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I would choose Williams out of all three if accepted. UCB if you can take the in-state tuition, but other than that I think USC wins here. The gamble of getting into Haas is not worth it if you're already in at Marshall.
Pure hearsay, but Berkeley seems to be competitive as fuck for finance and just doesn't seem like a fun college experience. You'll definitely have to hustle as well from Emory, but seems like it'd be easier considering the smaller student body. Emory is definitely a regional target and sends quite a few kids to Lazard NY for some reason.
I'd go with Williams and Notre Dame in that order if you get off the waitlist. Williams has a great network, is the most prestigious and would give you the easiest path to IBD. Notre Dame places quite well at BBs in NY from what I've seen although I have no idea about the strength of OCR.
Some people will tell you to go Stern but honestly it's not worth it considering 1) the massive price tag and 2) the complete lack of a college experience since it's so cut throat. In all likelihood, you'll probably have a better shot from a place like Emory - they might send fewer kids but the competition for those spots is exponentially lower.
If you get off the waitlist, pick Williams. If not, you'll be ok with USC. The alumni network there is crazy and they always look out for Trojans. I am not a big fan of Berkeley for various reasons but the main one is the large size and how competitive it is.
I would pick between Williams and Stern if you get off the wait-lists. Disagree with White Hat Party about his perception of Stern.
I had an incredibly unique 4 year college experience at NYU and I wouldn't trade it in for anything. The personal and professional opportunities both the school provides and the ones you can create for yourself are insane. If you are not a fan of the city life then go with Williams (if you get off the wait-list).
Appreciate all the help so far, but can you guys refrain from commenting on the waitlists? I'm pretty sure I'm not getting off of them. UCB, USC, and Emory are my main choices right now. Thanks!
Go to USC, super fun college. Don't want to end up like those weird Berkeley people amirite
Bump? More advice would be appreciated, and especially some insight from current Haas students or alumni would be appreciated. Do people just take easy GPA boosters in the two years before Haas admission?
Berkeley may have more finance "prestige" (assuming you get into Haas) but USC will be 100x more fun. Girls there are all 10s.
Forget what people are saying about going to USC just because it's more fun... Go to USC anyway because it's actually a really good school and a sleeper in finance recruiting. A finance job on the West Coast isn't going to be handed to you at either USC or Berkeley, so just go the school that would give you no reason to regret graduating from. If you look at it that way, there's probably a lesser number of potentially regrettable reasons to attend USC over Berkeley.
I'm a current Haas student, so keep in mind that I'm probably biased against USC lol. We have excellent recruiting with all west coast bulge bracket offices and enjoy strong representation every year with MBB consulting. If you are dead set on working in New York, we have solid representation at Goldman, MS and JPM, but I'm not sure about others. As far as I can tell, we also do very well in the newer recruiting field of sending kids directly to the sell-side, with several heading to Bridgewater, Two Sigma, KKR, and Bain Capital last year and more going this year.
I don't know anything about Williams recruiting. I can tell you for a fact that USC does not have a comparable recruiting infrastructure to Haas. It's a good school which has extremely dedicated alumni, but I think getting into finance would probably be harder to do at USC than UCB overall.
Another thing to think about is actually getting into Haas. It's a tiny, exclusive school which has 700 undergraduates and is currently refusing to expand to keep up with growth in applications. The acceptance rate this year was supposedly around 37%, and if applications keep growing at 5%/year it will be at 34% by the time you're applying. It's hard as shit to be better than 2/3 of Berkeley students, especially when they're also trying to be better than 2/3 of Berkeley students. With the overall UCB acceptance rate at like 17%, Haas basically takes 6.3% of the kids at the top of the funnel. It's hard to get in and there are no guarantees. That being said, nobody who isn't a Berkeley grad is going to give a shit if you major in econ over Haas, so other than the recruiting access, it's mostly a vanity contest. Kids that aren't in Haas get incredible finance jobs all the time, especially in quant fields.
To quickly run down some of the other things mentioned in this thread:
Berkeley is not fun - myth. Anyone who says doing undergrad here is unfun is wrong. Check us out on a game day or on any weekend to see the ratchet in action. The decompression is real.
Berkeley girls are not hot - myth-ish. Attractiveness is on a bell curve, and I would say our bell curve is definitely lower on average than Southern Californian schools. We still have plenty of absolute knock-out 10s, though, and the women are promiscuous. You will not have problems hooking up with girls that are as hot as you.
Berkeley is very competitive - not a myth. Everyone here hates failing and the students tend to be very good at gritting their teeth and getting through a massive volume of work/studying. From matriculation until getting into your major (be it Haas or something else), you will be saturated in competition. After declaring, everyone chills out a lot. The key to getting through this period is reframing the problem as you vs. a previous version of yourself, rather than you vs. the world. If you make a little bit of forward progress on being a better person every day, the competition will quickly melt away.
I have a ton of friends from UCB, and its uber-competitive for wall street gigs. Something like 90% of kids I've met come from delta sigma pi/akpsi so, to the OP, be sure to join one of those business frats.
UCB's atmosphere really sucks, and I've yet to meet someone like you who genuinely has fond memories of the school. Haas does indeed have decent placement (mostly Big 4 accounting), but is nowhere in the same league as Stern/Williams. If OP is dead-set on HF, he's better off on the East Coast
I am a current Econ student at Cal (did not apply to Haas) and I had no problem getting into IB. There are plenty of majors at Berkeley that place into IB and other finance fields (Econ, Math, CS, Engineering, etc.). Sure, it is competitive and you have to hustle, but if you are not willing to do that then you probably should not be looking at finance as a career anyway.
USC has a party school reputation and the girls are hot, but Greek Life at Berkeley is very active and you will have a fun college experience. Besides that, you are right next to SF and the rest that the Bay Area has to offer so you have to be a boring fuck not to have a fun time here. Honestly, USC is mainly active recruiting-wise in LA with some outliers going to SF and NY. Berkeley is going to place better than Marshall if you are willing to work for it.
berkeley, emory, usc in that order if you want to have the best recruiting opps.
usc, berkeley, emory in that order if you want to have fun.
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