Cornell vs Michigan vs Dartmouth school choices
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Career Resources
Why would you rank SUNY Ithaca as first?
Edit: Knew I'd get ms, but am trying to get to the king kong rank
Why wouldn't you?
THIS
Stern is a powerhouse for NYC
Stern, Cornell/Duke, Dartmouth imo
Stern has the best exits, but personally, college is so much more than that. Basing a decision off this is imo, a little short-sighted. If a student applies himself/herself, all these schools will yield excellent post-grad opportunities.
100% agree. Disappointing to see people defaulting to career outcomes as the sole indicator of college quality.
If you get a quality education from a quality school with a decent alumni network, and study something you are passionate about, you can do well in a finance career. Just a tougher numbers game at the end of the day.
Plus finance is easy to learn if you know arithmetic and have a passion for learning about it. I was a classics major and work in IB.
Dartmouth probably best bet due to quality of life and how good it is for east coast recruiting
Damn people really rating Cornell/Stern over Dartmouth
I'd go to Dartmouth or Duke over the other two for the overall experience.
Dartmouth/Duke Stern/Cornell
Would go Dartmouth/Duke over Cornell/Stern for overall experience. But if you really want a business education out of undergrad it would make sense to take Stern/Cornell (if AEM) over Dartmouth/Duke.
Ranked by difficulty getting in and most respected:
Dartmouth Tuck NYU Stern Duke Fuqua Cornell Johnson
I actually do recruiting, when you ask these questions on forums you really only get answers pumping up their own schools. You want to see what recruiters go by? Just rank all the schools by GMAT score, in my experience, it reflects the quality of the student body really well. Dartmouth never gets skipped by recruiters, it's regarded as a top tier program. NYU has the best location. Duke has had an average gmat of like 699-700 for years, it's a crapshoot. Cornell has great finance connections, but you may have to do legwork yourself to get where you want to be.
op said undergrad not mba..
It's not even correct for MBA. Stern has a LOT more people in banking than Tuck. Tuck, by all accounts, is an overall better business school but if you want to do banking, you're not taking Tuck over Stern simply because of the alumni presence and the number of slots (banks always say there are no quotas but let's be real) for Stern over Tuck (even adjusted for class size and the amount of people recruiting for banking)
Dartmouth/Duke>>Stern/Cornell
IMO choose Dartmouth
I'm shocked everyone isn't putting Dartmouth first. I don't even go there but I applied ED when I was applying and still kinda wish I went there.
Stern does well for banking, but unless you're 100% sure you want to work in banking. dartmouth/Cornell/Duke are more prestigious and will place better in nearly any other role, and I still think Stern is at-best an equal to any of those other schools for IB. But if you decide later you want to go into consulting, tech, F500, etc, one of those other three schools will place a ton better than Stern.
Dartmouth alumni are also obsessed with Dartmouth and have a ton of influence all over finance. For the size of the school, Dartmouth has an unbelievable alumni network that really cares about its students.
While Stern places well, I think it's just a numbers game. Nearly everyone in Stern wants IB, so obviously some are going to end up in great places. Dartmouth has a smaller student body, many of whom do not want IB, but I think the average Dartmouth kid definitely beats out the average Stern kid.
Dartmouth > Duke = Cornell > Stern
THIS (on the above).
There is no other school in the Ivy League or top 50 that can match Dartmouth's alumni network. This does not mean sheer number of alums or where said alums are, but actual accessibility and connectivity to said alums all over the world and across industries, many of whom have done very well and are in top positions.
So much of social life and human connectivity is based on shared experiences and culture. Being isolated a very small school, in the middle of nowhere and with all kinds of unique traditions and culture, Dartmouth (for better or worse) has all of those traits. One can reach out to alums decades older and talk about the shared experiences (and still do or things that have changed). If you want to connect with someone within a decade or so of you, there is a strong chance that you know someone in common and can get a warm introduction from said person.
