UPenn Wharton, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Berkeley, NYU Stern, Duke, Columbia, or Cornell? (Undergrad)
I am fortunate enough to have this list of colleges to choose from. I intend on majoring in finance but I may attempt to double major in (or switch completely to) engineering if I go to a school like Cornell. Currently, Wharton is my top choice but the financial aid they offered does not accommodate my needs and I would need to take student loans to pay their tuition.
NYU Stern (surprisingly) offered me a large amount of aid but I am skeptical regarding that program's value. Yes, Stern places very well on Wall Street but there are also a large number of finance majors at Stern to begin with. In terms of placement vs. class size, how does NYU Stern fare? Can someone shed some light on this for me?
I know Dartmouth, Duke, and Columbia do very well with placement on Wall Street as well but I fear they are not considered in the same 'tier' as a school like Wharton, Harvard, or Stanford. Duke is another school I'm looking into but it would be a huge hassle to go there.
How do the other schools fare? I can afford the tuition for every school on my list except for Wharton and Columbia. Are the programs worth the debt?
Take out loans and go to UPenn
I'd personally take Dartmouth here, but that's obv a pretty unique environment and you'd want to make sure you have the personality for it. Not taking anything away from Wharton, but at the undergrad level I'm not convinced you're getting many opportunities there that you couldn't also get out of Dartmouth (with much less competition).
Congrats - great options!
UPenn Wharton, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, Berkeley, NYU Stern, or Cornell: hmm. Let me offer my two cents
I invite you to look at this from a few viewing angles: 1. In the future, if you do not like Finance anymore, or if you like Finance still --but you want to double major, which school offers the best resources?
UPenn, Duke, Berkeley, Cornell. NYU is also good, at least for its NYU Poly and NYU Courant. Other fields---Idk
If you like Finance enough to want to be a PhD, which school's PhD will have very solid placements? UPenn & Berkeley for sure. Cornell, Duke, Dartmouth NYU & Georgetown will be highly respectable
Which school will leave you with least debt? Seems like your answer is NYU Stern
My suggestion overall: Either go to NYU Stern and work a 4.0 GPA (which can make you ultra competitive enough) Or go to Upenn/Berkeley and work on your double major
I did not even consider the possibility of a shift in my career goals! Thank you for reminding me of this.
I went in as a pre-med. But I came out with Math & Finance....
when you switch or add majors, you will find it hard to graduate in 4-years. I was lucky to have tons of AP credits and minimal credits loss--I got out in 3.5 years.
But if you're in a school without much aid--you could be in either financial trouble, or GPA trouble because you want out quickly to avoid scholarship expiration
and glad to be helpful :)
Quit with this "what school is a higher tier" shit. You have an incredible wealth of options and every single school you named will provide with amazing resources to get virtually whatever you want in life, provided you put in the effort. Yes, Wharton is the best of the bunch. However, if you truly cannot afford it, don't go there. I get sick and tired hearing this "just take out the loans, you'll make the money back later" mantra. Yes, if we were talking about about Wharton vs a non-target state school, yes, you should seriously be looking at Wharton. In this case, its all peanuts, because odds are, you'll still end up in the same place if you go to one of the other, non-Wharton school, but at least you won't be saddled with tens of thousands in debt.
That may have sounded harsh, and I am apologize if you feel that way. You should be proud of your accomplishments. You're clearly doing something right.
Aside from Ivy League prestige, I really don't think UPenn & Berkeley have much differences. Of course Berkeley is a bigger state school, but it is still fairly competitive as the head of UCal system.
If wharton can place in some place, I think 95% the time Berkeley can do it too, and vice versa.
This is horrible advice. Go to Wharton. It's a no brainer.
Thank you for the advice. I understand that it might sound vain of me to factor in brand prestige when I make my college decision. However, I want every advantage possible when I start applying for summer analyst gigs and I believe that the Wharton name carries more weight than some of the other schools on my list.
Go to Wharton, you can pay back the loans within a couple years of graduating.
^^loled pretty hard at bloombergs comment after putin
Upenn, Duke, Cornell, Stern. I see lots of alumni on the street from these schools and they all place well. Stern obviously is a good finance school and places well, but I really don't know "how well" if you consider a FO/MO/BO breakdown. UPenn would be my bet regardless of financial aid. I would go to UPenn and show them what schools you got into and how much you received and see if they revise their offer.
Duke is actually a great option, they have a huge finance presence with FO and everyone I have spoken with loved their time at the school.
Congrats on the offers.
Thanks for the advice. Do you know if it's uncommon for UPenn to alter their financial aid offers? I have decided I will go there regardless but having to deal with less debt would be nice!
