NYU Stern or UVA Mcintire
I am a freshman in college at an extremely non-target school. I have applied to transfer to McIntire and Stern and have already gotten into Stern for my sophomore year. I want to work in finance, ideally investment banking, and was wondering which of the two would be better for that career path in terms of recruiting access, alumni networks, and target school status. I have looked online and a lot of people have them ranked rather similarly, or have NYU Stern clearly ahead.
For context, I know students at both institutions and would have comparable communities at both schools. My current school does not have much in the way of sports, on-campus life, or fun, so both would be a large improvement in that department. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Stern is a tough place to go to school. The kids are brutal. It might have more total opportunities (maybe not, not sure these days) but everyone is such a slimy hardo. Also living in NY is fun but it’s way more fun when you are over 21. You don’t get college time back.
I’ve never met someone who went to UVA and didn’t enjoy going. Also UVA alums generally seem to push for their own. Maybe that’s changed but idk man UVA also has more attractive girls.
UVA isn’t even top 10:
https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-banking/
Lmfao that bank still has credit suisse as a top UVA employer. Wouldn't trust a thing it says
Honestly go to UVA, much better quality of life there
Stern definitely wins prestige-wise, it's the second best undergrad business school (some may put Dyson in front). But I don't think it's worth it unless you like that hyper-competitive atmosphere and have the mental competency to back it up.
Also keep in mind you will be a sophomore and top clubs recruit 90% of their class freshman fall/spring... so you are never going to get a top top job from Stern. Idk if it's the same at UVA
Bro how many accounts do you have? It’s non stop sucking Stern’s cock hahaha
Wharton / Sloan / Ross / Dyson / Haas are above your shitty little NYU.
https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-banking/
Numbers don’t lie. Ross and Haas are NOT better
Congrats on Michigan!
I don’t have multiple accounts, I guess more than one person thinks stern is a good school?
I went to neither school but have close friends from both schools. in my opinion you will already be so far behind the top Stern kids that you will be uncompetitive for any of the best roles and boxed out because of Stern culture. UVA is a much safer bet. It's a more fun campus, and you will have an easier time catching up and joining the orgs that will help you succeed with recruiting, as the kids aren't cutthroat.
Obviously, Stern has better placement than UVA overall (although UVA certainly holds it's own especially in the HF / PE space) but Stern's better placement doesn't mean a damn thing because nobody is going to pick your resume out of a pile of 100 Stern resumes that are better than yours. At the bank where I was an analyst, the Stern alum would backchannel with upperclassmen at the 2% acceptance rate club they were in to pick the few best sophomores to interview. Networking literally did not get you anywhere as a Stern sophomore at my "top group".
Agreed, I went to Stern as a soph transfer, didn't know about clubs, and would literally have 1% hit rate networking w/ stern alumni despite sending out all personalized emails. just started emailing non alum with funny titles and that got me more responses. Landed MM IB SA and FT recruiting actually felt easier to me than SA, but even in the group where I landed FT my first round interviewer mentioned they picked up my resume to interview because of a stern club i was in
What stern club took you in as a soph transfer?
Would echo the above comment unless you are in a top club at stern you are not going to place well probably have a better shot actually networking with good grades at UVA will also enjoy college more. The stern prestige does not matter if you can't even get your foot in the door competing with everyone else around you who is already ahead.
UVA lol
Wahoowa
As a transfer, UVA is the clear option, you'll be starting at the same point as many kids in McIntire, so you will be much more competitive for recruiting out of here
Go to stern if you want to be surrounded by insufferable losers. If you work hard from UVA you’ll get the same outcome and have more fun. School matters a lot less nowadays. All the MS on this forum is from stern bots so ignore.
Source: trust me bro
Congrats on Stern x FT Partners
I transferred to UVA after freshman year as an Econ student and it was one of the best decisions I made in my life. I went there hoping to get better IB opportunities and a better college experience and I got both. Got an offer in a top group at bofa/barc/citi (An1)while not in McIntire or any of the top clubs. Most importantly I loved every moment I was there. I joined a frat after I transferred which helped me make a ton of friends and have a great social life. The campus is sick and there’s so much to do with all the football games, basketball games, bars, frat parties etc… I’d say uva is one of the few schools that truly has that work hard/play hard balance and that’s reflected in all the kids that are there. One of my parents went to Stern and one of my friends goes there and say it’s just full of hardos and the lack of an actual campus/student life makes it difficult
There’s a lot more to college than getting an IB offer; go to UVA and have the time of your life
Stern = overrated
UVA = even more overrated
IB is overrated af in itself but notice how UVA doesn’t even make it into top 10 despite its size:
https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-banking/
Based on your profile history it’s clear you go to Stern and couldn’t place
Better get casing pal time is running out
This reeks of insecurity and projection. Why would I waste time going to any “target school”? I was in STEM and actually learned real skills. That’s why I use data now instead of emotions. Cope harder.
Why are you spamming this? It’s not even accurate? This says updated in 2025, Credit Suisse hasn’t been a bank since 2023. Why can’t such an analytical STEM student figure that out?
Maybe some IB analysts at Credit Suisse didn’t update their LinkedIn. I posted another study, at the end of this discussion, from 2023 that also proves me right.
If you’re a hardo Stern, if you can grind and have fun UVA. I love UVA rn and lots of people have offers from top places (even PE straight out of college)
“Lots” isn’t true. UVA isn't even top 10 and their students are going to throw MS at me for saying this
Congrats on Rutgers - Newark
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There’s more to life than IB. Plus a lot of people commenting point out that Stern gatekeeps their connections to freshmen that get into clubs, but that could also be a similar situation in McIntire.
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