Committed to Wharton but got a really good deal from NYU
I am committed to UPenn Wharton starting in the fall, but I just got off the waitlist for NYU stern (I literally remember opting out, must have misclicked as I was drunk that night). I am full pay at Wharton but it is kind of tough on my family (will need to take a significant chunk of savings, as 4-year cost will probably near 500k). Stern gave me a huge merit scholarship (paying 10k a year). I would literally save my parents almost half a million dollars by going to stern. But I feel like I would just regret it for the rest of my life. Advice?
Go to wharton. Ivy Branding will open doors. dont regret it. Cheers - Stanford Alum
This forum is way too debt happy. $500k is an insane sticker price unless your family is insanely wealthy. I’d rather have that compound in investments.
Nah 500k only requires him to make 5mm a year for it to be paid off in full which isnt hard with a wharton degree. within 10 years of graduating it will paid off. So he should take on the debt.
Are you financially well off? If so, Wharton. If you’re like middle class/average income household, would take stern. $500k is a lot and the difference btwn the two schools isn’t enough to justify that significant price tag.
Source: graduated from a similar mid tier ivy (Columbia)
500k is nothing when you work at an mfpe or eb or hf or do a startup. Bro Go to wharton and ingore this scrub.
But you can achieve that outcome from Stern too with a little extra effort (for much cheaper in this case)
Wdym aren't you an IB CEO
Larping already, perfect fit for Wharton/Stern
bro 500k is a crazy amount, stern is a really good school. dont listen to those. nothing is guaranteed in life and the 500k marginal benefit at Wharton is not worth it
current stern student, i would choose wharton if your family is well off it opens more doors and is more prestigious (aswell as the fact that stern just flatout isnt a fun school). however, stern does place well for IB and youll likely get the same job in IB out of undergrad you would as wharton if youre reasonably locked in and we also have a very strong buy side network for the future. also, stern placed super well this year. however, 500k is a fuckload of debt and if your family isnt seriously 8 figure+ loaded its just flat out not worth it if you can still go to a school that places extremeley well for the same exact jobs and costs only 40k. its not like ur debating ualabama vs wharton, the only thing limiting you from getting an IB offer from stern is yourself youre in the middle of manhattan at a school whose literal only thing is pumping kids out to IB lol
anecdotally, i know people at wharton who had high gpas etc who didnt break into IB and are doing WM/AM etc when they would much rather be in IB/PE. nothing is guaranteed esp in an industry as competitive to break into as IB and unless u come from a lot of money paying 460k for not that crazy of a marginal benefit is kinda fucked bc stern for pure IB placements is an excellent school
for more contexts on placements check out the top 30 schools by IB analyst headcount thread that was posted here a few days ago, you'll see that nyu sends 151 to NYC IB, with 45% going BB 24% going EB 31% going MM. compare that to penn, they send 183 to NYC IB with 43% going BB, 31% going EB, 26% going MM. and if u look at another target with a strong undergrad business school like ross, 131 go to NYC IB with 27% BB 24% EB 50% MM. stern in quantity (and most importantly quality of offers) is statistically closer to being a wharton than another target like ross (which is also a very good school where youll get looks at every firm from). and if ur smart/driven enough to get into both wharton and stern i have no doubt that youll get a good IB offer from stern and you can even take all 40k debt yourself without your parents paying, and easily pay that off in 2-3 years of working which is a pretty baller move ngl (and u can always get an MBA if ivy league prestige is really that important to you)
looking at the numbers & placements of the two colleges, there is 100% not a 460k difference between the two, and if wharton is too expensive for your family dont beat yourself up about it - stern for 10k a year is not a bad option at all and if u work hard at stern i genuinely dont think youll regret it the rest of your life. stern and wharton grads work at the same Investment Banks, PE funds, and HFs earning the same salary, and altho its not ivy league prestige and deffo not wharton prestige, stern does have prestige in finance (youll find plenty of stern grads at every MFPE, HF, Top EBs/Top BBs).
but if ur family is rich ignore all of that and go to wharton and dont look back bc stern is a sweaty ass school and isnt a fun place to be & is obviously less prestigious and places worse
Does Stern have strong connections to any companies/industries outside of IB/PE/HF? My roommate goes there and struck out.
what other industries would you be talking about? it recruits for the same IB/PE/HF/AM/Consulting that wharton also does. if youre talking about like roles inside of actual firms and like technical roles, i know there are opportunities to get involved inside the fintech industry. im not in the club but blockchain & fintech club has a kalshi development team, a microsoft development team, and a coinbase product team. sucks your roommate struck out but people at both stern and wharton strike out each year
what other industries would you be talking about? stern recruits for the same like IB/PE/HF/AM/Consulting that wharton and all other business schools recruit for
Product management
And not to mention the scholarship from Stern makes you a stronger candidate for Stern clubs which make you an even stronger candidate for the same opportunities Wharton kids get
Go to Stern. It provides very comparable opportunities to Wharton. Only way Wharton helps you, maybe, is that if you slip up and do medicre academically, maybe Wharton opens a door that Stern doesn't. But you'll notice I said "maybe" twice in one sentence. Very speculative.