What are your other offers from the other schools and are you in-state in CA?
I don't qualify for Berkeley's in-state tuition but they gave me a decent amount of need-based financial aid. I can comfortably afford to go to Berkley. Georgetown and NYU (surprisingly) offered me the most- 44k and 57k respectively which is way more than I need. Penn only offered me 11K. Also, I forgot to mention that I was accepted to Columbia as well but they offered me a negligible amount. Duke (Tyrus Jones just had the game of his life), Dartmouth, and Cornell all offered me a figure very close to the minimum amount I need to attend their colleges debt-free.
I love that this site has basically become a college board forum...
take loans. go to Wharton. I'm sure you can pay back most of your loans within 2 or 3 yrs. If you are interested in Engineering, Penn offers multiple dual degree programs bet. any college;
All excellent schools - Wharton, Stern, & Cornell tend to have a ton of alumni on the street and all three are recruited very heavily at the undergrad level. Haas is also great with a strong presence in West Coast finance.
If you can end up at the same spot with significantly less debt the that would be the best option. In your case I would say go with Stern.
Another factor to consider is that if you're intersted in working outside the US at many point, Ivy leagues carry a lot more weight. Particularly in Asia where the local culture can be very Ivy-obsessed(according to a family member who lives in Japan).
I hate all the people on here who are blindly telling to the OP to go to Wharton. There is quite a diverse set of schools that the OP listed and frankly its awful advice to just say "Go to Wharton". Wharton is a powerhouse for banking/consulting, but its also very limited in scope and highly competitive. It can suck to have every one of your "friends" gunning for the same jobs and internships as you are for the next 4 years of your life. It will also teach you a very specific set of skills and you won't get much diversity to your education.
Now I know most of the people of this forum can't fathom this, but WHAT IF you decide you don't love banking or consulting? Or WHAT IF you want to learn about sometime that is non-business related. What IF you simply want to be around a diverse set of interesting people who might go on awesome things that aren't going to HBS and then working for a megafund?
My advice is to give schools like Dartmouth, Duke, and Georgetown a thorough look and not get caught up with going somewhere that will put you into a job that you think you want. You're 18 now, a lot can change in a year or two or five or ten. What schools are going to give you the opportunity to grow and try new things both inside and outside the classroom? Think about what type of kid you are and what college experience you want. It's good to want to work hard, but mix some play in there. I went to a small prestigious school and I regret not being able to go to sports games and have a campus that had more of a social life.
The way I'd rank your list is to throw out Stern and Cornell. If you want to do Stern then just pony up and go to Wharton. Stern isn't all its cracked up to be and if you want to do the undergrad B-school route then Wharton should be your primary focus. Even Georgetown would be better than Stern in my opinion. Cornell will be a real grind and will be worse than all the other ivies you got into. Throw that out as well. Berkeley is ok, but not as good as the other schools and its also fiercely competitive. I'd probably also rule that one out unless you're in state or getting significant money.
After that you really can't go wrong, try and visit the schools, talk to as many people as you can, and go with what feels right.
You don't think Stern lives up to its hype? It has a great job placement rate, specifically finance, but its very cutthroat I would say.
I'm sure @opsdude would have something to say about this. I don't have first hand experience, but have had a lot of close friends go, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I've heard that while it places well into Finance, that's about all it does. Combined with the fact that its a very narrow education and in a city where Colombia is right down the road and Wharton is 2 hours away and I would say there are better options.
Stern is like a girl who is a 7/10, would look pretty if she were your only option, but if you're being courted by 9s and 10s, why would you ever take the 7?
Thank you! finally someone supports my argument--after a blind fool was removed from the thread for sending a blind advice "Go to Wharton"... lol.
Although wouldn't you say that Dartmouth, GU are a bit liberal arts too? (I have family in Georgetown now, not bad but wasnt the first choice if he was admitted to all schools he applied..)
Georgetown has an undergrad Business school that places extremely well. Almost as good as Wharton and by some measures better. So I wouldn't say that its liberal artsy at all.
Dartmouth is a liberal arts school, but so is Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc. Liberal Arts isn't something to fear if you go to an elite school and have an idea of what you want to do post-grad and build skills towards that. I can guarantee you its way easier to get a job at a top BB or MBB from Dartmouth with a Philosophy degree than from a non-target with a finance degree. As long as you pair that degree with decent internships and an interest Finance it shouldn't be too hard. Dartmouth is a fantastic school with a very tight alumni base. Also has Ivy league prestige for whatever that's worth.
I'm not advocating against Wharton, I just don't think its by far the clear cut favorite, especially if its Full Ride to Dartmouth vs Wharton and 250k in debt.
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