I cannot comment on recruiting but the alum network is incredible (and so few people use it well). It requires persistence and to be outgoing (many people have/are neither, and that's ok), but those who can utilize it can literally get a huge leg up and build high level connections for jobs, mentorship etc very early on.
For some color below is a loose re-creation of a discussion following a cold email with an alum like 30 years older and at a very high level in banking that I have actually heard (and believe).
Him: "Hey X how are you? Must be cold as hell up there given that it's February." Student: "Yeah tell me about it. Thank you for taking the time to speak" Him: "No problem. Let me ask. Do you guys still get wasted? Do you still party?" Student: "Uhm.. Yeah sure you know its college" Him: "Yeah let me tell you. Man we got wasted. This one time I broke into a place and the owner himself kicked me out while wearing his pajamas (laughing). Do you still get kegs from that one place?" Student: "...Yeah" Him: "Oh its almost winter carnival. What's the ice sculpture this year? I think we did Dr. Seuss or something" Student: "Yeah, this year it's Gandalf."
10-20 mins later (after talking about Greek life, studies, professors, changes in school/culture) Him: "So you wanted some advice or an internship or something? How can I help?"
Once again I cannot comment regarding on-campus recruiting, but the alumni network at Dartmouth is unparalleled. Maybe Princeton comes close or meets it.
Now for the most important part of my post (as an older person on this board). College (for me and hopefully for most) is and should be about so much more than jobs/banking/on campus recruiting. One does not know how the world will be or how he/she will change and develop in college. Some might want to be in a big city, or hate the cold weather, in which case Dartmouth is a tough sell... We could have a re-run of 2008 and if you graduate then, you are probably not going to get a job in a bank...Study, party, make friends, explore new subjects and activities, check out the area, date etc etc etc. That's hopefully what college is all about. A time for growth, exploration, personal development.
Or maybe I'm just off my rocker.
Good Luck
Edited the quote for clarity
This is it. I have a bunch of friends who are either at Dartmouth or graduated from there. Of your colleges, Dartmouth will give you the best experience. If New Hampshire woods aren't your thing, then Duke is likely going to be your thing. While Stern has a high placement into IB, it's because so many Asian kids go there specifically for banking, and work their asses off to compete for grades, internships, etc. It's not a very fun place. Dartmouth is a smaller more exciting Cornell with an alumni base that will to bat for you at a moment's notice. Duke, being in NC, is quite a different climate, but caters to similar lifestyles as Dartmouth. It also has a much larger alumni base, but with less easily accessible connections.
Also, to answer your question about Princeton, I've found that their alumni are similarly easy to facilitate for connections.
Just gotta say Cornell Dyson has 100% placement rate within 3 months of graduation to desired industry
Many of these answers seem to come from people who don't work at one of the BBs. Cornell's Dyson School placement is definitely number 1 out of the 4. Then Duke, Dartmouth, Stern. Despite Stern's vicinity to the financial institutions, the placement definitely is not as strong.
Dartmouth / Duke Cornell / Stern imo
This is the type of stupid/pointless debate that will distract you from success. All of these are amazing institutions.
For NYC/Boston IB
Dartmouth, by far. Their alumni network is the top by far and they send the most proportion-wise of their student body to finance among the Ivy League schools
Duke. Location is a bitch but the prestige helps a lot
Stern. It's decent but it's only #2 because there are no good undergraduate business schools within the Ivy League except Wharton, which is #1 by FAR
Cornell, not that big of a presence in NYC IB relatively
... is this a joke? There's a page here somewhere that ranks school presence (by percentage composition of BB and EBs) for target schools. You have your own rankings, but your statements for Dartmouth/Duke/Cornell are odd, not to mention that despite Stern's vicinity to these elite financial institutions, their placement in IB is surprisingly weak (proportionally for their number of business students)
How does Cornell not have a big presence in NYC IB? They have SAs and analysts in every BB / EB each year (usually 3+ at BBs and 2+ at EBs). Dyson also has arguably equally strong placement on a relative basis for IB when compared to Wharton (although Wharton has much better buyside placement).
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