Best Colleges Overall

You can find countless threads regarding best schools to help you break into finance, and those are obvious. However, I don’t think I have seen a thread about best overall schools. As you know, finding a Bank with the right culture is very, very important, so I don’t know why culture at colleges isn’t as stressed, when 4 years is often a lot longer than most new-hires will spend at a bank, and as an alum you will interact with you alma-mater a lot more than your first bank.

The Absolute Top:

Wharton: Obviously the absolute best for finding a job, but it also backs it up with a work hard, play hard culture with a big Greek life and a strong social scene.

Vanderbilt/UVA/Duke: I've grouped these together because they all share the same strengths. They’re in the south, which is undeniably better than the north for college, and a lot of people would agree for life too. All have strong Greek life, sports, social scenes, and place well for after school. I don’t think any other schools can match both the high placement and life at school.

Second Tier: Stronger Academics

Cornell & Dartmouth: Both are considered second tier targets but still place incredibly well and have OCR. Great Greek life, but their sports are mediocre and they have a bunch of disturbing liberal protests and SJW drama on campus, as well as it already touching the 40's up there.

Second Tier: More Enjoyable

University of Texas: Places decently well, Bunch of BB have OCR, Evercore particularly recruits heavily here. This also gives you the quintessential college experience as well. HUGE school spirit, big southern Greek life, tailgates, in a great city but doesn’t have an urban campus.

Other Finance Target Schools:

NYU: Places great for banking for its school and location. But you’re going to school in Manhattan, this has got to suck. No football games, no tailgating, extremely expensive.

Yale/Harvard/Brown/Columbia: Again, culture. If you go here, you will absolutely come out with any job you want, after 4 years of dealing with SJWs and no freedom of thought. Also, there are no undergraduate business schools at any of these colleges.

Princeton: Honestly cannot comment on much about the culture as I don’t know anyone that goes here. I would rank this higher than the four above as they have a financial engineering program even though they don’t have a UG B-school.

Any UC School: places well, horrendous culture. Professors docking points for not being a bleeding heart, very rough on the non-far-left.

Honorable mentions:
SMU: Places well, enjoyable, only reason this isn’t grouped in with Vandy/UVA/Duke is it has a really shitty culture. Very stuck up, if you aren’t from a very wealthy family the social life is rough. This could also be evident at Vandy/UVA/Duke, but just isn’t something I’ve heard first hand.

Villanova: Business School is highly regarded, strong alumni network. Good sports, Greek life is subdued, close to Philly night life.

Colby: Have a friend here that enjoys it. Small School in Maine, earning its spot because they have a program to do two years at Colby, then 3 at Dartmouth to earn an MBA.

I know this is going to receive a lot of heat but is my take. I did leave off a few schools (UChicago, Georgetown, MIT) as I cannot comment on their cultures, and if anyone can comment on that, please do so. Do you disagree with anything on my list? Looking forward to hear what you have to say Monkeys.

 

No, I go to a college I absolutely love. It isn't a feeder, but it places kids well who work for it, and is a place I know I will be successful if I continue to work my ass off. Though it isn't Vandy/UVA/Duke, I would rather have that than what some of my friends have at Target schools where they are not looking towards going back every fall.

 

You overvalue geography for Southern schools and undervalue it for Northern and Midwestern schools. Take a school like Fordham, for example. A huge reason why it is so successful at pumping out investment bankers is because of its location in New York (their business campus is on the southern end of the UWS). Or hell, take Kellogg and Booth in Chicago. Booth is easily better than Vandy, UVA, and Duke. You could even throw Kelley into the mix.

You are correct about the UC schools. Only one of them even has an undergraduate business school that's worth a damn (Berkeley). The cultures are mostly garbage. UCLA's is fine, but it does not have undergraduate business. Berkeley has the business school, but its culture speaks for itself. The other UCs are mostly regional commuter schools that have a culture about as compelling as a strip mall.

"Work ethic, work ethic" - Vince Vaughn
 

Right, Harvard is SO full of SJW's and absolutely no freedom of thought, and you can literally graduate and go straight into any job . And the fact that Princeton has a financial engineering program is SUPER relevant for a undergrad.

On a serious note, you are so obsessed with hating the far-left, that it has affected your rankings absurdly.

