Anyone here with experience at cornell that can comment on both of these schools? Which schools would be better for landing a job in IB/consulting?
I like the courses for cornell hotel, but i'm not sure i feel to comfortable telling people my major is hotel management, it sounds too vocational...
| +325 | UBS Tech MD hires Son (from no-name college) as an Intern | 57 | 7h |
| +222 | Evercore Intern Seizure | 34 | 2h |
| +89 | [Official] 2026 IB Analyst Bonus Megathread (with 2025 Consolidated Pay and Perks/Benefits) | 12 | 2d |
| +55 | Is DCM actually underrated ? | 21 | 6h |
| +51 | JPM M&A is Gone??? Purely Coverage Banking??? | 20 | 1d |
| +46 | Are all Tech / TMT groups sweaty? | 33 | 18h |
| +41 | UBS Groups Ranked by Future Outlook | 20 | 6d |
| +38 | Am I behind? 31 Year Old Analyst | 9 | 1d |
| +36 | Losing my personality in Banking | 5 | 1d |
| +36 | Associate & Above IB exits | 15 | 1m |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
Yep - I was engineering. Do the hotel school, you will get more finance courses. ILR is a harder sell ("i love reading") because its a lot of reading and the perception is that those guys don't have quantitative skills. Of course if you really want to be in ILR then be in ILR but know that if I had to do it all over again knowing I was going to end up in IBD I would be a hotelie. Lot of really cool real estate and managerial finance classes in the hotel school. Also I am under the impression from some of my hotelie friends that IBD internships (and sophomore internships in finance) will count towards your 800 hours of required hospitality work experience (its "client facing" and a lot of the kids i knew who were hotelies ended up either in IBD or real estate finance or Asset Management - those are popular tracks from that school ).
I didnt apply there for the concerns you are stating - I thought it sounded too vocational and I was a snob from a connecticut private school. I wish I had looked into it more. Also fyi now I am in houston energy IBD where vocational is a selling point..... so go figure.....
Plus... like the waiters song says..."hotelies make the dough!"
If you have other questions feel free to PM me. Cornell is a school that opens a lot of doors and I definitely don't regret going there.
Thanks for your answer. I should mention that while I do have wok experience, I don't have hospitality experience, which I heard is a big factor in admissions. Can you comment on that? Honestly, I don't really like the ILR curriculum, but at the end of the day, if work experience really hinders my chances at hotel school, I will go for the ILR one as terrible as that may sound.
Current ILRie here. What would you do to prove your quantitative abilities in ILR? I was thinking of a minor in CS, econ, or business.
How are you enjoying ILR? and from what i've heard, people just said to take as many finance classes as you can
don't understand why these are your only options...
My options for ED
I graduated from AEM but had friends both in ILR and Hotel who broke into investment banking, so you can't go wrong with either. Not entirely sure what the quantitative requirements are in ILR but you can definitely take various finance courses within the Hotel school that will prepare you for a finance gig.
I'm not sure - are you waitstaff / work retail / sales anything like that? I don't know a ton about admissions. The other thing to consider is if you are from NY state ILR will be cheaper....Very few of my friends that were hotelies had hospitality experience pre college (unless it was a minimum wage customer facing job)
And yeah thinkbank is right - you can totally do IBD from either path - hotel just seems to cover more of the finance stuff you would want to take as part of the major than ILR where you would have to take a lot of those classes outside your normal curriculum
Good luck!! Let me know if I can help any more.
Oh okay thanks! And no, I work in a corporate setting for a F100 company.
btw can anyone comment on how hard it would be to transfer from ilr to hotel and vice versa?
I would go with ILR. Think about it, there are many more kids at the Hotel School that want to get into ibanking than at ILR. ILR also provides recruiting events only for ILR apart from Cornell's general OCR.
GS, MS and JPM have been active recruiters from ILR and not just for HR. Every year, BBs ask specifically for ILR kids, as what GS did a couple of years ago. ILR alumni are very loyal to ILR as well. Everything is relative, of course there will be more AEM kids in an analyst class, but only because everyone at AEM and their mother want to work at a BB. Hotel School isn't as notorious, but IB is very much sought after there as well.
I'm being pretty biased here, but I can tell you that ILR does a great job in terms of recruiting. You won't go wrong with either, but its the lower level of competition which will be in your favor. As previous posts stated, take finance courses and show interest, join club or two related to econ/finance and you'll for sure distinguish yourself form the overall ILR population. Also, ILR offers semester long internships at BBs which no other School does and they prepare you with mock interviews as well...
As for the internal transfer question, it is really easy to transfer internally to another school. In almost all schools they accept around 80-85% of internal applicants, so don't worry about that. Go with whichever school fits best with your academic interests.
I easily say Hotel School. The student body is very motivated and alumni of the school are very powerful compared to ILR (not to say the ILR school is not powerful).
Optio ea vero sint omnis et explicabo. Et omnis velit ea eligendi ratione iusto maxime excepturi. Autem excepturi consequuntur ullam et. Eius sapiente qui ratione animi id corrupti et. Quam sint distinctio sint. A et eum modi sed enim ea dignissimos. Consectetur et expedita ratione totam.
Quia quibusdam quasi deleniti laborum voluptate. Voluptatum consequatur quas aut omnis nulla et fugiat. Cum suscipit sed quibusdam. Ea sit ad dolores temporibus aut velit.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...