Columbia College Vs Cornell CAS Vs Dartmouth
Fortunate to be accepted to all 3 for econ and was wondering if anyone could shed any color on what recruiting looks like at the three. Obviously interested in how they place for banking, but beyond that how they do in buyside recruiting (have heard Dartmouth tends to do disproportionately well in PE recruiting but would appreciate any other insights).
Edit: Also got into and am strongly considering attending Stanford. I know they crush it for tech and ge/vc, how do they do for more traditional buyouts/later stage stuff?
Columbia > Dartmouth > Cornell
Columbia = Dartmouth > Cornell
Take Columbia. The other two are not on par (and I say that as a D grad)
Dartmouth or columbia imo, but keep in mind you’ll have to grind harder at columbia since hardos will have internships during the school year and to some degree you may have to keep up w the joneses.
Columbia (LOCATION – networking is so much easier when you can just ride the train downtown to get coffee and go to company events. Also there are plenty of recruiting teams within banks that are just Columbia undergrad/Columbia MBA alums) > Dartmouth (Very tight knit community for recruiting, and upperclassmen walk people through recruiting steps. Fratty community really pulls through for these things) > Cornell (If you're in the right clubs, you can definitely make it into good banks. Many people make it into the top BBs)
Gonna disagree with the general sentiment and say that these three have the exact same placement. Columbia has the benefit of being in New York and having the best general reputation but school spirit and network is honestly very mediocre and you’ll have to work for it. Cornell is the worst Ivy or whatever but is extremely well represented in finance with a huge alumni base that will go to bat for you. Dartmouth has one of the most loyal networks I’ve ever seen but it’s a tiny school so it’s a bit of an uphill battle to find people to go to bat for you.
Most objective people will view the three as equals when it comes to finance placement specifically all else equal. I would genuinely say Columbia = Cornell = Dartmouth when it comes to placement in finance specifically.
Hey there, appreciate the response. No one in my family works in the industry so its really helpful, most of my understanding about recruiting and placement has been based on this: Best Private Equity Placement (Top Schools and Firms) (peakframeworks.com)
It SEEMS to show that dmouth does better comparatively, seeing as this doesn't line up with what you've seen and the methodology (scraping linkedin) seems reasonable, is there something else that could be causing this or is this entire methodology just a retarded way of looking at it (given how small it is, etc.).
Believe the issue is how small the sample size is. Don’t get me wrong, Dartmouth absolutely crushes it in buyside recruiting but if you take a look at the IB list on the same site, you kinda see what I’m talking about. Dartmouth is less represented because of how small the school is (but obviously the per capita numbers are crazy).
Go to Dartmouth, signed a Columbia alum.
Why? Just wondering.
First year at an EB who went to Cornell and I also have several friends who went to either Columbia or Dartmouth: from what I've seen so far, I don't think the exit opps vary significantly between each of these schools.When it comes to on-cycle, it's so much more important what group and firm you're coming from than whether you went to Columbia v Dartmouth v Cornell. All of them are regarded as great schools (basically a check in the box), and all else being equal, you'll get identical looks from headhunters and PE shops. Know people from all of these schools that had varying success during on cycle and almost all of it is more so how prepared you are (given you don't know exactly when it's gonna happen) than which school you graduated from.Assuming Columbia and Dartmouth are similar, but one consideration is that Cornell is very pre-professional and the most competitive kids are gunning day 1 to join the "best" finance and consulting clubs. These clubs definitely help and often have exclusive networking sessions with specific firms, alumni of these clubs are more willing to hop on the phone and push for you, etc.
As a takeaway, don’t base your decision on which school might have the best exit opps from banking. Cornell and Dartmouth are much more rural, Columbia is obviously in the middle of NYC; Dartmouth has the quarter system: etc.
Pound for pound I find Dartmouth’s placement to be extraordinary -I worked for a MF that recruited from there so my perspective is definitely skewed. But I’m not at all surprised at what your LinkedIn search turned up.