 

I hate stupid threads like this. It shows ignorance and immaturity and degrades the quality of WSO.

If you attend a top 10 college, major in a quantitative subject, get a high gpa, do relevant internships, and crush interviews, you'll be fine. But it requires work; just because you attend Harvard does not mean you can graduate with "any job you want." Keep in mind that buyside firms only hire a handful from these schools. Same with MBB consulting. Banking is easier to get because there are more slots, but you still need to do well. At the undergrad hiring level, GPA is the first criteria firms use to filter out applicants.

The top 5 undergrad remains Harvard/Stanford/MIT/Princeton/Yale, although I think Princeton and Yale are slightly below the other 3, due to the increasing power of tech and STEM resulting in H/S/M getting the strongest students. After that, the lower ivies/duke/uchicago/northwestern are all in roughly the same tier (obviously edge to Wharton and to a lesser extent Columbia for NYC finance jobs). A high school student who takes say UChicago over Columbia or Northwestern over Dartmouth is not going to be at a material disadvantage because of that choice. Below that tier is Hopkins/Vandy/Berkeley/WUSTL/USC/Tufts. I do think getting top finance jobs coming out of this tier is tougher but still totally doable if you crush it academically and hustle hard. You just have to make sure you make the right moves, as your margin of safety with respect to recruiting will be smaller.

The good news about banking is that it's gotten easier to get because the top kids at the top colleges are not flocking to it like they used to.

 

Hey non-target kid, you ain't qualified enough to write a thread like this. Wtf do you know about IB placement from these school? "From your friend?" No, you don't have friends in all the schools you listed, don't make assumption base on information you gathered from the internet, please shut up.

I expect you to write a review about BBs, EBs, and whatnot, soon. Or surprise me with your own ranking of PE firms, eh?

 
Stay.Hungry:
You can find countless threads regarding best schools to help you break into finance, and those are obvious. However, I don’t think I have seen a thread about best overall schools. As you know, finding a Bank with the right culture is very, very important, so I don’t know why culture at colleges isn’t as stressed, when 4 years is often a lot longer than most new-hires will spend at a bank, and as an alum you will interact with you alma-mater a lot more than your first bank.

The Absolute Top:

Wharton: Obviously the absolute best for finding a job, but it also backs it up with a work hard, play hard culture with a big Greek life and a strong social scene.

Vanderbilt/UVA/Duke: I've grouped these together because they all share the same strengths. They’re in the south, which is undeniably better than the north for college, and a lot of people would agree for life too. All have strong Greek life, sports, social scenes, and place well for after school. I don’t think any other schools can match both the high placement and life at school.

Second Tier: Stronger Academics

Cornell & Dartmouth: Both are considered second tier targets but still place incredibly well and have OCR. Great Greek life, but their sports are mediocre and they have a bunch of disturbing liberal protests and SJW drama on campus, as well as it already touching the 40's up there.

Second Tier: More Enjoyable

University of Texas: Places decently well, Bunch of BB have OCR, Evercore particularly recruits heavily here. This also gives you the quintessential college experience as well. HUGE school spirit, big southern Greek life, tailgates, in a great city but doesn’t have an urban campus.

Other Finance Target Schools:

NYU: Places great for banking for its school and location. But you’re going to school in Manhattan, this has got to suck. No football games, no tailgating, extremely expensive.

Yale/Harvard/Brown/Columbia: Again, culture. If you go here, you will absolutely come out with any job you want, after 4 years of dealing with SJWs and no freedom of thought. Also, there are no undergraduate business schools at any of these colleges.

Princeton: Honestly cannot comment on much about the culture as I don’t know anyone that goes here. I would rank this higher than the four above as they have a financial engineering program even though they don’t have a UG B-school.

Any UC School: places well, horrendous culture. Professors docking points for not being a bleeding heart, very rough on the non-far-left.

Honorable mentions: SMU: Places well, enjoyable, only reason this isn’t grouped in with Vandy/UVA/Duke is it has a really shitty culture. Very stuck up, if you aren’t from a very wealthy family the social life is rough. This could also be evident at Vandy/UVA/Duke, but just isn’t something I’ve heard first hand.

Villanova: Business School is highly regarded, strong alumni network. Good sports, Greek life is subdued, close to Philly night life.

