Chicago or Columbia for Undergrad College Choice
Hi all,
I posted a similar thread on the Jobs forum but got a limited response. Posting again here to see if I can get some other opinions.
Anyway, I'm a high school senior and need to make a college decision by May 1. I have been accepted to the University of Chicago and Columbia University (Columbia College). I want to go into investment banking. However the recent US News rankings now place UChicago at #3. This was a big change since in 2008 they were ranked #15. Although I know that the rankings themselves don't mean a whole lot, but its important to note the relative rise of UChicago recently. At UChicago I would major in the Business track in the Econ Department, and at Columbia I'd major in Financial Econ.
Even though I like IB, I'd like to have some flexibility in case I want to go into other areas later on (PE, HF, consulting, etc). Living either in Chicago or NY is no problem for me, so no strong preference. Costs are also about the same for both. Parents are willing to pay full price for both schools. I'm not terribly strong in math, and am worried about the Econ program at UChicago which is math intensive. I'm no slouch but have seen that the upper level econ classes are almost pure math and filled with math geniuses. I went to the admitted student reception for UChicago and was impressed to meet the AQR chairman (John Liew) -- he seems to hire a lot of Chicago grads.
UChicago Pros: good IB placement, well respected, rise in rankings, guaranteed internship for all students (Metcalf) Cons: cold winters, grade deflation, tougher course load, math-centric Econ program
Columbia Pros: location good for networking, no grade deflation, better choice of majors, easier to get high GPA Cons: campus much smaller, no greek life
Given the above, which would you choose if you were in my shoes? Thanks in advance!
Also want to point out that at UChicago about 30-40% of all undergrads major in Econ. This is by far and large the most popular major. Where at Columbia its only about 10%.
Major point being that there would be a lot more competition for jobs from Chicago.
My two cents regarding U of C as an alum:
You should take the rise in rankings with a grain of salt - both are target schools and there's no point in splitting hairs.
As for your concern about the econ program being too math-intensive, I'd say don't worry. There's a BS in math with specialization in econ (most math-intensive as it's essentially a math major), BS track (math-intensive econ major), and a BA track (the most hardcore math class you'll take is linear algebra - no real analysis needed). You'd be able to land in IB in any of these tracks so if you're not a math whiz just do a BA in econ and you'll be fine.
Thanks for the reply. Apparently Chicago is introducing a new 'business' track within the Econ department. Will be rolled out in fall 2018. Will have similar amount of math as the BA Econ, but more applicable coursework to Business. So I'm heavily thinking about this new "Business Econ" major.
What type of GPA will I need coming from Chicago to get interest from investment banks?
I'd say anything around or above 3.5 is fair game.
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