Why is Berkeley much less prestigious in finance than its reputation suggests?
For context I am a high schooler applying to college that grew up and went to school outside of the US.
In my Asian home country, the only 4 US universities a “layperson” knows are Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Berkeley. I have also studied internationally in Europe and while people might know more US universities, these 4 are the ones that consistently get a reaction. Rankings of international universities seem to support this; almost all rankings have Berkeley in the global top 10 and above most Ivies/Ivy+ colleges.
As someone applying to US colleges, it is nearly impossible for me to gain admission to Harvard, MIT, or Stanford, but I believe Berkeley is quite possible with my background. I would obviously like to go to a school that carries “prestige” in my country of origin, but understand that in the US it is considered a semi-target and is weaker than schools like Northwestern or Dartmouth, or even other public schools like UMich and UVA that have much lower name recognition internationally.
I guess I am trying to figure out how Berkeley is perceived in the United States and the finance industry in general. Is its status as a semi-target entirely because of its West Coast location, or do other factors play a role in its lower relative prestige domestically? If accepted, how difficult would it be to break into high finance from Berkeley?
I am from the bay and went to Berkeley. People here are really smart but not that proper or polished. They’re better suited for tech and the last 20 years in this area were a better time time to join tech then finance if you wanted to become rich. Stanford also places poorly to finance vs east coast schools of the same caliber. Finance isn’t as illustrious to people here versus in financial hubs like London and nyc
Stanford places poorly to finance because the students there are more interested in tech/startups and are honestly way too smart for IB/PE. For the few that are interested in IB/PE, they could literally get interviews from anywhere they want. Plenty of Stanford students place into quant though.
Has entirely to do with coasts. Just look at GS TMT - half the kids are from just one business frat at Berkeley. Your perception is skewed because of East Coast bias.
Berkeley is definitely a target school for west coast offices, but it's a semi-target for east coast. I went to school on the west coast and worked in SF IB for a couple years, and our target schools for recruiting were Berkeley, USC, and Stanford.
The issue is the NYC offices can recruit from Ivies + other top schools in the east coast like Northwestern, NYU, UMich, UVA, etc. so they don't really feel the need to recruit from west coast schools since they already have so many good candidates. Also coming from California, it's easier for interviewers to pick people who are based in the east coast because they're less of a flight risk than someone coming from California who they think will want to move back to CA after a couple years.
Also from my perspective, it seems like among the business/finance track at Berkeley there's a mix of interest in IB, consulting, and tech whereas there might be more weight towards IB from east coast schools. After all, why kill yourself over IB hours when you could work at a top tech company making comp that's not that much less (at the junior levels) and work normal hours.
Great school, viewed on par with UVA, University of Michigan, etc.,
UVA, Michigan, Chapell Hill, etc., will place better in NYC and Berkeley will place better (vs. UVA, Michigan)
Reputation in Asia is irrelevant (unless you're applying for a job in Asia) and driven by random shit that has nothing to do with how good the school is or how well it places. The UC system broadly is a total mess with funding shortages, no test scores.
i think the reputation in asia might come from the fact that most asians will study STEM even if they end up in finance and berkeley is a much better stem school than most of the standard finance targets
I mean yeah as academic institutions UC Berkley and Caltech are probably better than the usual finance targets (STEM specifically). Most people are probably familiar with their research output, even if they have no STEM background. Not dogging on the finance targets (excl. Harvard and MIT) but I bet most in EMEA have heard of at least one thing developed/discovered at Caltech/Berkley, whereas I know some people (non-americans) that confuse UPenn with Penn State.
who cares about reputation in asia? unless you plan to recruit for singapore/hong kong ib, it shouldn't be a criteria
GO BRUINS
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