That said all 3 are great choices- I would base it more on the type of experience you want. Columbia has the location but I find city campuses very inconvenient to navigate and have much less a sense of community or school spirit. Dartmouth is fratty as hell and really isolated in a one stoplight town. You really have to WANT to be there. No direct experience with Cornell but I do personally know plenty of grads in the industry.
4 years is a long time, mate. Go where you’ll thrive and the recruiting will take care of itself from either of these schools. It’s not like you’re deciding between Columbia and SUNY Plattsburgh. None of your 3 schools will exclude you from opportunities if your resume and transcript are in order.
Why do you think Dartmouth has such great per capital PE placement? And which firms recruit heavily from there?
Exceptionally strong alum network, plenty of well-connected WASP kids
I'm a '27 in a similar position. I'll be attending Dartmouth next year for its stellar alumni network and great access to the outdoors. I'm going to be living in NYC for who knows how long after I graduate and may never again have the opportunity to truly be immersed in nature like I will be at Dartmouth. It's four years of your life. Choose where you'll be happiest. It'll make it much easier to succeed.
The only wrong answer here is Cornell, because the quality of life isn’t great and there isn’t any specific upside to going. Dartmouth has that small school, community-oriented vibe whereas Columbia is half a school and half a bunch of young people living in nyc. Dartmouth places really well for its size and has a stronger network bc alumns love their school, but Columbia hardos can intern during the school year which I’ve seen lead to some absolutely insane placements/recruiting advantages. That being said, Columbia’s harder and more stressful with much less community/support so it’s a question of what kind of environment you would thrive in.
Go to Columbia (current CC student, transferred in). The mismatch between outcomes and preparedness is wild here. (I.e. A lot of mid kids here get really solid jobs, so you have serious downside protection.) So if you’re even pretty good, you’ll get the best of the best. It’s also a really good place if you want to work during the school year. Party scene is bleh, but the school has its charm. Had a similar choice and couldn’t be happier with my decision, dm if you have questions!
Also don’t major in Econ, pick a better subject. Helps for buyside recruiting for some reason, too.
What’s the deal with GS at Columbia? Was looking to transfer and didn’t know they had College, Engineering and General Studies.
It's like Harvard Extension school – students pursuing undergrad from a nontraditional background (army veteran, from the workforce, etc). It's a backdoor into Columbia in a sense, but you need the qualifications of a "nontraditional background" which again is not that hard to achieve. I have a few Singaporean/Korean friends who did mandatory army service and applied for the GS program.
Dartmouth > Columbia
because you’ll develop a personality
why are you so interested in pe? literally ib 2.0
Dartmouth without a doubt.
Over Stanford as well? Dartmouth, Columbia, and Stanf are the ones I'm most seriously considering.
Oh. Then S. Objectively better. There will be bias toward the NE given anti swe/anti tech/anti CA sentiments on WSO (once saw someone argue WYD > HS).
Stanford, easily
Congratulations on three great choices! I say this as someone who didn't go to any of these (sister and a few friends at Columbia, cousin and a few friends at Dartmouth) but I don't recommend Columbia -- people there don't seem super happy, being in NYC sounds cool but really diminishes the college town / community experience that I had going to a Y/P.
Dartmouth has a great and tight-knit finance network. In academia / STEM / public policy, etc. Columbia might have a better brand name but IMO in finance Dartmouth will give you a leg up via the willingness of alums to pull for you and the ability to do off-cycle internships via the D-plan (this is key -- no one else is competing but Dartmouth kids for those random PJT & BofA winter internships). More than enough Dartmouth people at each place to go to bat for you. Hanover winters suck though.
Cornell is also great but not really on the table vs either Dartmouth or Columbia unless aid differs significantly -- worse college experience (both academically and socially), worse brand name, etc, though obviously we're splitting hairs and you can get the same looks from Cornell.
Would echo other people and say finance placement from these 3 schools is probably close enough that at the end of the day go where you'll be happiest--being in a city vs a super small rural town vs a large state-school college town.
EDIT: Go to Stanford. Didn't see you'd also gotten in there. Brand name, finance placement, future network, are going to be much stronger there.
Stanford changes the calculus - go there.
