Should I transfer out of Stern for sophomore year?

I'm currently a Stern freshman, and ever since HS ended I've been having real doubts about the school and what I want to do after college. I'm slowly veering away from IB due to depressing / high stress lifestyle, and getting more into programming (esp. Python) but I'd still like to study some form of business in u-grad/

Hence I'm looking toward studying Information Systems (which only 4-6% of stern majors in, which is great), but I've heard from many people Stern is good ONLY for finance and marketing, and if youre not studying either, youre wasting 70k a year (which is what I pay).

I like most of the kids and the professors seem nice, My stats professor actually ignores the stern curve so 40-50% of the class gets A/A-s, so academically it's all good. But it's the huge cost and the lack of strength in majors (besides Finance) that worries me.

9 Comments
 

it is fucking nuts, but when youre in a solid middle class family like me, you get no need based aid. So even if I went to a school renown for its FA (like the Ivies), we'd still have to pay 60-65k a year.

 

I would not pay 70k a year for a degree just to work in IT afterwards, or even CS as where you major isn't that important.

Transfer to your state flagship, it should significantly cheaper. Its not necessarily a bad thing going to a less prestigious college and moving away from the high powered world from finance. Better leave now rather than another 210k in debt.

 
Best Response

Your worries are fair, and TBH if I were in your shoes I would transfer. A lot of my good friends majored in CS and work in tech and start ups, and I've never heard of Stern having a serious presence in these industries on the CS side of things.

This forum loves to bash anything that isn't front office investment banking, private equity, management consulting, hedge funds, or S&T (actually they bash on the latter a lot too), but if you genuinely enjoy CS, I would look into schools with better CS departments with better employment/grad school opportunities. It's a field of study that has a solid skill set and awesome career potential.

 

Let me be the first to tell you that heavy-duty programming jobs are sometimes just as bad as IBD(as far as stress goes), but with less compensation. The hours can be brutal, especially if you follow the startup route that is very popular these days.

 

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