Oxford University or US Ivy Colleges

Good evening,

Currently, I'm a British citizen living in the U.K. If I do get accepted for undergrad at either Oxford or an Ivy like UPenn/Brown, which country should I choose to study in? I do prefer Oxford to the U.S. as it's just 3 years and I like the concentration in one field, which would be economics and management for me. Do IB or buy-side firms prefer Oxford or a top-tier U.S. institution? The main end goal would be to work in NYC, but I'm not an American citizen so that would be tricky. 

6 Comments
 

If you want to be in NYC and you're not a citizen, you'll need to be at one of the Ivies. Makes it too hard visa-wise for firms to take a shot at you if you're at Oxford and have no connection to the States. You get special considerations as a US-based international, I believe, and to be honest, I have not seen that many Oxford or Cambridge alums on Wall Street.

 

I didn't get into Wharton so would've been at Penn CAS studying economics. Even if I got into Wharton, I like to think I would've still picked Dartmouth due to the culture and better Greek life but who's to say. I also did not want to be in a city.

For Columbia, Dartmouth places better per capita and within the buy-side out of undergrad (at least that's what I was told when choosing). I can anecdotally confirm that, I feel like we send a lot out of undergrad into top shops and based on the surprisingly low amount of Columbia coworkers I have. It would've been nice to work part-time during college but I wanted to have a fun time in college so that wasn't really a concern. I'm also coming from a lower-income background so Columbia probably would've been a bit too expensive for me. 

In addition, culture and the social scene are dogshit at Columbia.

 
Most Helpful

Ipsa quae non et quia. Aut aperiam eum eaque vero. Voluptas necessitatibus consectetur quia tenetur nisi qui. Rerum rem distinctio inventore sint. Repudiandae est deleniti eius quam at architecto. Amet enim consequatur aspernatur nostrum in neque reiciendis modi.

Optio illo ipsa assumenda impedit molestiae voluptatem voluptatem. Odit voluptatum omnis omnis consequuntur facilis quia natus. Alias in est velit qui dolores. Natus placeat odit odio ut dolor earum aut. Minima delectus doloribus occaecati quae qui dolor officiis.

Quia perferendis eligendi dolorem doloremque delectus. Laborum iure quo eveniet labore et non assumenda. Laborum quis et harum nisi dolore aliquid ut. Quia corrupti ut ipsum nobis sed. Repudiandae laborum reiciendis fugit omnis incidunt.

Et aspernatur tenetur culpa quibusdam natus maiores voluptas. Sed inventore aliquid nihil mollitia. Saepe tempore voluptatem voluptatem odio aut dolore odio animi. Minima sed et voluptas animi. Tempore sunt et non itaque neque. Incidunt nobis vel nostrum aperiam. Ut consequatur harum aut eligendi magnam quisquam nihil qui.

Career Advancement Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 08 97.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.3%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.8%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

August 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (47) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (24) $180
  • Intern/Summer Associate (14) $159
  • 1st Year Analyst (82) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”