Stanford GSB vs. Wharton/Columbia/Booth for Finance?

Hey all,

If I am focused on having a career in finance in NY, would it not make any sense to choose Stanford over Wharton/Columbia/Booth despite its prestige? Please discuss...

33 Comments
 

Wharton, Booth, Columbia...in that order. Stanford is not a finance school, at least I won't choose it over wharton or booth. It's good for tech though

 

They're all prestigious schools but I would chose Stanford any day. You seriously can't beat the weather in California, and aside from weather Stanford offers a great education.

 
Controversial

Chicago is over rated. Will adjust back to reality in time. Everyone here seems to forget they became a big name school post donation(and name change). How long will that cash last.

Although I won't knock some of their finance faculty. Great line up, but many of them are retired / retiring. Will be interesting to see if they can recruit or grow current faculty to same caliber as previous.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 
CountryUnderdog

Chicago is over rated. Will adjust back to reality in time. Everyone here seems to forget they became a big name school post donation(and name change). How long will that cash last.

Although I won't knock some of their finance faculty. Great line up, but many of them are retired / retiring. Will be interesting to see if they can recruit or grow current faculty to same caliber as previous.

Actually, word is that the NAV of the donation has gone up; that their investment returns have exceeded how much of it they've spent.

Anarchist10

I haven't attended HBS or Booth. I visited Wharton a couple of months ago and I loved it. Talked to a lot of super intelligent and smart students. The faculty and academics are great. I've heard stories of similar experience from Booth's alumni. Plus I'd also choose booth because of hedge fund recruiting. Not that funds don't recruit from other schools, it's just that booth has reputation and increases your chances. The only other Ivy league school I'd consider is MIT. If I got accepted to both hbs and MIT, i would choose MIT and enjoy the 2 years

Actually, neither Booth nor MIT are "Ivy League". You should know what this term means; it's an athletic conference with a fixed membership composed of the undergraduate arms of eight universities, six of which have business schools: Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Cornell. Princeton and Brown are part of the Ivy League and do not have business schools.

To the OP: I'm of the opinion that Stanford's selectivity is above all the other schools, and in the East Coast, they know that too.

FWIW, I think the latest USN ranking is the most accurate one I've seen, with the exception that I would bump Tuck up to 7th (and I generally lose interest after the 9th school - in the past I've said T9 is the the true 'club' in business schools, even if 9 is not an attractive heuristic).

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
 

Thanks a lot for your inputs. It seems my employment prospects are similarly solid at any of these schools.

My main concern is, as someone who is set on a finance career and would prefer NYC/London/HK over SF, I wonder if I would fit in much better at a place like Wharton just based on having more aligned career interests and goals with my peers, and also build a better network from a finance career point of view? Does my thought process make sense here?

 
crazi4ib

Thanks a lot for your inputs. It seems my employment prospects are similarly solid at any of these schools.

My main concern is, as someone who is set on a finance career and would prefer NYC/London/HK over SF, I wonder if I would fit in much better at a place like Wharton just based on having more aligned career interests and goals with my peers, and also build a better network from a finance career point of view? Does my thought process make sense here?

Bump!

 

Around 2008 Stanford GSB decided that it didn't think Wall Street finance was where it was at, and decided to focus on "entrepreneurial finance" and that's what the school is incredibly good at. Of course it has your corporate finance and some great investment management courses, and some well regarded professors (one of them, Jonathan Berk, is just terrific), but it really has been focusing on venture finance and startup stuff, and what the student body and silicon valley cares about. But indeed the NY firms do recruit there and take people year after year. No recruiter is actually going to turn their back on a solid Stanford GSB candidate. That's just the way it is. I say this from having been a resume coach at the GSB career management center and as an editor for finance profs. papers. I think Stanford can definitely hold its own in terms of the 2 year experience and the career prospects.
Now, it's a very self selecting school, and if anyone is half-hearted about going there, don't waste your $250 to apply. They can tell if someone takes the school seriously -- they don't need to try to scoop up people who haven't drunk the GSB Kool-Aid

OK, now would you fit in better if your peers had similar interests? Hmm, maybe, but I see that the networking across functions and industries would probably be more helpful in the long run. But feel free to push back on that idea -- It's kind of a personal decision of what you want "fit in" to mean.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

Honestly if you get into any of these schools your set. I wouldn't fret about the choice too much. Although I'd kill someone to got to Wharton or HBS.

 

Honestly if you get into any of these schools your set. I wouldn't fret about the choice too much. Although I'd kill someone to go to Wharton or HBS.

 

Something to consider in this debate is the relative unpopularity of IB at both H/S. While the schools may not do as much to "prepare" you for an IB summer, they are both without question the "best" business schools by brand in the world. That leads to banks wanting to snag a few from each every year, and if you are one of the few at either you are also one of the few even pursuing IB. Your competition to land an interview is lower, as is your obligation to hustle to even get an interview. This year at HBS there were folks who interviewed first round with MS/GS/JPM that hadn't attended a single recruiting event. I don't know if any of these folks landed internships, but the fact that they could even interview says something. Those of us that did the full process ended up with multiple offers from MS/GS/JPM, etc. The challenge at these schools however is convincing your interviewer that you will actually do banking, which is not as easy as you would think.

 
Most Helpful

Uh no... you should not pick any of those schools over GSB for finance lol.

GSB usually places around 1/3 of its class into finance every year (vast majority going into PE), which is more than HBS. Those students are placing all around the world.

There are these weird perceptions by some ppl on here that if you want to do entrepreneurship, tech, or something on the west coast - HBS won’t work. Or if you want to do finance on the east coast - GSB won’t work

So far from the truth. If you go to HBS or GSB, you will have access to any opportunities you want. They are on another level than any other b schools

 

My older brother went to GSB and placed into a great PE role in New York. He said he had a really easy time placing in ny because those firms still recruit heavily at GSB, but many ppl in his class wanted to stay west coast

 

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