Colby: Have a friend here that enjoys it. Small School in Maine, earning its spot because they have a program to do two years at Colby, then 3 at Dartmouth to earn an MBA.

I know this is going to receive a lot of heat but is my take. I did leave off a few schools (UChicago, Georgetown, MIT) as I cannot comment on their cultures, and if anyone can comment on that, please do so. Do you disagree with anything on my list? Looking forward to hear what you have to say Monkeys.

Pretty good in general.

I'm biased regarding UVA and NYU, but yeah.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

Contact Haas and ask them about the IB recruiting. Haas is a great undergrad (and MBA) program - so I would be surprised if they don't have anyone going into that field. If you want to be in NYC, the location is really the only issue. You should look at NYU as someone mentioned.

 

Haas is weak for east coast IB and west coast IB isn't really that strong. Said above, NYU and Penn, specifically Stern and Wharton, are the big banking powerhouses for east coast.

 

Actually yeah. I'm currently in California as I said and I would highly prefer somewhere that offers much of a diversity. Being realistic, I have no idea if I can get into Stern or Wharton for undergraduate, heard IU Kelly was a good choice for finance, but Bloomington is kind meh for me.

Any great finance schools in some urban and diverse areas? Berkeley is lovely, and if IB in west coast (SF) is strong enough, then I'd prefer to just work there. Name me 3-4 great finance undergrad schools that fit my criteria?

 

Fucking retarded. They don't account for majors. MIT, CalTech and Harvey Mudd are dominated by engineers - of course they'd top the list. Does that mean an English major at one of those schools is going to be much better off than an English major from Rutgers? Yeah, right.

 

Where art thou O GWU, Interesting article, I feel bad for kids who come on here to talk about GWU. I think GWU is the most over-priced university in this country. GWU was not even listed in the runners up in DC. So if you are considering a career on Wall Street, don't go to GWU because the probability that you will land a IB gig is close to zero, and your ROI is very low.

Hope I don't sound like I am hating on the school.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0628_payscale1/10.htm

 

You know what would be really helpful? If they actually sorted the results in a meaningful manner. They sorted by gross return, not by ROI. If you go the link for the full list (http://www.payscale.com/education/average-cost-for-college-ROI) and sort by ROI, Georgia Tech is the top with a 14.2% ROI. The first Ivy isn't until #20.

Does anyone else notice that for public schools, there is a significant difference between in state and out of state 30 year ROI. In almost all cases, the in states supposedly make more. I refuse to believe that there is a statistically significant difference.

What a fucking bullshit article.

 
Scrambles:
You know what would be really helpful? If they actually sorted the results in a meaningful manner. They sorted by gross return, not by ROI. If you go the link for the full list (http://www.payscale.com/education/average-cost-for-college-ROI) and sort by ROI, Georgia Tech is the top with a 14.2% ROI. The first Ivy isn't until #20.

Does anyone else notice that for public schools, there is a significant difference between in state and out of state 30 year ROI. In almost all cases, the in states supposedly make more. I refuse to believe that there is a statistically significant difference.

What a fucking bullshit article.

Yeah. NPV and ROI are two different (and both very good measures.) The difference between ROI and NPV isn't really that surprising. Private schools tend to dominate on NPV; public schools tend to dominate on ROI.

Unfortunately, my alma mater doesn't fare all that well. Guess we still hand out too many liberal arts degrees.

Was a bit surprised to see Georgia Tech valued at $1.1 million and coming close to many of the private schools. It's a great engineering school, but I never thought us engineers were worth all that much. Figured UVA, Michigan, Cornell and UCLA would have fared better due to their heavier business focus.

Also noted that there might be a bit of a bias towards schools in higher-cost-of-living areas like New York. Union College and Rensselaer were a bit of a surprise. Both are good schools, but I don't know a lot of wealthy Union College grads. College educations make a huge difference in a city like NYC where a beer costs $7 and everyone works 80 hours/week. Less so in, say, Kansas.

 

Well if you figure that engineering is a high paying and in demand job it makes sense. For every 1 investment bankers there are 10 guys in the BO making normal wages.

Honestly, engineering is probably the best major. You can go into banking since you have the math and analytical aspect down. Just take a finance class or two and read the WSJ and you will be fine. If banking fails you can go into engineering and try again for an MBA.

