NYUAD plus graduate school or Cambridge undergrad for management consulting?

Hi, I'm a high school senior who is choosing between NYUAD and Cambridge. With the aid given by NYU, I will be able to attend a pretty good graduate school (aiming for the ivies) before entering the workforce, whereas if I choose Cambridge, I will have to work right after graduation due to financial constraints. Also, I'm accepted to a niche social science course at Cambridge (non-economics obv) and I think it'd be near impossible to change course afterwards. So, as the title goes, which background would be more appreciated in the industry? Thank you in advance for any advice!

 
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1) If you want to do consulting, don't aim for grad school out of the gate.

2) Cambridge: degree is irrelevant for recruiting but the school is a target for all MBB London. That being said, you will struggle to land a spot in MBB even from Cambridge because of how competitive it is; you need to have stacked extra curricular whilst in uni (including a brand name summer internship in something like big law, IBD or consulting/tech etc) to land a good grad role. 

I'd take Cambridge, you'll have a good time there.

 

2 ways of thinking about this: if you want to recruit directly into the US, yes it will diminish, not the reputation itself but rather the feasibility of recruiting into nyc instead of london. APAC is doable. 
 

the other way of thinking about it is this: Cambridge can get you into MBB London. From there you can lateral to any office abroad (I think) and graduate a year early and be earning a year earlier than if you went to a US college.

 

The program aligns well with my academic interest, and realistically speaking, I'd have had much lower chance of getting in Cambridge if I didn't apply to that degree.

 

NYUAD is a very good school with very strong academics, but not as well known as Cambridge of course but still very difficult to be accepted. They have an excellent economics major with strong quant foundation. As you probably know the campus is incredible even though it is 30 minute drive outside the city. Also, with the NYU School systems you can study away in either New York City, Shanghai or one of the other 12 study away locations (London, Paris, Florence, Sydney, LA, etc....).  The graduate school placement is also good. Since you don't necessarily want to work in London, and have good NYUAD scholarship, it may be a good avenue to do some self discovery.

 

Thank you so much for your advice! Personally I'm not very set on any particular career so I would really appreciate the flexibility at NYUAD. However, I am aware that NYUAD is not really a target school for the top consulting firms. If I want to work in Asia (including the UAE), how much difference would it make?

 

Having consulting firms interview you on campus is always easier than you networking which is what you'd have to do to land internships. So yes it makes a difference and depends on how good at networking you become. I'd would ask for info ask which firms interview on campus but also see where graduates are working. Also, looking at the NYUAB employment reports you see graduates at many consulting firms. You could study away in NYU and/or London and network with firms and graduates while there. Also, since you said graduate school is possible after NYU, apply to the many MIM programs in London or another city that feeds to consulting firms. NYUAB is a good feeder to graduate schools if you keep your GPA up.

 

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