ASU vs UW-Madison Finance

I'm in quite a panic lately and trying to decide where to go to school. I'm currently a sophomore at community college in Madison, WI, a 4.0 student and have lived here my whole life but am transferring in the Spring. I am deciding between ASU and UW-Madison and need to decide by Friday. I really want to get out of here for a bit and experience the warmth and something new and the life challenge that comes with that but it seems like a stupid idea and would be sacrificing my career. ASU will cost $100k and Madison $75k for the rest of my education. I got direct admittance into ASU business school and B.S. of Finance and Madison I didn't (can't apply for it until Spring).

I was just hoping someone could come on here and speak about either. I want to go into IB probably S&T. I know most people will probably say it would be stupid to go to ASU over Madison but I just really wanna get out of here for a bit and get a new life experience. Especially because I'm not fully sure I want to do IB and the 100 hour weeks. I also honestly have lost some hope in IB since I'm finishing first semester of sophomore year and still have no experience or recruitment. I also am far behind on my technicals and was planning on grinding all of winter break but would that even be enough time to get it down by Spring semester for IB Club recruiting, and should I even have hope for IB anymore? I'm just not even sure what to do anymore and feel like ASU and figuring what I want for myself might not be a bad decision. If anyone can give insight on this problem and especially finance and IB chances at ASU and UW-Madison it would be greatly appreciated.

27 Comments
 

$25k doesn’t feel like a lot of money - but is still significant chunk of change.

Wisconsin is the better school and is a better price - that is the easy answer 

not to be elitist, but I would be hesitant to interview anybody from Arizona State - it has such a poor reputation as a low end party school that it will hurt you recruiting in finance. I view Arizona state as an academic peer to West Virginia University.

said differently - I am not taking a resume to my boss or group head with Arizona State and pushing for that candidate to be hired.

 

Depends on what you want. For IB, UW Madison is undoubtably better. Honestly, idk by how much though... UW Madison isn't a target school for us, and I honestly view it the same as any state school. 

On the other hand, there's more to life than work. And there's a lot more to life than IB. You're far more likely to succeed at the place that is right for you. 

If were in your shoes, I would probably go to ASU. I think it would be a blast. Of course, you can also listen to the elitist pr*cks above me. Frankly, they're not totally wrong, and there are plenty of these pr*cks in finance. 

For what it's worth (and I don't think it should be worth much), I went to an Ivy League school. And not Cornell lol

 

LOL, bro it almost feels like this was written by an older clone of me. Big shoutout to us and all the other ivy kids that wish they’d gone to a state school

 

That's what I was thinking, I'm not fully sure I have my heart set on IB. However I do feel like the general stigma of ASU would hurt me and Madison is just more respectable. I feel like a life experience would help me a lot though. But I'm not really sure it's worth it. My fear would be I go and pay an extra $25-30k down there and am left with a worse degree and resources and get stuck with a mid job in Phoenix area and end up screwing myself over and in more debt. I know I would have more fun, be happier, and gain a lot from the experience. But it seems like it would end up hurting me more in the long run. I don't really see myself living down there much after graduation but it seems like this really is my only chance to get that new, warm experience as a college kid without the stressors of work.

 

madison is such a big and fun school with tons of people you can meet from everywhere. A ton of kids i know from my high school in the south went there. the cold sucks, but you can always do IB in LA or something after

 

UW Madison is a BMO target school if it helps you have some more info for IB recruiting and placement

 
Most Helpful

UW Madison. Ik people who go to Madison, and the party experience there is probably hand-in-hand with ASU. The opportunities there are better, and sacrificing 4 years and toughing it out in colder weather will be much more worth it in the long run IMO. UW Madison is a respectable school and you'll get opportunities wherever you wanna go.

 

If I was you and I wanted to maximize my chances of success getting into IB I’d go to UW and also push back graduation by a semester so you can actually use the alumni network and recruit on cycle with as many opportunities as possible. 
I transferred from a CC to a target but by the time I transferred in recruiting was pretty much already wrapped. 
Winters in Madison suck but it’s a good school with a good network. 

 

I think something that is really important to note is that ASU is direct admit to the business school and UW-Madison is not. I've heard of a lot of people getting rejected from the biz school at UW with pretty good applications and even 4.0s. Also, the second year (what I am) acceptance rate is a slim 29%. This just seems insane to me that the business school can be that selective and I feel like it's taking a huge risk going there and hoping I get accepted when it's very well likely I don't. My 4.0 at my CC doesn't count at all to the applications only my grades in the next semester. Seems like a 3.75 is necessary to get admitted which I feel I could do it's just the acceptance rate is brutal. I would also get involved in clubs on campus but I fear it just wouldn't be enough considering I would only be on campus for 1 semester before applying versus applicants that were there for the fall semester. Although I have an ok resume, server at popular restaurant for past 7 months and tutor at current CC for this fall semester.

I don't know this definitely made my decision harder any insight on this would be great or knowledge or UW biz school.

 

I like to think highly of myself and my capabilities however this seems like a bit of a stretch. Acceptance rate from first to second year applicants drops from 49% to 28% actually which seems insane to me. I also feel like I mentioned I would be severely disadvantaged compared to a second year student that has been there since fall semester and built up more involvement on campus.

 

Madison recruits and networks very well into Chicago.

Can’t speak to where ASU recruits go. Maybe that’s all we need to know.

Enjoy Halloween.

if you like it then you shoulda put a banana on it
 

Well I ended up choosing Madison. But, I just received my final two decisions back and I was accepted into both Claremont McKenna College, and NYU. I'm not really considering CMC unless they give me a boat load of aid because I don't wanna work on the west coast. But I'm not sure what to do with NYU. I didn't get into Stern (they don't allow spring admission) so I would have to apply for Stern after but it sounds very hard and I likely would be stuck with an economics degree. I also won't be receiving any aid from them so it would be costing me $225-250k total with interest to finish my education there. I think I'm still leaning towards Madison but would love to hear opinions, I just can't see how NYU is worth a quarter of a million dollars. I think better plan would be MBA there or another top program. However, it feels extremely stupid to turn down NYU for UW-Madison but I just can't see how that much money is justifiable.

 

I would seriously consider NYU even with an econ degree. Being in Manhattan is a huge leg up for networking and interviews. Finance is probably one of the only careers that could pay off that kind of tuition and you would have a good shot from there. I went to a non target party school and while it’s doable it’s still an uphill battle. Madison is about as far ahead of ASU as NYU is ahead of Madison.

 

I am a B.S Finance student at ASU focused on finance I have a 3.96 GPA over all three completed semesters. Please go somewhere with a better network. IBFC the Investment Banking and Finance Club is great but over the entire semester only Martin Wolf a middle market M&A firm has come in to talk. There is also IBIS which is the Investment Banking Industry Scholars program which you need an interview to join the class. I am trying to transfer currently out of ASU to somewhere that is a target school with more resources and career paths than ASU. I am currently applying to target schools where I can picture a future hopefully in investment banking. The number of people with offers from BBs I can count on one hand. Please reach out if you need insight on asu. 

 

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