UCLA VS WARWICK

Do you want to work in the US or the UK?

Warwick>UCLA for European placement

Go to UCLA if you want to have fun, Warwick if you want to find a good job in London

I graduated from UCLA, couple of tips:
- many decent networking events will be in NYC or London
- there are finance and finance related jobs in LA, but there is more choice out East or in the UK
- interviewing in NYC and Europe cost me a lot of money for flights, rental cars, train fares, hotels, travel at destination, fees, etc. - if you really are focused on finance
 

I don't regret attending UCLA, it is a great school. Just don't expect an amazing opportunity pop up somewhere in Brentwood or in FiDi just because you studied there. It might happen for you, but you'd need flexibility if that doesn't happen. The alumni network at UCLA is fairly diverse within industry, the people you reach out to may not be as focused on finance or IB.

Also, if you are international in the US, don't forget the whole planning and risk framework for you and the companies around the visa and work permits. It may or may not work out.

As mentioned many times on WSO before: you should study in the country where you would like to work afterwards, normally it would makes things a lot easier.

Largely depends on where you wanna work and ur cost of attendance. UCLA is great buy its recruitment for finance isn't the best. Additionally, most placements are on the Cali side and it's kinda impossible/extremely difficult to make it to the east coast from there. On the other hand, Warwick is great (a low target) for the UK and is much cheaper to attend. But of course, it's in the UK and you may not have the same college experience and career growth after graduating

Take Warwick over UCLA. I went to Warwick so I may be biased but many of my freinds/people I knew there have gone on to be very successful in finance. UK education costs a fraction of the price relative to the US and Warwick is far more 'target' than UCLA is (in the UK at least). In the UK Warwick is only behind Oxbridge and LSE, maybe UCL. In the US, recruiters place UCLA behind far more schools: the 7 Ivy's (excl Dartmouth), Stanford, MIT and even Northwestern. It also depends if you have a US citizenship.

But listen, you are clearly smart and will make it no matter where you go, most people your age won't be planning this far ahead even in their 3rd year of university, I remember I wasn't!

I went to Warwick, had a tonne of fun. Leamington Spa is a great place, when you first do the classic Jug and Jester (think it's called the Old Library now) -> Kelsey's -> Shades route you'll find your eyes opened. I also really enjoy London, however you'll have time to explore London when you're older as I imagine most of your career will be here. For what it's worth according to my headhunter gf Warwick is consistently one of the top three uni backgrounds for people who place into London PE, so wouldn't say it particularly disadvantages you.