Is it valuable to take on debt to go to an Ivy League or other prestigious university, to get onto Wall Street?
I am just curious if it is worth the debt to get onto wall street. I am also wondering if there are other alternatives to make it?
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interested in other opinions. I believe the consensus of this sub is the value of OCR/resume drops/prestige/alumni outweighs the debt.
I had the same mindset before making my decision whether to accept the semi target offer with debt or chose one of the state schools for free. Despite my early concerns i can say now that I would not trade the people I have met, the knowledge of understanding how recruiting works, the various alumni who have been helpful and the professors who act like family members at thanksgiving when discussing economic and political issues for less debt and a massive uphill battle in order to have a .5% chance to get hired over the target/semi target students. Sure having debt to pay off sucks but at least I feel confident knowing that whether its IB or a narco trafficker in South America ( I don't encourage the use of or distribution of drugs but if one day some hardo goes from HYP-> JPM/GS/MS-> KKR/BR -> HSW MBA ---> Drug king pin he would have had arguably the greatest life known to man) at least I will have an alumni network to connect with if necessary.
As mentioned above UVA, UT, Umich and UCLA are all state target schools that are prestigious, will provide you with multiple opportunities to get into high finance and are cheaper. If you are considering debt at NYU stern vs a full ride at the University of Nevada well then there's a massive tradeoff between the two schools and the opportunities.
I love how people pay for college thinking that they're buying their way into something other than education. You are paying for a degree, that is all.
Education alone does not guarantee you a job - it helps. It's like saying that I am buying an expensive pair of basketball shoes to play in the NBA. Air Jordans may give me a slight edge, but they can only improve my game so much.
All a degree, a name, an alumni network do is help you get to the front door. It is up to you and your skill set to land the job. How much is getting to the front door worth to you?
Yeah but Alumni network has implications outside of work, and exit opps.
Having gone to an Ivy and benefitted from alumni networks and all of that, I think the answer is: "it depends". A cop out answer, I know.
We have seen most of the "pro" cases for taking on debt in order to go to an Ivy/target to try to get on the street posted above and so I will not re-hash them here. They are thoughtful and well reasoned.
The "con" cases, which no one here seems to have dicussed are as such: bad market and unlucky. What if you graduate into a recession or when Wall Street keeps shrinking (which in many areas it certainly is now)? That means fewer/nobody will get jobs. Banks will come and put on a pony show. People presenting will look miserable and tell you flat out how hard it is. Maybe they make some token hires just to justify that they have a grad program. Target or not. Remember also that more than half of the applicants to get into Wall Street jobs, even from targets don't get them. Even though comp is way down, and people know its a slog, tons of qualified people still apply. So what if you are in the majority of people (ie. don't get in?). I'll raise my hands. I was one of them. I didn't get in through OCR and that was in the hey day when apparently "everyone" was hiring and recruiting (I think acceptance rates were like 25% or less in general across the board). Typically it's the same people applying to everything, the same people getting the interviews and the same people getting the jobs.
So OP - now you are on the verge of graduating from an IVY/target. The market is awful and/or you didn't get in and you have a butt-load of student debt. Debt that you took on for the sole purpose of trying to get into Wall Street (this is of course assuming nothing changes about you in college - which it will). Was it worth it?
The answer is: I don't know. Only you will. I hope that you pick a place in which you feel good, positively motivated, can build a great network of friends, learn a lot, see/do a lot, have a good time and hopefully get closer to finding out what you want to do post-school.
The other caveat I will add is that to take advantage of alumni networks one has to really trawl and meet a lot of people and reach out and do it for a while. Just chatting with people when applying won't help that much since so many others will be doing the same thing. To really get an edge you should probably get to know people and for a while. This takes time and effort that few are willing to put in. It's also not for every personality type.
Good Luck