Any of you Bankers see UVA Alumni on the street? (Seeking advice)
Looking for some tips and pointers from some of you who might be able to steer me on a better path.
I attend Northern Virginia Community College and am guaranteed admission into UVA; I am **NOT ** admitted to UVA McIntire. If I was to attend UVA it would be as an Econ student..
My other option is to attend James Madison University (alum database shows quite a few that have gone to goldman/JPM/bb etc from here) and attain a Quantitative Finance degree. I have heard that even Goldman has recruited at UVA and that it is a very good tier 1 semi-target, does this sound right?
Personally I feel that a quantitative finance degree should hold more weight to a BB as the course is much more rigorous and leaves me with more skills. However, is the prestige of UVA going to overpower that? Which one do you guys here think is more valuable, QF from a non-target or a simple Econ degree from a tier 1?
I can do math in my sleep and have taken some intro programming courses so QF wouldn't be a problem for me even though i'm pursuing an analyst role at a BB; being a quant doesn't sound bad either. Let me know.
Not sure about James Madison, but my gut feeling tells me that the few people you found on LinkedIn are either in backoffice or black swans.
Between the two, Virginia for sure. Granted it's not McIntire, and if there's any remote possibility to transfer in, I'd start looking to do so immediately. But it's probably remote since I'm assuming you already did a year or two at the CC.
I'd be frank and say that at least for career placement and specifically in banking/other non-quant roles, the difference between QF and Finance degree are practically zero; For Econ at Virginia you might want to make sure you join/lead some banking/finance/investing clubs to demonstrate interest.
JMU placement is garbage, UVA is great but there is a ton of competition. Be ready for it.
I'd like to add - target banks like BB&T, Harris Williams (great MM shop), STRH, smaller regional banks around Richmond (there are a bunch), and some of the ADG groups (Houlihan, Raymond James, etc.) for a more realistic "in" to banking
are you from RVA? if not, don't knock it yet, I thought the same thing my whole life (native virginian here), been visiting my buddy who works downtown within eyesight of VCU, it's nowhere near what I imagined. way better
also, don't go to JMU, it's better known for alcohol abuse than banking placement. UVA all the way. UVA rages, but you'll also get a good job. JMU will cause you to graduate 50lbs heavier and with a shit job.
RVA very different from NOVA. trust me when I say as you get older, you'll appreciate it more. it will not be as fun as getting a boozy brunch in georgetown (nor as pretty), but you still can have a good time living there. also, while a bit further out, don't write off Charlotte, Philly, Atlanta, or Baltimore for bigger cities than RVA that have good opps.
best of luck, and kudos for taking advantage of the state's 2+2 program
Dude: UVa. Period. JMU is a great school and I've seen a lot of really competent people come out of there, but it has very little presence in any front office, at least in NY/SF/London. The UVa brand is way better, and will open doors to you for the rest of your career. (Whatever job you get, it ain't going to be the only one you have until you retire...) And who cares about McIntyre? Econ is at least as good a degree for the long term, and will position you better for a top tier MBA if you go that route. (A lot of b schools take a "what's the point?" view of people with undergrad business degrees wanting to spend two years learning basically the same stuff).
jmu is great... for getting 3somes
Have you considered W&M? I think transfers can get into the undergrad b-school, which has decent placement for front office BB/EBs roles. You'd be a finance major with access to the school's recruitment resources and competing with a smaller group of people. At UVa, the McIntire kids are sought after first, so econ would make it harder to get your foot in the door.
Either way, don't go to fucking JMU lol
As someone who graduated from JMU (finance major, econ minor) and has plenty of friends at UVA, I'm going to say that for what it sounds like you want to do, UVA would be the better choice in terms of brand and general job placement, although the quantitative finance route at JMU is very legit, but it is a very demanding, and like mentioned above very few end up graduating with that degree. A few of my friends that took it ended up also double majoring in either math or econ. -As far as placement goes, UVA does obviously place better, but you are going to up against competition that's even better than UVA depending on the firms you'll be targeting (think Harvard, Wharton, etc.). Not sure about this but both JMU and UVA places very well in the overall DC market, and JMU does comparably as well, but there is more of a sense that that's for high achievers (know kids from my class at Carlyle for example). The JMU alumni base is more restricted to the DC market and NYC, as well as a small Bay Area pocket, which UVA's is more spread out nationally. -The traditional econ major at JMU isn't bad either, but QFin is certainly going to be more impressive if you decide to go that route. Lots of great professors at both. Take Barkeley Rosser at JMU for any econ class if you're able to. -Finally, the social scene at both is somewhat comparable, but I have to give the edge to JMU. The girls are significantly more attractive and the bar scene is decent, so don't discount that. Large amount of "bro-y" people at both schools, as is the case I assume at every business school across the nation, but while this seemed to be more confined to the business school and Greek life at JMU (which didn't dominate the social scene so you don't feel compelled to join but it's there if you want to), it's much more prevalent at UVA when I visited my friends.