NYU Stern or Barnard?

I have to start off saying that I know it is hard for people to agree on which school is "BETTER." There is no such thing that some schools are definitely better than some other schools, because, in my opinion, education is education; competitiveness of students may vary, qualities of teaching may be different, but knowledge is knowledge. We can rank schools based on various calculation methods, but we cannot rank knowledge. And, I also care about fitness. The same person can be a great student, let's say, in Purdue, getting high GPAs and participating in a lot of meaningful activities, but become a marginal student in Harvard, tired of schools and competition.

Okie, let's get down to the BUSINESS:

I am an internal transfer from NYU CAS'16 to Stern, and an external transfer to Barnard (both admitted). I had a wonderful freshman year in NYU-- Got friends, classes were doable (although demanding), got leadership positions, and a pretty decent on-campous job.

I know Barnard is KINDA Columbia, and many people suggest me to claim that Ivy League title. I want to be in an Ivy league school, mainly for its prestige I should say. But what ironic about it is that business firms/wall street cares a lot of the "prestige." This makes me hesitate a little.

In terms of leadership positions/extracurricular, I am the treasurer of a culture related club now on NYU campus, and starting a new club next semester. I am not sure whether I will gain the same footing in leaderships on Barnard/Columbia campus.

I am a career-oriented and practical woman. I am positive about it. My academic work is good, but this does not necessarily mean I have a real passion for academics. I love to learn new knowledge, but just maybe not systematically study Kant, Aristotle, etc. I would love to give the Wall Street a try and I am truly passionate about knowledge in this field.

There are a lot of arguments that undergrad business degree is useless, is vocational training,etc and liberal arts are the REAL education. I respect this opinion. But Stern requires liberal arts foundations, and I do think whatever knowledge it is, it is knowledge, either vocational or academical.

I maybe biased or narrow-minded, so I need your opinions on that.

31 Comments
 

Stay at Stern. You won't be at a disadvantage compared to Barnard, or even Columbia really. I have a friend at Barnard, and many of the girls there seem to have inferiority complexes about not actually being Columbia students (i.e. they went out of their ways to bring up how they graduate with Columbia degrees and how they hate Columbia students who look down upon Barnard).

 
dm1992

Stay at Stern. You won't be at a disadvantage compared to Barnard, or even Columbia really. I have a friend at Barnard, and many of the girls there seem to have inferiority complexes about not actually being Columbia students (i.e. they went out of their ways to bring up how they graduate with Columbia degrees and how they hate Columbia students who look down upon Barnard).

coughharvard extensioncough

 
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both are awesome. I would say stern in your case because of the more extensive OCR opportunities. barnard has them too, but, at least based on my friends who went there, it is less IBD -focused and more PWM, corp fin, etc focused.

from a non-career perspective, there is definitely something to be said for going to an all-women school - everyone i know who has graduated from barnard says that experience was invaluable. but to echo dm, there are definitely some girls at barnard who have that inferiority complex, but it seems like the most insecurity (maybe that's not the right word, but malice or disdain) comes from columbia students, both men and women, who seem to feel threatened by barnard students for getting access to columbia's resources depsite, presumably, not doing quite as well in high school. agree or disagree with that statement, but that's just what my friends have told me

Remember, once you're inside you're on your own. Oh, you mean I can't count on you? No. Good!
 

just to be clear...going to barnard will not mean you are attending an ivy league school and it's only considered "kinda columbia" by barnard students.

it's still a good school but some of your assumptions are off. i would go with NYU Stern.

 
DoubleBottomLine

just to be clear...going to barnard will not mean you are attending an ivy league school and it's only considered "kinda columbia" by barnard students.

it's still a good school but some of your assumptions are off. i would go with NYU Stern.

lol I'm trying to stir the pot
Get busy living
 

top candidates at Stern place at GS TMT/FIG, MS M&A, BX, etc. make sure you do well in school, stay involved, have your shit together for interviews and you'll be good. incremental difference for Columbia is not worth it - if we were talking Wharton or Harvard it would be a different story since those schools get access to top PE/HF analyst positions, but that's not the case for Columbia.

 

All these comments are stupid. Stern has no prestige at all. Barnard, and then utilize the very loyal alumni network to get a foot in somewhere.

Think about all the competition for the limited OCR slots you will be facing at Stern. Barnard is certainly more prestigious; and all the seven sisters have a small, but very loyal alumni network on the street, and if you can tap that, you will be well-set.

 

At Stern you'll be at the "top" so to speak. However, you're probably pretty far behind the top kids who have had two extra years to build up networks and move up the rank sin student organizations. At Barnard you'd have a close-knit alumni network but it seems like there are palpable tensions between Barnard and Columbia students and an "inferiority complex" by Barnard students. Go with fit, though personally I'd stay at NYU and go to Stern.

mongooseAll these comments are stupid. Stern has no prestige at all. Barnard, and then utilize the very loyal alumni network to get a foot in somewhere.

Yeah, insulting people is the best way to prove your point. Good job.

 

What about now? I have to decide NOW! Barnard, Boston College, UConn (honors and instate tuition), Lehigh U (don't like frat/greek culture), Carleton, Macaulay (Baruch), Davidson College, Bates College??? I already submitted deposit at Barnard but now questioning whether instate is cheaper because I got no financial aid but my parents are willing to pay most of the cost of $72K/yr.

Barnard acceptance rate dipped the past few years to 14.8%. While it's not ivy league which I acknowledge, I feel like a women's college experience would help me build the skills I need. I didn't apply to NYU and I know my list is all over the place, but I'm a first gen colored person so I didn't know what schools were appropriate but wanted the Liberal arts college experience. Also, want to aim for the Big 4 accounting or IB. (want to major in Economics (general), Economics Mathematics, Computer Science (no background but is handy, or try to do the 3-2 program with Columbia SEAS where you graduate with a BA degree from Barnard and BS engineering degree.) OR UConn, which is honors, cheap (less than half the tuition of Barnard's), and I will be in the top 12% of the university. Best value for engineering or medicine, but not sure about business. OR some other college but not as deeply invested because the tuition is the same and Barnard is the "best" option out of all the others.

If Lehigh didn't have such a dominant greek culture, I would definitely go there because the career outcomes are amazing.

 

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