Princeton vs Yale vs Stanford (undergrad)
Recruited athlete here deciding between these 3 schools. I am looking to go into finance after college. Which school out of these 3 do you think is the best in terms of alumni network, recruiting, and getting a finance job on wall street (in I-Banking, PE, trading, etc.) Seems to me that Princeton > Yale > Stanford based off my research and the fact that Princeton has ORFE while Yale and Stanford only have econ. Do you think there will be sizable differences in getting a job after graduation? And what college will best enable me to have a successful finance career because of the network/recruiting? (I know I can in all places, key word here is best) Princeton does have grade deflation, however, I assume that those hiring are likely aware of this so it likely won't hurt too much. Also, please do not comment you should make your decision based off other factors, as I am, yet those other factors I can weigh myself, while these factors are the ones I am asking about and would like info on. Thanks, I appreciate all responses.
For NYC - Princeton >= Yale > Stanford.
West Coast - Stanford >> Princeton = Yale
IMO....
Congrats on being in such an incredible situation, you simply can't go wrong here. Blank112 brought up a good point about geography. To add a bit more color, it's not that banks in NYC will think any less of you if you come from Stanford, there will just be fewer Stanford alumni in NYC to network with than Yale or Princeton. If you want to work finance on the east coast I'd go with one of Yale or Princeton (no difference in job opportunities between the two IMO), but if you think you might have an interest in tech or want to work out west, go to Stanford.
This is all, of course, with the caveat that these schools are ~the same from a career perspective and you should really choose based on other factors (fit, potential major, distance to home, etc.). Also, since you're an athlete, do you like the coach/future teammates more at one school? For what it's worth I'd rather be an athlete at Stanford than one of the Ivies.
For alumni network and shared experiences, (ie. probably to build the best network just based on college) Princeton probably hands down. So much of the network is about quality, not quantity and one will have no problems with either in any of these schools. My impression as an older guy is that Princeton has the whole “shared experiences” and “alum familiarity” thing much more than Stanford or Yale. In short a random student can approach a random alum and probably has a much better chance to connect with said alum if it’s Princeton vs. the other two. I could be wrong but that’s my impression and I’m pretty confident that’s the case.
That said, as a poster above mentioned, one can’t go wrong. Personally I hope the OP has visited each school. With that where does the OP feel most comfortable? College is an all engaging, full time four-year experience. Learning, enjoyment, making friends and having an awesome life experience that hopefully positively shapes you and your life is what it is all about. One can get that at any of those schools but each is different and without knowing more, it’s a decision OP will have to make.
Even if the OP does go into finance (So much can change in four years) there is much more to college than getting a job in like Lev Fin or covering industrials at GS and being a PowerPoint and Excel monkey for 100 hours a week.
Hope this helps. Congrats on having these choices!
Good Luck
Networking is literally life especially in service related industries like finance. If you are in sales or any people related business (and at higher levels it is almost always people related), who you know or your connection to that person is critical in success.
All of these schools will have competitive applicant pools for banking as mine did. Plenty of very qualified folks who did all the right things and went the normal route didn’t get the coveted banking jobs while some who knew people and sidestepped the competitive process did due to their connections. Once you leave school that network becomes much much more important because you are not sheltered at said school and have to get someone to read your resume when literally hundreds or thousands of people are applying for the same job you are.
Even though I have benefitted from networking and my school’s connections, believe me, I wish it was not the case and that it was more of a meritocracy.
In short keep networking no matter where you go to school.
Good Luck
I think networking is absolutely required at a target school. Sure virtually every bank recruits at Princeton, Yale, and Stanford, but the amount of people vying for those jobs is insane. If Evercore takes 50 people a year, maybe 10 diversity and 5 nontarget, that leaves 35 spots (even though some of those diversity candidates will be target students). You have 8 ivy league schools, other targets (Stanford, UChicago), and semitargets (UVA, Kelley, Stern) all competing for those 35 spots. They may take 5 people each from HYPS and the rest everywhere else. But then you have a quota of 5 for your school (on average, obviously if there are 6 amazing candidates they'll go over, but if you look at linkedin a relatively similar number of students from each target is recruited each year). And if every bank is like that, that doesn't leave a lot of positions open for your school, especially at top firms like Evercore. Rather than getting 5000 applications from nontargets through the regular application form, they probably get 250-500 applications from everyone interested in banking at that school. Then that goes down to however few first rounds, and then however few superdays, all to culminate in 5 students getting the offer.
The only way to differentiate yourself, target or nontarget, is through networking. Granted target students can do a lot of their networking when banks come and give information sessions on campus. But the only way to form somewhat personal connections is through one-on-one networking. You can't just be a target student and expect to get an interview everywhere.
You could major in african american studies at stanford and still have a better shot at NYC IB in comparison with yale and princeton. go stanford bud
what sport?
Stanford doesn't have only Econ. There is the Management Science & Engineering major which is essentially a finance major.
**Pick the school that you think gives you the best environment to be successful as a student and happy as a person. Can't overstate how important this is. **
You'll have a million opportunities at any one of these schools if you do the little things this site suggests. You'll be in the best place to capitalize on those opportunities if you're happy.
I went to a top target on the east coast. All of my peers would have gone to Stanford in a heartbeat, but I don't see many Stanford kids dying to go to the Ivies. All NY IB opportunities will be available to you from Stanford, and if you couldn't land NY IB, it wasn't because of Stanford.
Go to Stanford. When you're enjoying the sun and riding you bike around campus while your Ivy peers are miserable and depressed trudging through snow, you'll realize how easy of a decision this ultimately should have been.
exactly
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