Harvard vs. MIT vs. Stanford (quant & other finance roles) - a nervous high school senior
Hello,
I was incredibly fortunate, and as a high school senior, I am currently choosing between Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. My top career choice is to go into quant finance, but if that option doesn't work out, I'll look to go into more traditional finance roles (IB, consulting, private equity) or a more tech-centric role (SWE, VC).
Does anyone have any advice on which school I should choose? I'm leaning Harvard at the moment because of its location and laxer grading curves, but I'm quite nervous about the opportunity cost of not choosing MIT (which I hear has a far stronger quant recruiting network) or Stanford (for its vicinity to silicon valley & tech opportunities).
Thank you very much for reading my post. Have a good evening :)
It's hard to give you any suggestions cuz you're choosing between entire massive areas of finance (quant vs IB/ PE vs tech). Usually people who are into quant aren't into IB - they're entirely different and attract entirely different groups of people.
I'd say this - people who are 'made out' (hate to use this term) to be quants, usually already know it (Math Olympiads, physics Decathlons, etc)
In reality, none the them will give you am advantage over the other. Jane Street isnt ever going to pick a candidate over you because you went to Harvard over MIT the vice versa. Go wherever you think youll have the highest GPA and most fun and congrats!
OP, you're clearly unsure about what you want to do if you're considering both spectrums of Finance/including SWE. Not that you should know, but don't think about College as purely a career move.
Just pick the college with the best environment for you to have fun. Developing your personality/growth is pivotal in even securing these jobs. You'll figure out what you want to do whilst at college. These are all elite institutions, opportunities will only marginally vary (if any).
Quants love recruiting math55 hardos at Harvard
If you’re set on quant, MIT is probably the best place to be. For other finance roles, Harvard might give you a slight edge. Stanford surprisingly doesn’t place as well as you would think in traditional/NYC firms (see thread about Stanford vs. Wharton with a bunch of Stanford students saying that Wharton places much better into traditional finance roles). I’m not sure how much of an advantage Stanford would give you if you wanted to be in California VC/startups (I went to Harvard/MIT so I’m not too knowledgeable about that), but it’s probably somewhat significant
Having had close association with all three, I’m confident in saying: go to the place that seems like the best fit for you in terms of culture and atmosphere. The three are very different in those respects, or at least were in “my era.” You’ll do very well getting a job out of any of them, and your forecasting accuracy about what you want now is iffy at best.
Good luck!
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