NYU Stern vs WashU Olin vs Berkeley LS Econ

After EDing Wharton, I got my ass rejected from every ivy league. So these are my top choices: 

NYU Stern: 90k

WashU Olin: 25k

Berkeley LS Econ: 35k

I've always wanted to live in a big city however (NYC mostly, but partial to SF) and I'd hate living in the midwest, especially in St Louis, a small city that's so far from everything else. So my question is: which school would be the best for me if I'm aiming to enter investment banking/finance? Also, if money is a factor, there's a chance that I might match aid at NYU so also keep that in a separate opinion. And even if I went to full pay at NYU, while it might strain family finances for a bit, we won't go into debt. 

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I would not consider Wash U. Don't think many firms recruit there and most people haven't even heard of them. +1 on your thoughts on St Louis and midwest as well

Whether you want Berkeley or NYU, that's up to you. Cal was a great experience though not everybody has a good one and likes it. You have some school spirit and a (shitty) football team which NYU does not offer. You probably would get more help at NYU for your career since many of the resources on campus at Cal involve clubs and can be difficult to get in to. You don't have to be in one though, it just helps to be connected with like minded people.

As for finance/IB, firms definitely recruit from Cal, especially out of SF. Same thing for NYU, but it's obviously geared towards NYC firms. I wouldn't necessarily choose one school or the other simply based on whether you want to be there full time or not since you can swap pretty easily (go to Cal --> work in NYC) as long as you have a good reason in interviews

Berkeley is still 20-30 min from SF proper so keep that in mind. However, if you're dead set on finance/banking, you will likely work in one of those 2 big cities anyways and then you'll have your city experience. Lots of Cal kids go to NYC but not sure how many NYU kids go to SF though I'm sure it wouldn't be hard given academics/reputation. 

Unless your family is loaded, I'd be hard pressed to make my family pay an extra ~240k when I could theoretically get the same job at both of the schools and that's the deal breaker for me

 

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