 
AnthonyD1982:
Well if you figure that engineering is a high paying and in demand job it makes sense. For every 1 investment bankers there are 10 guys in the BO making normal wages.

Honestly, engineering is probably the best major. You can go into banking since you have the math and analytical aspect down. Just take a finance class or two and read the WSJ and you will be fine. If banking fails you can go into engineering and try again for an MBA.

True, but a typical engineer out of a strong state school will make $60K/year out of undergrad.

That's a lot of money in downstate IL, but $1.1 million over 30 years out of Ga. Tech is talking about a $35-40K/year salary bump- and that's before you discount to the present.

I also think there are plenty of other good/helpful pre-banking majors. Math, Psychology, Physics, Actuarial Science Poli. Sci, even Biology and Chemistry and the liberal arts. The advantages of an engineering degree, though are that you're all set up for work in a different industry that's relatively stable. You can't say the same thing about the other majors (besides actuarial science- but actuaries are the one group of people who are nerdier than engineers!)

 

Touche. I was surprised at the fact no one had taken the name yet, so I jumped on it. Since my username is simply... a username, the answer to your question is no. Please enlighten me.

Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?
 

I am graduating from Bentley tomorrow.

We are becoming a semi-target fro IB. A few kids from my class got into bulge banks in NYC. I personally never had any ibanking internships but managed to get myself an offer from a boutique bank in the boston area from doing my own networking and with not help from Bentley's recruiting office.

I imagine over the next few years Bentley's placement into IB will improve as our recruiting office is starting to work with alumni in IB a lot better to secure more positions for bentley students. otherwise it will take a lot of networking on your part like it did for me.

can't speak to the other school on your list though

 

I know someone who graduated from Bentley, worked Valuation at an advisory shop (think PwC/D&P/etc.), and is now working at a mid-market bank. Let me know if you want me to connect you guys.

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

Alright let me state my opinion as I am very familiar with all three schools:

Villanova is really boring and not a lot of fun as an undergrad (Villanofun). That being said, they do alright in recruitment but a lot of it has to do with how much work you put into the process as the school is not a target.

Bentley is okay. If you want to network into Boston and use the alumni you will be fine but again, not a target.

Richmond actually does well. If the kids have the right GPA, network with the large alumni base (granted 95% of the alums end up in S&T not IBD) then it ends up well. Banking is a little tougher to break into but SunTrust, Stephens, Harris Williams are all target. NYC banks are easy again for S&T but for banking you have to work with the alumni in banking and have 3.5+...as well, if you want to have more of a rowdy "frat boy" scene, Richmond will be for you.

Flying Higher and Higher
 

There have been numerous threads on this subject. You could also try using your common sense.

 

in that I don't come from an ivy schoool, would a masters in financial engineering at a top school be a good way to get into an analyst program?

 

unless you're a gay, bald, muscular, cuban...or an ed hardy wearing douche...or all of the above...why would anyone want to work in miami?

UT is definitely strongest in Texas and by default, energy. SMU and Rice place well within their respective cities, but not over McCombs. I would assume the same for the california schools as well.

At the end of the day though, almost every school is regional to some degree....geography is something most candidates seem to overlook, to their peril.

 
Cartwright:
unless you're a gay, bald, muscular, cuban...or an ed hardy wearing douche...or all of the above...why would anyone want to work in miami?

This wins the prize for most clueless post of the year. No need to mention it's the city with the highest concentration of foreign banks and hottest women (not just Cuban, but both from Latin America and Europe) in the country. What a redneck you must be. WOW.

 

I can only speak to Emory, however, Goizueta has an awesome network on Wall Street that sticks together. That being said, if you want NY, you are going to have to work your ass off. For NY banks, on campus recruiting is Houlihan, Lazard, BMO, Citi (CMO), UBS (internships) the rest will come from your work but again, there are alum at every BB. For southern banks, everyone hires: SunTrust, Wells Fargo, Morgan Keegan, Raymond James + boutiques. Also, I believe everyone hires from Duke at the undergraduate level.

fdba Emory Blaine and BBA or otherwise trying to find the perfect pseudonym.
 

