Looking for advice for which college to pick to best position myself for breaking into Wall Street
Hi, I am a current high school senior and am pretty set on becoming an IB or PE analyst on Wall Street and transitioning from there. I also might want to pursue a Quant career, as I would confidently say I am very good with numbers. I have gotten into Syracuse, Uconn, Rutgers (NB), Binghamton, and the Northeastern London Scholars program. Syracuse and Uconn will cost about the same, which is around 160k. Rutgers and Bing are close to the same, with Rutgers being the cheapest coming in at around 80k. The NU London Scholars program will be around 290k(I didn't get any money), where I will study . I got into the Rutgers SAS Honors Program and got the Leadership Scholar award at Syracuse which invited me to apply to the Renee Crown Honors Program, which am pretty confident about getting in. I will be studying finance at all schools with either a dual major or minor in math. As for the money, I believe my parents are supporting me for anywhere from 50-150k, not entirely sure yet. I also am pretty into math so I might want to take a path into quantitative finance, though I hear that being an analyst in the IBD of a bank will best set me up for a career on wall street. I am just looking for advice for which school will place me the best based on the debt I will accrue at each school.
Thanks,
Ben
Network heavily upon starting university with advisors at NWM, they will get you where you need to be. A 2 year internship with them would guarantee you a position at GS TMT IB
Sorry I'm new here, but is the NWM you are referring to Northwestern Mutual?
Yes, they are one of the most prestigious firms on the street.
he's fucking with you in case you can't tell. nwm is a pyramid scheme
Based off those choices and your parents support - i'd probably go with Rutgers. Syracuse would give you a slight edge... but not by much, especially for an extra $80k. Work hard, crush it in the honors program and network your ass off at Rutgers and you can find a spot.
Would the Syracuse honors college help?
This must be a a joke
“Wants to pursues a quant career” —> gets into all non-targets
Sorry to say it like this but if you were interested in doing finance this early on, you should have considered studying more and getting into better universities. You probably know how old schooled this profession is and how much ppl care about prestige. Not saying breaking in is impossible from those schools as i have seen quite a few ppl from those universities, but being honest with yourself and being realistic is also important
I would also consider transferring to a better school (if you can afford it ofc) to make your life easier down the road
I mean if you’re saying I should’ve studied harder, I am graduating with a 3.9uw 4.3 weighed and a 1530 sat and still didn’t get into any targets so I don’t rly know what to do.
You won’t get into quant from these schools lol maybe IB at most if things go your way
I know college apps are a crapshoot but recruiting is unfortunately like that as well, and more so true for non target candidates. Thats why I said consider transferring - it looks like you will have a good shot at it as well
in this day and age, stats often aren't enough especially if non diversity.
don't take this the wrong way, but simply going to have to try harder if you want to land the roles you mentioned. quant takes the top of the top students even at ivy+, and you'll have to hustle your ass off to beat out people in banking (not to mention PE) who have more alumni connections. saying "I had good stats, I don't know how I could have done better" is not the mentality that will land you any of these hyper competitive roles
Man don’t pay too much attention to this guy trying to put you down. You worked hard, you got into these schools, now it’s up to you to make the most of it. Let’s look to the future. College admissions is more competitive than ever but now more than ever before, pedigree matters less than skills, results, and output in the professional world.
That being said, pedigree still helps get your foot in the door. I don’t think any of these schools is particularly better represented on the street. No matter where you go, be on top of academics from day 1 (GPA 3.8 will put you in the ~25th percentile of the SA/FT applicants that get offers at my bank, below that better be URM or D1 or F500 CEO’s son), be on top of relevant ECs and internships from day 0.
Go get a free LinkedIn Premium trial for a month, or skip a few chipotles and cough up $30 for a month, search whatever key role / industry you want in the search bar “e.g. Investment Banking Analyst, Quantitative Analyst, Quantitative Researcher”, and filter by each of these schools one by one. Easy way to see that School A has about 300 people with this title, School B has about 900 people with this title, etc.
Hey man, a lot of the comments have been pretty negative, so I will take a stab.
1. Change your username to something anonymous, not your real name.
2. To be fair, none of these schools are too great in terms of their placement on Wall Street. With that, I go to similarly non-target school as a straight white male and was just able to land an offer at an EB in NYC in addition to PE and MM IB offers. It is not impossible, and you can use your early interest to become the big fish in a small pond relative to your school's IB clubs. Additionally, your school's network will likely be small, meaning that your alumni will be a little more likely to pull for you - at least, that was the case for me.
3. Echoing another comment, I wish I had transferred - if that is your goal, you need to murder it first year and get straight 4.0s, join good clubs, have a strong story etc. to give yourself optimal transferring options.
4. I know you didn't ask about other steps, but it really is never too early to start thinking about internships, especially for freshman summer. See if you have some family friends in the space, or find local boutique firms that don't have established intern programs.
Happy to help if you have any individual questions!
Hey man I go to Rutgers right now. I am not in the SAS Honors Program, and I do not think you can major in finance unless you are in Rutgers Business School (which i am in). IB recruiting sucks as it is pretty difficult but if u put in the work u can do it. I have had 3 super days so far and have 4 over the next week. Not saying this to brag but just give a reference. I networked my tail off and studied technicals all the time. It is also not hard to have above a 3.7 at Rutgers, becuase it is fairly easy if you pick good professors. Rutgers is a fine option and you can make it to Wall Street if you network enough. I have a friend at Binghamton and it seems harder for him than for me at Rutgers. We host plenty of banks and occasionaly do visits to firms on Wall Street from some clubs and programs. You will be fine man, just put in the work. Lay off the partying and joining a frat for freshman and sophomore year, and you can do it
Thanks! I got accepted into RBS for finance, but also the SAS Honors program. I believe the SAS honors program is for both RBS and SAS.
Oh nice, I didnt even know that. Long story short, Rutgers is a fine option if you are willing to put in decent work into networking (but we have plenty of clubs on campus that teach what to do in recruiting for IB mainly)
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