harvard just for the networking.

Yale law is more selective than harvard, and it's better if you want to go into a prestigious judicial clerkship and/or academia. But if I had the choice, I would choose HLS for the networking, more cross-over appeal in business, and of course boston is a much better place than New Haven.

Harvard students do love making fun of Yalies. A good college friend went to HLS and when i visited him i sat in on a few classes. The contracts course was taught by Elizabeth Warren, who now heads the committee overseeing TARP. She made a quip about how teaching law at Yale is equivalent to throwing pearls to swine. The entire classed laughed. Harvard elitism at its finest.

 
m.c.trader:
monyet:
It's not that hard to believe actually. Same goes for Wharton undergrad, which also has a small number of "elite" firms only recruit at Wharton undergrad and nowhere else.

Can anyone actually name these firms at the MBA level though?

I've heard Bridgewater, is that true?

I'm surprised about Harvard Law though, I would have thought that Yale law would have been even more elite.

Bridgewater has a lot of Yaleys....I don't think they are exclusive to Wharton but do have a lot of employees that went their no doubt.

And Yale law only passed Harvard in the past couple of years. I used to be on the Law School path (maybe still am?) but Harvard Law runs way deeper than Yale Law...alot of super super elites laugh when they hear the word Yale, it has always had a some what liberal reputation in that community. If you ever hear someone from Harvard talk about Yale Law it's pretty funny.

Yale's a great law school (Best in the Country for 2 years according to US W&N) but I'd go to Harvard just for the networking.

I think among lawyers Yale is considered more elite, but they're comparable. At Yale you're just presumed to be a "big thoughts" guy who won't condescend to pay attention to detail, and you have to overcome that presumption. The point about YLS recently passing HLS is just wrong. From Wikipedia (source of all knowledge): "Yale has been ranked as the best law school in the country by U.S. News and World Report in every year in which the magazine has published law school rankings."

But I think there's something to your point as far as finance goes. I think HLS can tap into the HBS network to a greater extent, so if that's what you mean by "HLS runs way deeper," that sounds right. Both places are wildly liberal, so that is a wash.

Yale is considered more selective but Harvard has a bigger network (class is 3X bigger each year). Pros and cons.

EDIT: SOrry, just read the rest of the thread. This post adds little to the already-off-topic discussion.

 
monyet:
I'm surprised about Harvard Law though, I would have thought that Yale law would have been even more elite.

I have a friend who applied to most of Big 14 (was accepted into 6 schools and wait-listed in 2, he has amazing stats for Law-Wanna-Be). Law school rankings vary every year and every field, but overall Harvard Law always was #1, at least that's what he told me.

 

BW has OCR at many places (http://www.bwater.com/home/careers/campus-calendar.aspx?f=10). I can confirm this through personal experience (albeit for quant).

Anyways, from what I understand, if most of the upper management of a small firm are alums of 1 university, the shop recruits almost exclusively there for MBA. At the UG level, Wharton is in top demand because those students have the most finance experience and education (a lot of the small firms don't have training programs like BBs).

 

@m.c. trader,

Not that this is really he point of the topic, but just to clarify, in legal circles, Yale Law is and has always been leaps and bounds above HLS. Yale Law School is in a class of its own.

 

Disagree.

Regardless, different law schools are known for excellence in certain areas. For International Law Columbia may be the best, for Corporate Law many prefer NYU. And Yale as leaps and bounds above Harvard Law? Really? You can debate the relative merits of HBS vs Wharton, but no one will call one 'leaps and bounds' beyond the other. That's just ignorant.

The fascination with US World and News rankings always confuses me - when you look at the metrics you realize it's pretty arbitrary. For instance, they have World University rankings - in which University of Chicago is ranked 7th in the world (3rd amongst US universities - ahead of Princeton, MIT, Caltech, etc). Yet, low and behold, in the US rankings it is tied for 8th overall. The point is, US World and News rankings are retarded.

 

yale has been the most selective and generally best law school in the country for a long time, no contest

but a lot of students who want to go into corporate law prefer hls because of a greater focus on corporate law and bigger alumni network

 

i like how this has turned into a biglaw fight between YLS and HLS when actually Stanford is the best. how about an actual HBS student or Wharton MBA student give us a real low down.

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