What do I do? - Senior and in the middle of the college process

Columbia is a great school and has great recruiting for ibanking.

I wouldn't feel bad asking your dad's friend to help you get in, even if you don't end up getting in. I know that doesn't sound like a great idea, but your dad's friend doesn't expect you not to apply anywhere else, and truth is even his/her guarantee isn't a guarantee at all. I have seen letters from $10M+ donors to schools where they are basically yelling at the admissions officers because their son or daughter wasn't accepted.

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Your dad's guarantee is not one unless he is literally on their board of admissions or something.

Apply EVERYWHERE and go to the best one. Georgetown despite being a top school and well-known is NOT a top school for business.

Columbia is better than ALL your schools apart from UPenn (Wharton). Being in NYC is really a huge advantage later on for internships. Darthmouth is in the middle of nowhere and UVA is in the south so... Columbia and UPenn should be your top.

Why don't you apply to NYU: Stern as your backup? It's better than Gtown for business and you can walk to Wall Street from their campus.

I hate douches like you whose dads can make phone calls and you can get into the so called target schools? Is finance filled with douches like you?

I would agree with Dorian. It's a matter of how you think you stack up. Wharton and Cornell regular decision have to be absolutely brutal to get into. There are plenty of backups you can apply to. Wash U, Emory, Chicago, NYU, Carnegie Mellon and Michigan are all extremely respectable business schools.

In fact, I got into McDonough and turned it down for one of them because I've heard it's not that great. If you are on this board, I assume you want to go into finance, which means don't go to Georgetown. Just my personal opinion, but it's not a well respected b-school in the industry. Apply to 10-11 schools regular, you still have your early action acceptance from Gtown, it's a win win situation. Take the lead at Columbia, after all it's an Ivy. What I would not do is just take Gtown and not apply anywhere else because it seems like you are questioning yourself and that's not what you want to do.

Dude, make sure you like the school you're going to. You're going to spend the next 4 years there. Go and walk around Columbia, see if you like it. It doesn't matter if it's an hour away from home, just set ground rules with your parents that they're not allowed to come visit unless they call ahead. Unless they're complete douchebags (and usually even if they are) they will understand.

Also, Georgetown is a great school, and UVA is amazing as well. I had the chance to go to UVA, but decided against it for personal reasons. Now and again I kick myself for not going there, but it's whatever. Oh, my mom got her MBA from Columbia and she can't say enough about how she enjoyed it.

Again, the misinformation and poor advice on this board always pains me.

First off, I would like to speak to the college admissions process as a prestige chase. While Columbia certainly ranks higher in the usnews rankings than everything else, you will not be without opportunities at any of those schools. If you graduate with a high gpa at any of those schools, your opportunities will never be narrowed down based on pedigree of the school but rather interviewing abilities, networking abilities, personal skills, extracurricular activities, and in general what you have done with your life so far. Honestly, with this being said, I'd say choose whatever and apply to whatever school you think you will most enjoy (you only get to do college once) and will do the best at. Having turned down some of the schools you mentioned to goto Georgetown, I can say my opportunities thus far in life (I have friends at every school mentioned) have not differed from any of my peers at the other schools based on where I chose to go to school, but rather how well or not well I have done in school compared to my friends. Seriously, don't have people on WSO make college decisions for you, you will have some 16 year old telling you Goldman Sachs won't take you if you don't got o Harvard and that because you aren't even applying to Harvard you should commit Hari-kiri, since god knows GS TMT is the answer to all of life's problems.

Secondly, I would just like to respond to the kid from American Business school telling you Stern would be better for you than Gtown as Gtown "is not good for business even if it is well known". Stern is definitely good for business school, he's right, but why go through the trouble of applying to another school that is only marginally better or worse than Georgetown if you don't wanna be in NYC. Trust me, I don't even come close to knowing every kid at Georgetown pursuing banking. However, I personally know kids going to Goldman Sachs, Morgan , JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, BofA, Citi.... and every other major bank and boutiques. WSO is filled with landmines of misinformation so be careful who you listen too here. Just as an example, if you believed everything you read on this site, you would think Allen & Co. only recruits from Harvard, the CIA, the FBI, and you have to know the CEO himself to get a job there. I know of 2 people offered jobs to Allen & Co. from Georgetown, so this should speak to the misinformation occasionally presented as fact on this website. For the record, Allen & Co., Evercore, Lazard, Blackstone, Miller Buckfire, Rothschild, Tudor Pickering, and plenty of other elite boutiques (and obviously all the BB's) do on-campus recruiting at georgetown (and every other school on your list probably) so I really wouldn't be worried about job opportunities when making your choice.

Let me know if you have any questions about Georgetown. Seeing as you've already been accepted to a top school, you should stop worrying about prestige or opportunities down the line and focus on applying to whatever schools you best see yourself succeeding at and enjoying.

thekingwillwhip:

. But then my dad told me if I wanted to go to Columbia he would ask someone and I would essentially be gaurenteed a spot there.

Can he get me in? We're practically online-friends.

Dude just decide where you'll have the most fun. All of those schools will open the door to banking as long as you get your work done. The only thing you should be considering is where you'll be happiest. Sounds like Colombia is not the answer. I would choose Gtown or UVA, but thats just me.

And what exactly is "the risk" you're talking about? Why can't you just apply to them all and then decide among your acceptances? If the risk is having to choose between Colombia and Gtown (and I guess you're saying you would feel you have to choose Colombia?), then just say fuck it and choose Gtown anyway (unless you visit and love Colombia of course). Plenty of legit reasons to choose Gtown over Colombia, especially if you're from NYC.

Also, keep in mind that while more banks may recruit at one school, you may also face more competition there. Colombia probably has more students interested in finance than Gtown, where a lot of people are probably into gov't/PSCI. Just my thoughts, I don't go to any of the schools listed.

i think columbia is great, especially for value investing...buffett, dodd, graham

Thanks for the fantastic responses guys.

The reason I would be obligated to go to Columbia if I got in is because the guy that would get me in is my dads boss. I don't want to dbag him after he gets me in. Also, I know Columbia is a fantastic school, but maybe to fantastic. I mean the kids there are top shelf in terms of acedemics. I know 100% that I will be able to keep a better gpa attending UVA over Columbia. But then again, columbia is columbia.

seems like dorian is the newest prestige whore on this site. You should hang out with afalcon (nycibd) and bulg4lyf what a party that would be!