Don't believe the dummies who talk as though Wharton is going to give you some magical Ivy halo that follows you around the rest of your life. That's not even remotely true. If anything, the professional world has moved to a place where people identify you as an "alum" of a particular firm or industry ("ex McKinsey" or "ex IB" or whatver). Betting $500k on the continued relevance of school branding is an awful bet . . and even if the bet pays off you're only getting the difference between two top brands.
Your alma mater, and the network you gain from it, stay with you for your entire life. I get wanting to be fiscally responsible but if you target high paying professions, $500k really isn’t that much money. I personally hit that amount by my mid 20s just throwing a bit here and there into the S&P.
Can you accomplish your goals with Stern vs Wharton? Probably. But is Wharton a nice luxury that I would say is 100% worth it? In my opinion, yes. I view it like buying a Porsche instead of a Beamer, or an AP Royal Oak instead of a Rolex Datejust.
I made a similar choice a while back and my cousin made the opposite choice. Money isn’t everything and those who are some mix of ambitious, hard working, smart, social, or even lucky will be successful and not need to worry about $500k, especially over the course of an entire career.
Agree with the framework here but I think its closer than Porsche vs. BMW. For the top finance jobs coming out of undergrad, Stern is just about as core a program as Wharton. Yes still an edge for Wharton but I wonder what the different outcomes actually look like. Certainly a top student at either is going to land top offers. Moving down the totem pole, I suppose there's some cutoff point where the last handful of Wharton candidates who land decent gigs might not have landed them from Stern. I think the money might be worth more than that edge. Someone in their mid 20s saving $500k is somewhat common in good markets but not the norm across all parts of the cycle.
I guess it depends on what you value and how you view higher education. I never thought of college as a path to a first job. College is a place and time where you learn and grow during your most formative years. It’s also part of your brand for the rest of your life, along with all the other stuff (where you grew up, where you work, where you live, what kind of person you are). I think the value a place like Wharton provides over a life time is more than $500k compared to Stern IF you can afford it. I personally just don’t view $500k as all that much but my parents are also kinda loaded so lucky me.
I’d pay $500k for my core friend group to be really smart and talented people from all over the world, a better college experience (Penn is general more fun than NYU), and the laymen’s prestige but that might just be me.
Stern grad here, just finished my AN2 and just finished paying off my loans (aggressively throwing my base and bonus to pay down 80k x 3 years of loans). Landed an ib role that paid me over 200 both years.
You are blessed to have gotten merit scholarship from NYU I think you can most definitely make a killing with no liabilities from Stern. If you have money and want the extra prestige and safety net, go for Penn. You won't fail either way and trust me Stern carries a lot of prestige with their fair share of snobby kids haha
Only you can tell where the shoe is paining you. If you can’t afford Wharton go to NYU. Work hard and the outcome will be thesame
If you’re cracked it won’t matter if u go to stern or Wharton
I think you should use ur Stern offer as leverage for the Wharton Financial Aid offer. I'm fairly sure that can work.
If that doesn't, go to Stern because unless your family networth is 3m+ net worth, then Wharton really isn't worth it imo.
Plus, i've heard from many current students that the environment has become so hardo and competitive that it isn't as worth it as previous years.
Wharton is the #1 finance school, and as a result most people who go there recruit for IB, thus creating this competitive environment.
While the culture isn't much better at Stern, Stern and Wharton aren't that far off (Wharton is definitely a leg up but the competitive nature makes it alot more difficult).
I’m not gonna get aid, also ivies don’t give merit scholarships
nevermind then, i didn't realize that you had a merit scholarship from stern. i'd still recommend going for stern based on price either way
tbh u can achieve the same outcomes from wharton or stern, it matters moreso on the grind u put in down the line. that said, go with whichever u like more and suits you better financially (if it does make a marginal difference)
OP you're getting a lot of strongly opinionated but mixed responses because this is a really tough decision.
Having gone to a shitty UG, I wish more than anything I could reset the clock. No MBA, M7 or otherwise, will replace or fill the spot of a D-tier undergrad, that stays with you for good.
However, I don't want to project, and you aren't in the position of choosing between a bad and a great uni. Objectively, both schools are strong options. Wharton will carry more weight and pedigree for the rest of your life, and there is value in that. However, at just 18 years old, it is tough to predict how your life will play out. Mine certainly didn't go as planned. $500k is a big cost to eat for marginal upside, but hey, if you know yourself and want to open your own fund one day, or work in MF PE, maybe that upside matters to you. You're certainly much more ambitious than I was at 18.
I would sit down with your parents, as well as any mentors, and have an honest discussion about the pros and cons of both paths.
The important thing to remember is you got into two great schools and will ultimately be successful. Your UG does not determine where you end up in life. I should know, I work with a bunch of people who went to semis and targets.
