Princeton vs. MIT Undergrad
Hey everyone! I'm trying to choose between Princeton and MIT for my undergraduate college next year. These are my possible choices for majors:
- Finance at MIT (or possibly Business Analytics, but I heard that isn't a great field of study?)
- Operations Research/Financial Engineering at Princeton
- To a lesser degree: EECS at MIT
I like both schools pretty equally.
I know that I don't really want to do management consulting, and I'm open to bb ib, PE, HF. Most likely, I'll work for a few years before getting a MBA.
Would love any reasons behind why I should go to one school over the other! Thanks for all the help!
Princeton
Princeton is way better for finance placement
Yeah, but MIT wins for tech. And in ten years, tech eats everything.
To be sure, I am pulling for Princeton due to alumni bias, but there is a strong case to be made for MIT that runs contrary to this forum's DNA. It's still a little too early for this forum to decide that GS IBD is the best place for this 17 year old kid to land at age 22. Our goal right now is to help get the kid a job and career opportunities, including opportunities working on finance related stuff at either a Goldman or at a fintech firm. Princeton will win for Goldman, and MIT will win for fintech.
In my view MIT has the lead for tech and the two schools are neck and neck for opportunities in finance--though the opportunities take on different sorts of character. That said, I think studying Econ at Princeton will allow a little more time for fun than studying CS at MIT. (I say this as a CS undergrad and Princeton Finance grad alumn)
The two schools are fundamentally different culturally. OP needs to figure out where he fits in.
The difference in their placement is pretty marginal as these are both excellent schools. The deciding factor will be whether or not you are able to succeed in the school and a lot of that will depend on whether or not you enjoy the school culture; choose where you felt most comfortable after visiting - you will be spending 4 years on your life there and will be reflecting back on it for many more.
These are two good choices. What do you want to study?
MIT for Engineering or CS.
Princeton for liberal arts and social sciences, including Econ.
Princeton is a much better choice for finance placement, as you'll get a solid quantitative background as well as a more diverse skill set. MIT isn't great at developing people outside of the sciences and most undergrads don't take the non-science majors seriously.
You wont need an MBA if you go to Princeton. You likely wont need one if you go to MIT, but you definitely wont need one from Princeton.
cross-register with Harvard at MIT, otherwise have fun in Princeton. It will literally have 0 correlation to your MBA future. Too many undergrads in this tier still chase for MBA degrees lol.
Congrats! Both are great schools. If you do like them both equally, maybe location can be an important factor too. I went to school in NYC but interned in downtown Boston while living in Cambridge and absolutely loved the area. Definitely try to visit both before deciding!
Hello everyone, OP here! I decided to attend Princeton due to a mix of social and academic reasons. Thank you so much for all the replies and advice! I really appreciate the help! :) This thread was pretty integral in my decision, so thanks!
Congrats!
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