Emory Business vs Cornell ILR

Colorado resident, currently at Emory as first year student (pre-business/finance) track. Have a TO(transfer option) to Cornell ILR for Sophomore year where I could minor in Business. Interested in both IB and Consulting tracks. Interested in working in NY. Which path would be provide significant recruitment advantage? Would getting in as Cornell ILR sophomore make it very difficult to join the right clubs? Has anyone traversed a similar path or have any advise? Do ILR students have the same recruitment opportunities as Dyson students? Or does staying at Emory and getting into the right investment clubs the best path. 

29 Comments
 

Major doesn’t matter here - non Dyson Cornell student. Top clubs are hard as a transfer but clubs aren’t nessecary to break in. 

 
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Recent ILR grad who recruited and was in the clubs. Major doesn't matter at Cornell at all like other guy said. If anything ILR is perfect because it's pretty easy and sounds business-y enough. No difference in opportunities vs. Dyson, full stop.

Clubs are very hard as a sophomore but they've started taking more. Maybe 0-2 per year for the top clubs. Also like other guy said I wouldn't worry about it too much because they do help but you don't need them. The clubs just structure everything for you, but if you're self disciplined you'll be fine.

I don't know much about Emory tbh but I'm pretty confident recruiting for NYC from Cornell is just easier in general. Every firm visits, there's an army of alums to reach out to (decently responsive), and there's tons of spots. For many banks (GS, BofA, JPM, Evercore now) Cornell has quite literally the most (or tied for most) allocated spots for undergrad IB recruitment. 

Culturally I wouldn't worry about transferring in. ILR has a MASSIVE transfer population (1/3rd of each class) so you'll meet plenty of people in the same situation. Lots of them rush too so if you're interest in that it's not a problem.

ILR also happens to be the biggest Cornell school for consulting. It's probably the most popular career track, and ILR kids lowkey run the consulting clubs which are also easier to join as a sophomore.

Obviously there's big lifestyle differences between Atlanta and Ithaca so I'll leave that side of things up to you. But for IB / Consulting recruitment, I would confidently say Cornell ILR gives you a materially better chance than Emory.

Feel free to PM if you have questions

 

At a NY MBB and most of the Cornell kids are cas engineering, dyson. They might run the clubs but I’m not sure about offers

 

At least in my class it was a lot of ILR but then again we're not talking about that many people total and it could be randomly different at whichever MBB youre at. Point is it's random though the firms don't care about undergrad school

 

Thanks for letting us know where you're from. Assuming it's the same cost here's my breakdown:

Emory & Georgia Tech don't have well established pipelines to NYC as much as Atlanta/the south. If you get into clubs at Emory, that would be great.

Cornell Dyson/CAS/whatever is Cornell. Cornell is relatively close to NYC, is an ivy league and is a target. Only negative is your competing against so many finance hardos. However, this means that there were be plenty of alumni to network with. You don't really need clubs to place.

Go to Cornell and don't look back.

 

Thanks for the MS. I added Georgia Tech to give some context. Emory placement is significantly less than Cornell non-dyson. I saw you go to Emory so it's makes sense why you're saying this. I go to a target and objectively speaking Cornell = target and Emory = non-target. 

 

Dyson vs. non-Dyson doesn’t matter. It’s completely different than Wharton vs Penn, Ross vs. Mich, Stern vs NYU, etc. Only difference is more Dyson kids recruit but the opportunities are the same and Dyson doesn’t have a unique alumni network that cares about the school 

 

I don’t disagree with your recommendation to go to Cornell but Emory is far from a non-target lol. Idk where you got that. It’s very solid and much better than Georgia Tech for IB recruiting. That said would still recommend Cornell. 

 

Seeing many comments speaking on behalf of Emory, yet it’s clear from what they’re saying that they didn’t go there nor have a clue what the recruiting process looks like. As someone who went to Emory and landed in IB, I can say that if you are a quality candidate, there’s not an interview out of reach for you there (minus direct to buyside unless DEI). The smaller pool of students + school reputation = big fish in a small pond.

Everyone at Emory knows most people don’t want to stay in Atlanta, nor are they pigeonholed into doing so at all. I cannot speak to the experience recruiting from other schools like Cornell etc, and I think that should be a courtesy paid by most on WSO considering doing otherwise is just making a conjecture

 

OP’s question is valid. My issue is with the people who play down Emory recruiting without knowing anything about it.

And as someone who went there I can tell you, if you don’t land a job from Emory then it’s not the school’s fault. You may be able to improve your odds by upgrading to another school, but it’s all pointless if you’re still a poor candidate. The benefit of transferring is minor compared to leaving a complete non target for a semi target or target.

 

Not sure about banking, but a MBB offer in NY from emory isnt too common. Cornell wins there, not sure how ILR plays into everything. Cornell does well at Mck, not as great with Bain/BCG. Emory is probably decent in ATL but if you really want NY consulting then transfer.

 

Emory does fairly well at MBB probably better than its peers but yeah MBB NYC is fairly lacking. IB is mostly in NYC and pretty solid placement but Cornell is better 

 

Cornell and Emory are not a target schools for IB. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to break into IB from there, especially if you network really hard and try to build connections ahead of recruiting season. I’ve heard of people in IB who went to Cornell/Gonzuieta (again, that’s outweighed by countless of Wharton/Harvard/Bocconi people, but it CAN happen)

 

You're a high school student telling people a university with top three representation across almost all investment banks isn't a target and talking about "hearing of people" who broke in from there lol. You literally copy and pasted your response to a thread about RPI and applied it to Cornell / Emory.

Good luck with your ED this week and please don't give people like the guy who posted this thread bad advice when you're only bringing inaccurate information.

 

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