If you went to NYU, could you tell me about your undergrad experience please!

Hi, I'm a senior currently applying to college. I haven't concretely decided my career path yet, but I aspire to go into IB. I'm considering ED2 to NYU(Stern and CAS), but I've heard horror stories about Stern in particular, mostly around how everybody is extremely competitive and toxic, and only top students are able to land internships. Whenever I watch NYU student street interviews, the Sternies look sad and tired. However, I've also seen lots of people saying that they've enjoyed their experience at Stern. 

I'm also applying to these 16 schools, so if you went to any of these, please also share your experiences!

  1. Georgetown(McDonough)
  2. Rutgers at New Brunswick(Honors College)
  3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill(Kenan-Flager)
  4. Boston University(Questrom)
  5. UC Berkeley(Haas)
  6. UCLA
  7. UMich(Ross)
  8. Cornell(Dyson)
  9. Duke
  10. UPenn
  11. Northwestern
  12. Vanderbilt
  13. UChicago
  14. Notre Dame(Mendoza)
  15. Pitt
  16. University of Delaware
25 Comments
 

You’re considering Rutgers, Pitt, and University of Delaware, but not UVA?

"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
 

I'd love to go to UVA! However, I'm not planning on applying to UVA because of its tuition + lack of merit scholarship opportunities, and my parents are unwilling to help pay any tuition to UVA in particular. Rutgers Honors College is almost completely free(and even if I don't get it, Rutgers is in-state), Pitt and UD are less expensive state schools.

 
Most Helpful

I now work as a college admissions/career counselor after spending time in IB and Corp Dev; happy to provide some insight here. I would say add IU Kelley to your list as a safety because of the direct admit program. NYU undergrad (and even MBA) is a bit tough culturally. Many extremely affluent backgrounds there, especially amongst the international community, and there's far less of a collegiate feel compared to some of the schools on your list like Duke, Michigan, Cornell, etc.. IB is definitely THE career path, so even though there are a number of spots, the competition is fierce. Happy to discuss a bit more over DM if you'd like 

 

Hey, thanks for the insight! About IU Kelley--parents won't chip in for state schools unless it's Rutgers. I've considered IU, but it's on the costlier side of state schools. Rutgers has a good finance program as well and I'd rather pay the instate tuition than go out to Indiana. About NYU --I haven't yet solidified my choice on IB, so even though I like NYU a lot(don't mind missing the traditional college experience), I'm afraid I'll get shoe-horned into a career path I might not want if I get accepted into Stern. However, NYU offers a huge boost if you apply ED, and I feel like I have a good chance of getting into Stern/CAS if I apply ED2, while my chances at the other targets seem a lot less likely. 

 

Not sure where you're applying from, but ND has great placement for IB, PE, Asset Management, and Wealth Management, and Consulting if you change your career journey early on. Know plenty of folks in places from an HL, Deutsche, Ares Management, to folks who land JPM, MS, and GS, all the way to folks who land Evercore, BX, PJT, etc. 

I'm aware that's a random way to order those, I'm consulting, but point is there's ample opportunity at ND! Also great clubs such as Notre Dame Investment Club that manages a portfolio of over $1mm and allows Freshman/Sophomores to pitch stocks to be bought for the portfolio, then voted on by whole club. Other clubs are Venture Capital, Wall Street Club that takes career treks to SF, NYC, etc. Finally Student International Business Council (SIBC) allows students to get real experience on project teams (of about 8 - freshman and sophomores) led by two leaders (normally Juniors) across a variety of project types, the most popular being Finance and Consulting division. You work right with specific firms that I mentioned above across all divisions, offering an early networking link to specific firms. I know a few finance projects that sometimes offer interviews or superdays based on project presentation performance (when you deliver presentation in firm office at end of semester).

 

If you are open to the west coast Berkeley and ucla are both solid and have local boutiques for internships but are pretty student driven with competitive clubs and the such being pretty important

 

NewIndustryHorizon

If you are a trust fund kid / have unlimited funds from the Bank of Mom & Dad (aka you grew up rich which is a good chunk of the students at the school), NYU can arguably be the best college experience someone can have. 

Yeah I completely agree. NYC is the international capital of the world for many experiences and industries. The networking there is top notch. The surrounding neighborhoods of NYU are stellar and very interesting. I used to skateboard from the East Village to the NYU Bobst Library to study for the CFA exams and just love the area. The library was 24hrs too when I went there and liked to be amidst the other hardcore studiers in the library. No one ever questioned me about bringing my skateboard in.

"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
 

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