If I do one day decide to raise a fund or something (HF, PE, or whatever) how big would the difference be between my UG being stern and Wharton
Someone much smarter than me would need to weigh in there. The ins and outs of what it takes to raise a fund are sort of above my pay grade.
I will say this, I know someone who went to an ultra non-target before joining LAZ than HBS --> starting his own fund. With that said, this path forward is the exception not the norm.
I would like to think if you are successful enough to potentially start your own fund, your UG doesn't matter all that much. But seriously I am not the right person to give advice on this topic.
Just to add, Stern has such a shit college culture beyond placement. The school does very well as far as getting students into prestigious firms, but it's so sweaty and there's no student life (no campus, no sports, etc). I would take some time to evaluate how much that stuff means to you, it's what you're going to look back on 10 years down the line when you're slaving away in an office. Coming from a current Stern senior.
Can you use NYU's merit offer to negotiate Wharton? Worth a shot before making this decision.
Honestly, both are amazing schools, so there’s no “bad” decision here. But saving your family nearly $500k is a huge factor and something you shouldn’t ignore. NYU Stern still gives you access to top finance opportunities, especially being right in NYC. A lot of career success in finance comes from networking, internships, and your own execution, not just the school name alone. Wharton definitely has unmatched prestige, but graduating with far less financial pressure is also incredibly valuable. I’d seriously think about whether the Wharton brand is worth that extra financial burden for your family long term.
Dude, take a step back and look at the numbers. You want to go into high finance, right? Treat this like your first deal.
The difference here is $460,000 in post-tax cash. Do you have any idea how long it takes to save half a million dollars, even as an IB Associate or VP? Draining your parents' retirement/savings so you can flex a Wharton hoodie to 19-year-olds is the worst ROI decision you could possibly make.
Let’s break down the actual recruiting reality:
The "regret" you are feeling right now is just ego. It’s the high school prestige mentality. You know what you will actually regret? Being 25, seeing your parents stress about their retirement, while you realize your Wharton degree got you the exact same Excel monkey job as the guy from NYU sitting in the cubicle next to you.
This is a classic case of letting emotion blind your analytical thinking. You need to start approaching life choices like an actual investor conducting Due Diligence. Drop the ego, look at the hard data, and structure your decisions properly (if you want to get better at this kind of structured analytical thinking, read up on real due diligence frameworks at places like DD Federation).
Take Stern. Save your family half a million bucks. Buy your parents a really nice steak dinner in Manhattan to celebrate, and start grinding for OCR.
Congrats on the massive W. Don't fumble it.
It’s mind boggling that a user base of supposedly educated finance professionals can somehow be mixed on this issue. The answer is so obvious from every financial, emotional, and common sense perspective possible.
OP, please pick Stern.
I was lucky enough to go to an Ivy on a full ride since I was poor but will comment two things:
(a) I feel the guilt of having your family pay $500K for you. I would've chosen Stern in your scenario. If you're well off though, that $500K will be paid off by 30 as long as you're disciplined.
(b) The brand prestige of Wharton vastly shadows over Stern. I used to lead SA recruiting at my old bank for my group, and I was fine pushing through W kids with at least a 3.5 if they seemed fine otherwise, but for Stern, they'd have to have something like a 3.9 for it to be worth my time. Wharton just has a better quality of students who are more well-rounded, and that reflects in what it'll take for you to succeed. If you think you're academically inclined and can succeed in a more cutthroat environment, I think Stern is fine. Otherwise, would take Wharton for the cushion.
Unless you were at a top shop Q, PJT, best groups at GS/MS, I don’t see how the numbers work here. Wharton places like 20% more people at any given bank with the same class size and a similar portion of the student body interested. Unless Stern just has grade inflation, I don’t see how stern kids without 3.9s don’t even get interviews and you still end up with that many placing
You're assuming Wharton and Stern are the only two options for banks. For better or worse, the 8 Ivies, Duke, NW, Stanford, Chicago, etc all took preference over Stern for us when recruiting, which is why such a high GPA was needed.
I would take Wharton but look for as many avenues to lower the burden as possible—reapply for fin aid every year, apply for need based aid, apply externally for aid programs, etc. Undergrad student loans are pretty well subsidized. $500k is a lot… a little surprised by the amount but would still do it. - HBS alum who took out $200k for bschool
Man this is a tough one. Placements from both seem very similar, so I am going to look at it from another perspective. I think having a good college experience and making lifelong friends is important and Wharton is the obvious choice there. Commuter schools in general make that tough and NYU being so sweaty probably makes it harder. But $500K is such a big difference I am not sure you can pass up the financial aid at NYU. As others have said, one of the deciding factors may be how well your family can absorb $500K. If it isn't a that big deal for them, and you come out of school with little to no debt, maybe Wharton makes more sense. I might be way off here but maybe there are some programs at Wharton, like a TA position/scholarship you could apply for after your freshman year, or something similar, that might help offset the cost of your Sophomore/Junior/Senior years. Even with that, and potential paid internships and/or college jobs, you may not close the gap that much, but its worth looking into.
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