Confused International Student (Haas vs Home country)

I am interested in economics/finance and math. In the future I aim to create a startup or join the finance industry (IB/PE/VC/HF). Though on the surface I think I got into good colleges, I'm concerned about the startup and job opportunities in the US as an international student. Here are my choices:

  1. UC Berkeley Haas (Business + DS/Stats) ($85k/year)
  2. USC Marshall (Business + DS/Stats) ($100k/year)
  3. Boston University (Econ+CS) ($65k/year - Reduced cost due to merit scholarship)
  4. University College London (Top 5 UK) ($70k/year but 3 year degree)
  5. New liberal arts college in home country (Only ~15 years old) ($18k/year)

The job market in both US/UK has been bleak for a while and the US market isn't showing signs of improving for internationals with the current admin (especially in the finance domain - I've heard firms have stopped sponsoring). On the other hand, the home university is much safer from an ROI perspective and I could even use the saved capital as seed funding if I choose to startup.

Moreover, although I am lucky to be able to afford all the colleges in full without relying on loans, it is still a large enough expense/chunk of family savings (25-30% including retirement funds). Would love all advice, thank you!

5 Comments
 

monaco_monkey

I feel like we cant give you any more information without the most important data point of all . 

What's your home country? 

Studying in seoul national/ peking u / IIT /Tokyo U is very different from studying in a random underfunded overcrowded school in a failed state

That's fair. I am based out of India but no it is not an IIT. It is a new private liberal arts college - Ashoka University. They regularly place in consulting (big 3 and big 4) but in back office roles (research, capability network) with very limited placements in boutique IB firms/middle-market PE firms (all in research roles). I was strongly considering it until I realised all of the good firms only hire in the back office from here.

 

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