NYU Stern vs UC Berkeley

I am a high school senior and I just got off the waitlists for Berkeley and NYU Stern. I am wondering which school is more of a target for investment banking or which has better internship and OCR opportunities (both with Berkeley Haas and non-Haas). I am also curious about how location plays a role as well (is NYU Stern a target for NYC like Haas is for SF)?

11 Comments
 

Definitely NYU for New York recruiting. For San Francisco or Los Angeles, most definitely Berkeley. really just depends on your own preference. i would personally choose NYU but they’re both awesome schools at fairy the same level. Best of luck to you

 

Both are great and about equal for IB recruiting. Pick based on whether you want to be in NYC or the Bay Area and any other factors (cost, culture, etc.)

Array
 

Both are great options. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel Stern would be able to get you ib on the west coast if you wanted it (but if you're targeting finance, NYC is the place to be), whereas it would be relatively difficult to get a gig on the Street from Haas.

 
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To answer your final question, NYU Stern is one among many schools on the East Coast which are equal or better ranked (we all know the traditional Target schools). On the West Coast (where I'm working), it's pretty much Stanford (very, very few IB kids) and Haas, as well as UCLA and USC as local target universities, plus East Coast students recruiting. However, NYC has more banks, larger banks, bigger recruiting classes, etc. which helps your chances at NYU to some degree.

As another person said, it really depends on whether you want West Coast or East Coast eventually. You can recruit across coasts, kind of, but why put yourself through the hardship? NYU is definitely a finance school, in the middle of NYC. NYU/NYC offers a very different vibe and lifestyle to Berkeley, but both can ultimately accomplish your goals.

Neither place will hold you back, and congratulations on both great offers!

Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes.
 

Congratulations on being accepted to both schools! These are both great accomplishments. There are many questions you have to ask yourself when thinking about this. It seems as though you already are set on doing investment banking though. I would definitely keep an open mind though because my mind changes so much over my first few years of college! I definitely did not know I wanted to do investment banking.

A few questions I think you need to strongly consider:

1.) Do I want to start my career in SF/California or do I want to be on the East Coast in NYC/Chicago/Atlanta/Charlotte?

2.) Am I 100% set on pursuing investment banking?

Furthermore, I think you also need to consider which school you would be more happier at. These are two completely different schools in different cities. I have heard some negative things about Berkley from a culture perspective, but I have also heard that NYU Stern is very cut-throat and difficult in general course wise.

From a recruiting perspective:

Both are good schools - Berkley is much bigger, I think that it potentially may be harder to recruit since more people at Berkley and the larger student body may be trying to recruit. This being said, I know someone at BAML in the M&A group from Berkley.

NYU Stern has great exits into IB, I think that if you are set on IB and being in NYC it should be a no-brainer to choose Stern. You can start networking your first few years and secure a spot where you would like as well as focus on your finance coursework. Also being in NYC is a great advantage in terms of networking / coffee chats etc...

I would say overall that NYU Stern is more of a target. Although, if you want to be in California SF/LA it seems to make more sense to go to Berkley.

As Synergy said, it really depends on your location preferences. But I think it is important to stress cultural fit at each school also and where you think you could be happier as Synergy mentioned it is essentially possible to accomplish your goals at either school.

Let me know if you have any follow up questions and congrats again!

 

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