Berkeley vs UW Seattle
Hey, I was wondering if there is a big difference in career opportunities from UW Seattle and Berkeley for the West coast. (I live in Seattle) I know in past forums UW has been called a non target, but I also know Seattle’s business community is growing as UW is up to 19th in US News undergrad business rankings. How is UW compared to Berkeley now? Will there be any on campus recruiting for finance (mc, ib, hf, am, etc)? Again, I want to stay west coast. Thanks
uw Seattle places at all the top firms . Berkeley is lucky to even place in MM firms
I dont care if UW Seattle is ranked Top 10 or Top 100. Pick Berkeley.
I dont know which business community you are referring too but AMZN and MSFT will def prefer a berkeley kid over UW. I am aware of UW’s alum presence in SEA tech scene but its nowhere close
Thanks for the info, if it does come down to UW, how much worse r they compared to a school like Berkeley for the West Coast? Will there be any OCR?
UW is tremendously worse. No OCR. These schools are not comparable.
UW has an undergrad business school?
Yeah, the Foster school of Business.
Foster’s School of Imaginary Business
Berkeley is #2 on the West Coast for finance recruiting after Stanford (a very distant #2) and UW Seattle isn't even on the radar for most firms. Pretty intuitive what to do here.
I’m a current student at UW Foster. Here are my thoughts:
Foster is a solid program if you want to recruit for the local tech firms (AMZN, MSFT, EXPE, etc). We have a solid alumni base at most of these and plenty of campus recruiting/networking events (for example, I was a part of a program where we would meet with alumni at MSFT’s HQ once a week; we have a similar program with AMZN as well). I was able to interview with both AMZN and MSFT and have plenty of buddies (who did Foster or CS) who work/interned at these firms. If you do well in your classes and network, I’m sure you would be fine at UW for recruiting with the local tech firms.
As for consulting, we do have MBB OCR but most opportunities will come from the Big 4, who recruit heavily at UW (particularly Foster). Again, if you have good grades, it’s not too hard to get first rounds with Bain/BCG. Have a few friends who got offers this year.
Most of my recruiting efforts were focused on banking, particularly for SF and NY. There are a few of us at Foster who did break into banking, but very few placed in SF compared to Berkeley grads (when I went on a UW-hosted networking trip to SF, not surprisingly, many of the Analysts and Associates we met came from Berkeley/UCLA). The only reason I was able to get an SA offer at a BB in NY was because I had a ton of internships, including IB at a relatively well known boutique in Seattle (basically got lucky and leveraged past experiences).
It’s definitely possible to break in from Foster but I guarantee you Berkeley’s brand and alumni would take you farther, particularly if you wan to do banking. If you want to end up at a boutique in Seattle, Foster would be a great choice. But if you have aspirations to end up at a BB in SF, go for Berkeley (there are barely any BB’s with IB groups in Seattle; most are commercial banking/PWM).
This decision really should come down to how scrappy you are and whether tuition is a huge factor (in state vs out of state). I’m going to be graduating loan free but if I had the chance to attend Berkeley, even with loans, I probably would have. Best of luck and feel free to PM.
Go to Berkeley, hands down. UW and Seattle is a fun place and Foster is good for where it is at like DawgStreet says, but if you want to break into IB, Berkeley is a much better bet.
berkeley is target for every BB/EB in the west, UW more PWM. the intern class in my group is 80% berk, 10% claremont mckenna, 10% stanfor
Can confirm. Also ridiculous presence on the west coast, particularly tech in SF
First, I was also kind of deciding between UW Foster and Berkeley (cost more for me) as a senior and went with Berkeley and didn’t regret it. Even with loans I believe that Berkeley is a much better choice if you want to do banking (ROI of job prospects at a better school outweighs initial loans).
For sophomore summer, I actively recruited for banking positions outside of the typical cities to lessen the competition pool — Seattle, Portland. I recruited for about one month, got 3 super days and two offers (one at a regional and one at a MM). I cannot emphasize how much the name Berkeley helps out when all your competition in the area comes from UW or WSU. After my interview with the MM firm (seniors were all UW grads), I actually wasn’t the top candidate for the position but after he/she declined the offer, I was called back in two weeks and told I was given the summer position purely through a resume screening where my education played a big part in my offer.
Purely anecdotal, but based off my experience, Berkeley would allow you plentiful opportunities on the west coast and limited exposure to east coast banks too. I cannot say the same for UW.
Lemme guess, Cascadia Capital?
I would still categorize cascadia as a regional, I went with the MM bank that summer (similar to piper jaffray). But went to a better place my junior summer so it doesn’t really matter.
Do you guys think it would be better to go with Santa Clara due to location or UW due to the higher ranking?
have a few friends at Deutsche from Santa Clara, but I'd go with UW. Just for brand name.
Ya, that makes sense. The other problem though with Berkeley is the uncertainty around getting into Haas, if I were to end up doing econ, is that still better than UW Foster?
I don't think UW really has a brand-name either though. Personally have seen a few Santa Clara kids at office visits at GS in SF, but it could be that they're being pushed more for MO/BO roles.
Berkeley over UW hands down if you're targeting finance already. Grew up near Seattle and know barely any people from UW that went into finance, and currently working on the West Coast I see essentially no UW grads compared to Berkeley grads.
Is UW looked down upon or does it just not get OCR?
I think it's a combination of both. On the OCR front not many firms recruit there because not that many people are interested in going into finance, but not many people are interested in going into finance there because not may firms recruit there, so it's kind of a self fulfilling cycle. And then Foster is definitely not as respected as Haas.
U.C Berkeley will never match UW (Foster School of Business). The best schools on the west coast are . Stanford, USC, and Berkeley.
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