state school or private school?

Hello Monkeys, 

     I've gotten into Fordham, Binghamton, Uconn, and some lower ranked nescacs that aren't known to be FO finance targets. Binghamton and Uconn would be the two cheapest options for me. However, I feel like Fordham and possibly the lower ranked nescacs would be better if I want to pursue High Finance. The private schools listed would also be a good 10-20k more expensive a year. Would the private schools give me a better shot at getting internships and an offer compared to the two state schools, especially when factoring in the increased cost? Any advice is appreciated, my goal is to get a front office finance job out of school and I don't really know what to do. Thanks. 

3 Comments
 
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How successful is your/your family's network of friends? Did you go to a private high school? Would you consider yourself well-connected?

As fucked up as this sounds, the NESCAC route would probably be smart if you don't come from a preppier background or have parents with successful friends or friends with parents in finance. Seriously. NESCAC schools are small enough that alums are typically more receptive to helping out a kid from their school than one of the millions of Binghamton or UConn graduates taking up oxygen.

With that being said, someone close to me was faced with the choice between a lower-tiered NESCAC school and my state's flagship school (also in New England) several years ago. Kid took the state school and ended up in MM IB because he had a great network, was confident in his abilities, and sold himself well enough to his contacts to find some people willing to go to bat for him. Would not recommend this if you didn't go to prep school or grow up in Fairfield or Westchester County, though.

 

That makes sense thanks. I was looking at Binghamton and they have a good finance society that seems to place well. The nescacs seem to have more people in banking though. Do you know anything about Fordham?

 

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