UNC Vs Vanderbilt?

Congratulations on your acceptances. Both schools provide strong networking and recruiting opportunities. Go with whichever school will provide a stronger social experience. Despite both schools being in the south the vibe at each is rather distinct. When it's this close always make a decision on the basis of your gut.

You should absolutely go.

Go to UNC, they have an undergrad business school and the recruiting is a bit stronger there due to proximity to Charlotte.

Small school or large school?

Both are great schools (I went to one of them). UNC has a larger state school feel, a better basketball team and slightly better exit ops for NY. Vandy has a smaller and frattier feel, a better football team and a stronger alumni network. You can't go wrong either way, and I met both intelligent and fun people from both schools. They're close enough in terms of recruiting where it should be matter of fit for you.

Thank you for the advice! I want to go to Vanderbilt but I am concerned that there is little to no recruiting at Vandy and I will have difficulty getting an SA position. It has no undergrad bus school and I am scared that I wont learn enough about stuff like valuations (at PE we are doing a lot of buy-side and Im involved with turning around companies). So is it really thay close in terms of recruiting? Seems like 20% of Unc bus. People get jobs at ib while there are very few that get in from Vandy.

anyone?

^^ I think you answered your own question. UNC looks like the better choice from your analysis.

Yeah, but at the same time I might be undervaluing the recruiting at vandy. I need someone in the field to tell me how prominent Vanderbilt is on the street.

anyone?

Vanderbilt gets a strong showing each year from BAML, Goldman, Jefferies, Citi, Harris Williams (and other MMs), Tudor Pickering, Sun Trust, Raymond James, and pretty much every southern boutique. Also good representation from Texas firms. Additionally, there are opportunities with some of the other BBs and bigger banks but they aren't as consistent each year. If you excel academically, put in your time, and are ok socially you should have no problem getting into finance from Vandy, whether you want to end up in NYC, SE, Texas, or Chicago.

You will have significantly more fun at Vandy, that is for sure. I am a graduating Vandy student that will be working full time at one of the better firms listed above.

Yeah right, Vandy is not more fun than UNC-Chapel Hill. They both have the hottest females among the elite schools in America but UNC has ACC Basketball while Vandy has...baseball?

At Vanderbilt you're going to have to network, since not all of the BBs come on campus. But if the bank doesn't come on campus, Vandy is near the top of everyone's non-target list. That being said, it's really easy to stand out there since everyone is concerned on what's going to be best bar on Thursday and who is throwing the best frat party on Saturday. So versus a lot of schools, especially ones with business schools, there are not a lot of people thinking about banking until senior year. At UNC, a lot more people are focused on banking recruiting, thus creating a lot more competition early on.

Also I wouldn't worry about not having a business school. People interviewing at Vandy know that there isn't a business school, and will ask questions straight out of the Vault guide.

If recruiting is by far your #1 driver for college, then I would take UNC. If having a fun, smaller, liberal arts school pretty close if not on par with recruiting, then take Vandy.

I'm summering at a lower BB this summer and am an undergraduate at Vanderbilt. I do know people either summering or joining full time at GS, Barclays, BAML, and CS. I got into the finance game late so I don't know as many of my finance-oriented classmates, but people have apparently nailed JP Morgan/Morgan Stanley offers as well, judging by what the folks in the career center have told me. You'll be fine coming here if you want to do banking; someone hit the nail on the head when they said fewer people from Vanderbilt want to go into banking than do from schools that have an undergraduate business program; competition is lighter, you don't have to be so one dimensional (I'm a liberal arts major, for crying out loud), and you can still make it just fine. The alumni network is, like someone else mentioned, phenomenal. When I got my offer from the BB, I received phone calls and emails all day from alum at the firm congratulating me, and many of them offered to help me place into some of the more competitive groups (i.e. M&A) during sell day, without me even needing to ask. That being said, I know nothing about UNC. Still, you'll do great at Vanderbilt if you decide to choose it and hit the ground running from day one.

Do you think the experience is really worth it over the better OCR at UNC?

Both are great schools. You can't go wrong. Neither one will hurt your chances of landing a job in finance but neither will make you a 'shoe-in'. Go where you'll have more fun in the short term and worry about the rest later.

UNC all the way. My brother went there. Excellent school. But tough on grades.