The fact that Baruch is not being mentioned is a travesty
---
bro EASILY Stanford
If you’re self posting on WSO as a high schooler you’re probably not gonna fit in at Dartmouth.
Wait is the alternative larping
Good job aspiringretard, Stanford is great for anything west coast and the campus experience tends to be more warm and fun compared to D-mouth and Cornell’s preppy northeastern vibes. You can make high finance from any of these schools due to their affluent alumni bases and students, but go where you think you’d enjoy your 4 years. Recruitment can be seemingly random with some people suggesting Stanford is a non-target and Columbia’s rank inflation making it less desirable, but you seem smart since you have these options and you’ll do well regardless of where you go. For me personally,
Stanford = Dartmouth > Columbia > Cornell (just because Ithaca is depressing and it’s not Dyson AEM)
I’m outdoorsy and I like sunshine, and assuming you want to work in NYC the contrast of a west coast experience would be nice.
HYP > Columbia > Dartmouth > Cornell
Go to the school that’s the best fit for you and will allow you to do the best, fuck prestige. If you go to the best one and do shit there in terms of grades, and overall success what’s the point? Go to the one that you think you’ll kill it there.
from talking to kids at events, I've noticed that Dartmouth really has the chillest recruiting process I've ever seen. Like seriously, the mental illness you see across the board does not exist there for some reason, and I think it's because everybody knows Dartmouth alums take care of their own. Also the finance clubs there are not as competitive as columbia/penn/etc because everyone is just so laid back about it. At the point you are at though and the schools you are deciding from, it truly does come down to fit.
Using linkedin search, Dartmouth has the worst placement and presence on wall street than the other 2. Columbia and Cornell both have more than 110 entry investment banking analysts at goldman sachs, where Dartmouth has below 60
Dartmouth undergrad class size is 1,100 on average. Columbia is 2,200 on average and Cornell is 3,300 on average. Your cursory LinkedIn search only highlights the slight edge that Dartmouth has in this regard.
Take this opinion for what it is worth but it’s crazy how much people on this forum like to discard Stanford. It should not even be close, Stanford is the clear choice, followed by Columbia. Dartmouth is great too but Columbia will allow you to do internships during the semester if you want and network easier including in-person.
Ultimately you could go to any of these schools and recruit to a top firm and group; kids from worse schools do it all the time.
Getting back to Stanford though, people hate on Stanford because it’s harder to break in and the alumni network in banking is weaker which is all true, but that’s purely because of the fact that Stanford kids on average don’t choose that path and go towards Tech, if you want IB in NY you will get it, your school will not hurt you and the experience at Stanford will be superior to the other schools in my opinion from having a lot of friends who went to all of the schools you mentioned.
Food for thought. Not hate.
I was getting worried after reading the first few replies and seeing all Columbia and thought they were joke posts.
The real choice you face is between Dartmouth and Stanford. Dartmouth is well known for its tight-knit alumni network, excellent Econ dept, and strong recruiting. Stanford is just Stanford, and to other posters' points, is often written off on these forums because WSO leans finance (and thus, East Coast). I'm sure you can recruit for whatever you want if you end up choosing Stanford. At Dartmouth, you'll not only have an incredibly undergrad experience, but you'll have great training/placement throughout your time there and then a great alumni network once you get out. Nearly every other Columbia alum will tell you to fuck off immediately because that's the nature of going to a school in a big city--it's almost always every man for himself and there's not nearly the tight network you'll get with ANY small school, let alone Dartmouth. You also have to consider what it means to truly have an undergraduate experience, where you can grow, learn and bond with your peers in a community that's specifically catered towards learning. At Columbia, all of my friends back in the day were complaining about the student body dispersing into Long Island, Jersey and Westchester every weekend. That to me sucks--but I guess some people like that. My view is that you'll always have the chance to experience a big city post-college. That's never going to go away. But college you only get to do once. So why not pick a place that's not only top-notch in recruiting but also just in general great for education and fun?
columbia & dartmouth will be much more fun than cornell & finance recruiting will not be as competitive with cornell having such a huge student body. personally, i would take columbia .
Appreciate the reply, I ended up choosing Stanford.
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