For IB at Rice I can confirm that there is on campus for Goldman, Tudor Pickering, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche, JP Morgan, and Barclay. BaML recruited last year but not sure if they're doing it this year (people at Rice managed to piss them off when like half of the people decided not to show up for the presentation) and UBS was going to do recruiting on campus this year but they're UBS and they got cleaned out when everyone left.

 
Erwe422:
For IB at Rice I can confirm that there is on campus for Goldman, Tudor Pickering, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche, JP Morgan, and Barclay. BaML recruited last year but not sure if they're doing it this year (people at Rice managed to piss them off when like half of the people decided not to show up for the presentation) and UBS was going to do recruiting on campus this year but they're UBS and they got cleaned out when everyone left.

are you commenting on undergrad or MBA? why does BW rank SMU so high if its supposedly crap? lol

 
Virginia Tech 4ever:
University of Maryland - College Park and Georgetown for D.C. I wouldn't put GWU in that list.

Yeah, you're right. I was just going off of personal experience but after looking into it, GW doesn't place that well. Not terrible mind you but nothing like Gtown thats for sure.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 

rumor is bunch of people at rice thought ml was hiring for s&t as well not just banking. kind of fk up but happens i guess.

rice gets all the majors and a few smaller players as well.. in a class of 100-120ish and only 10-15% really pushing for banking so you have a good shot.

at ut the numbers are larger but they are posting at houston and new york offices.

I am sure rice sends people to new york as well(they have in past two years) the numbers are much smaller.. i would say 1-2

however, in nat resources in houston you cant go wrong at either school... most banks in houston have 2-3 spots and i can firmly say most will go to a rice and/or ut student.

however last year U of Chicago got into the mix(both ML interns where U of Chicago) and Tudor took one intern who was from Wharton.

for s/t citi loves tulane, jp loves ivy db is a toss up for s/t and ml took UT last year

 

There are a lot of Emory Alum in ATL. The school has a good rep in the southeast. Duke does as well but they are not really a “regional” school.

U-Wisconsin seems to do ok for Chicago.
Vanderbilt does pretty well across the south but they don’t really “own” a metro area.
UNC does well in Charlotte

I think the OP is onto something here. If the very best schools are out of reach, lower tier schools with a strong regional foothold are a decent option.

 

yeah i thought this could potentially get stickied and used as a good resource for others... because from what ive found in all my b school researching unless its HSW youre still gonna be somewhat regional and you dont nec need to go to Columbia or NYU if u wanna live in atlanta or houston or LA and do banking etc (although USC and UCLA arent too far below)

 

I would say Wesleyan. I'm typically not a fan of Liberal Arts schools. But it probably has the best alumni network on the street and definitely the most prestige of those mentioned. Then MAYBE St. Johns due to proximity. They may recruit one or two spots at good banks if you're a star.

Definitely don't go to Bentley. What's their claim to fame (and rankings)? Some Bullshit entrepreneurship program, you can't learn entrepreneurship in a classroom. Sorry. And shit name recognition and HIGH COST compared to Penn State, UConn, etc.

 

It's hard to say Penn State has alot of people at BBs, because the bschool is huge, so percentage wise, its not great. Most people I know at Penn in banking are working for PNC. I would either go with Wesleyan.

Array
 

Wesleyan and PSU will be most attractive to BBs but please don't base your decision on that. These are wildly different schools. Pick the one you'd be happiest at, and I don't mean happiest thinking about recruiting and future job prospects.

 

wesleyan then transfer after freshman year. you could probably get into a lot of great schools after a year of solid performance there ( i know an idiot that switched to BC and a smart kid that left for wharton from wesleyan) and you wouldn't have to endure another 3 years of subpar social life (wesleyan really leaves a lot to be desired)

 

Only thing I care about is quality of the female student body.

From what I've seen, ASU = #1

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 
D M:
Only thing I care about is quality of the female student body.

From what I've seen, ASU = #1

Who the fuck is ASU? University of Miami, bitch. It is proven by the Playboy Party Ranking, that the U has the highest bikini factor. q.e.d.

 
D M:
Only thing I care about is quality of the female student body.

From what I've seen, ASU = #1

So true...any of you undergrads out there: I heavily recommend wkend trips...ridic talent down there.

 

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"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

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