Please Don't Go to Stanford

Dear Any Admitted Stanford Student Also Deciding Between Wharton, Harvard, Yale, or Princeton:

Please don't go to Stanford if you want to do finance.

Best,

Stanford Student

PS.: Thank me later when you have your EB/BB/MF offer

 
Controversial

if you go to stanford youre bound to do some shit better and more important than banking 

 

Like what LOL

If you think all the kids in Stanford are curing cancer or working on some next robotics you’re crazy

They are just normal, high achieving kids who got into a good school

 
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Most Helpful

Graduated from Stanford in the past couple years. Ppl who were competent got good offers. Hate to say it dude but you just might be bad

 

If you can’t hack it out it Stanford you’re the problem. Yeah maybe it takes marginally more effort than out of Wharton due to how developed their pipeline is, but I wouldn’t trade my degree for any of the other options. Stanford just carries way more weight and has a much better rep in the real world (I.e not just finance) than any of those other schools besides arguably Harvard (but you don’t get as much of a negative stigma as them, so it evens out). 
 

plenty of kids went to MF/EB/BB/HF/etc my year. And the alumni tend to be very good about responding even up to the MD level. I was able to have coffee chats with partners at MF’s and MD’s at BB’s just by cold emailing. 
 

but yeah sure, if IB is your life’s dream and your deadset on some niche EB group, then sure go to Wharton and waste away the best years of your life. Just know that while you were being a hardo in Philly of all places, the Stanford kids in your group were off surfing and having fun and still got the same job with maybe 5% more effort on networking, but way less effort overall 

 

Associate 1 in RE - Other

If you can't hack it out it Stanford you're the problem. Yeah maybe it takes marginally more effort than out of Wharton due to how developed their pipeline is, but I wouldn't trade my degree for any of the other options. Stanford just carries way more weight and has a much better rep in the real world (I.e not just finance) than any of those other schools besides arguably Harvard (but you don't get as much of a negative stigma as them, so it evens out). 

 

plenty of kids went to MF/EB/BB/HF/etc my year. And the alumni tend to be very good about responding even up to the MD level. I was able to have coffee chats with partners at MF's and MD's at BB's just by cold emailing. 

 

but yeah sure, if IB is your life's dream and your deadset on some niche EB group, then sure go to Wharton and waste away the best years of your life. Just know that while you were being a hardo in Philly of all places, the Stanford kids in your group were off surfing and having fun and still got the same job with maybe 5% more effort on networking, but way less effort overall 

So much of this is so misguided. Can agree with u on the first part, if OP can’t get a job in finance or anywhere for that matter from Stanford then yeah that’s on you.

But getting jobs from Wharton is actually so much easier, given that you are learning this shit in school and there are infinite alumni connections, genuinely more so than any other school (speaking in broad terms, maybe there are more HYP guys at an individual firm but Wharton network is unparalleled, just a numbers game). And Stanford just can’t compete there, unfortunately.

Stanford carrying more weight in the rest of the world is also just BS, let’s be real. The “negative stigma of Harvard?” That’s just insecure S kids who shit on Harvard all day, no one actually thinks badly of Harvard…. And at the HYP level, you won’t get a job because you’re at Yale not Princeton or Harvard or vice versa, it’s all just that you probably did pretty damn well in high school. If your girlfriends mom is impressed you went to Stanford, she will be equally if not more impressed you go to Yale, so this lay prestige argument is bull crap.

Can’t comment on Stanford alumni receptiveness, but again, numbers game where Stanford just doesn’t have as many guys in the industry (unless you’ve been reaching out to GSB alums and it has worked, lol). Don’t know why you’re making Wharton out to be this prison and Stanford in Palo Alto of all places to be a paradise, but you don’t have to “waste away the best years of your life,” and it’s not as if Stanford kids are just surfing all the time.

Stop painting the rosiest picture of one of the schools and the shittiest of the other. I have no horse in this race, went to an HYP, and if I had to choose between S and W I would definitely take Stanford. But so much of this post was flawed and I genuinely believe if you know for sure you want to do finance, Wharton is the spot to be at.

 

I go to Wharton but I would pick Stanford over Wharton at any days. Wharton is def the best pipeline to IB but I hate the toxic culture here. I'm dual degree with engineering and I feel more comfortable with my engineering friends more than my Wharton friends. Not saying that the whole school is like this but it's the whole cutthroat, banking culture here. I would rather go to Stanford but I got rejected LOL

 

The problem with people like you is that you rely too much on the school name to get a job. At the same time you need to be a dog at any of these schools to get any top offer at a gs/ms bb or eb mfpe etc. Personally have seen multiple friends at every school this cycle strike outevery where because they had this sense of entitlement like you. The school will get you the interview but after that it is up to you to perform and just like my peers at these institutions they expected that school name to carry and didn't do no networking either. 

TDLR: these schools are all great but don't expect shit to be handed to you just because you go to one you still have to grind 

 

IB on-campus recruiting may honestly be better set up at target and even semi-target schools with lesser names than at Stanford and MIT. I honestly sometimes think that banks don't really want super smart people, which is why you don't see a lot of banks doing on campus recruiting at Stanford and MIT, but they choose to go recruit at UMich (Ross) and such.

 

I don’t understand how anyone can complain about being at Stanford in any context, like this is not even a first world problem it’s just delusional

 

it's not like you have unlimited amount of time and tries. if you don't know how to network to get an IB interview and haven't prepared all the fit and technical answers and maintained a perfect GPA by the time you're 19 (sophomore), then you're out of luck. people not from affluent families may only learn about existence of IB in their sophomore or junior year and then it takes time to prepare for interviews and learn the networking game, but then it's too late, cause banks only recruit people who know about IB from the cradle and prepare for IB applications in high school.

 

Have countless friends who go to less-target west coast schools like UCB, UCLA, and USC and end up with top BB/EB offers. Clearly you are the problem my friend…

 

OP’s on the waitlist right now aren’t they

 

You clearly didn’t prepare yourself for interviews, and you may have benefited from the BBA preparation but you should be perfectly competent intellectually unless you’re literally special needs or so socially awkward nobody wants to network with you. Just talk to alums and recruit off cycle or lateral in if IB is what you want. If people can get in from Ohio State, you’re in no position to complain. Stanford doesn’t even have recruiting competition, so Menlo Park office roles should be a walk in the park with BIWS prep.

 

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