Undergrad Decision (Colgate, Lehigh, Villanova, Northeastern)
Just posting another one of those topics looking for some opinions on what school would provide the best opportunities for me. I am deciding between Colgate, Northeastern, Villanova, and Lehigh, so no targets.
Fairly certain I would like to be in either IB, consulting, or equity research after college but that could obviously change at any point over the next 4 years.
Any insight is appreciated, especially from alums or current students of the schools listed above. Thanks for reading
What school/ program at Lehigh would you do?
Lehigh has a solid accounting program and the has solid job placement among the big 4. The CSB program (computer Science and Business) is also really solid-- last time I checked it has 100% job placement among its graduating class. IBE is also solid.
To reiterate what the other guy said, in terms of wall street jobs, I've only heard of people going into S&T; however, I'm sure with a little networking and solid grades, you could break into IB from there. The alumni network is also really strong.
I would be a finance major at every school and an econ major at Colgate, so i wouldn't be in IBE or comp sci at Lehigh which I know is pretty big there. I'm not quite sure if I'm interested in accounting but that could change when I am more exposed to careers once I get to college.
@broadstbully Thanks for your input. I am definitely into the sports scene so Villanova basketball would be a big plus for me, but like you mentioned I am a little worried about the villa-no-fun reputation that nova has picked up although I'm sure it isn't as bad as some people make it seem (like you said). From what I have read/heard, Colgate and Lehigh have the party scene (probably because of nothing else to do), and Colgate and Nova have the beautiful women.
In terms of Beautiful women, Lehigh has none. If you have any more questions about Lehigh feel free to PM me. Full disclosure, I transferred from Lehigh; wasn't my scene, but I enjoyed my time there, def won't bash it and would be happy to give you unbiased answers to any questions.
I'll weigh in on the Philly schools at least:
Villanova: Really good school. Excellent basketball program if you're into the whole sports scene (who else remembers the Scottie Reynolds days?) Although it is a member of the Big 5, it is actually in the Philly suburbs, but still easily accessible to center city. Nova has developed (probably unfairly) the "Villa-no-fun" or "Vanilla-nova" nicknames, but like college in general, is what you make of it. I have met some really cool Nova kids as well. As for recruiting, all the EB's/BB's have a Nova kid somewhere. Major IBD recruitment from CS/BAML/and GS to an extent based on talking to current students. You can also pretty easily sneak in to Penn events (it is really fun to do).
Lehigh: Their program is really shifted towards financial engineering (quant type stuff). From the vibe I got when looking into it, it's more S&T, not IB focused. I haven't heard of many Lehigh IBD kids in BB's, seen them in boutique IBD//BB S&T, but not BB IBD -- just a personal observation. The big knock against Lehigh (IMO) is that you're in the middle of absolute nowhere. You have more horse & buggies in your 5-mile radius than cars. It makes networking a little bit more difficult.
Northeastern: IDK.
Colgate: Haven't heard too much, except when talking to a PE partner, he mentioned that all the Colgate guys he came across in IB/PE had an old boy, white-shoe sanctimonious attitude. Don't know if that is fair or not.
If I was you, assuming you want IBD: Nova/Colgate > Lehigh > Northeastern
I wouldn't really say Lehigh is in the middle of nowhere. It is in Bethlehem, PA which is a decent sized town. Furthermore, it's only 90 mins from Philly and NYC.
With regards to the original question, I would rank the schools in this order: 1. Villanova 2. Colgate 3. Lehigh 4. Northeastern
Have you ever been to Bethlehem? I was just up there a couple weeks ago. It is an old steel town that is now covered with Amish. It resembles an old beach town...without the beach. Let me know if you find something fun to do in Bethlehem. In regards to travel time, have you ever been on the Schuylkill Expressway? I hope you haven't..
OP, Nova has the women. Additionally, there are a good amount of bars to go, and you can always come up to the U City area for a good time at Drexel/UPenn.
Go to Colgate. It's a top ranked LAC and has a strong alumni base on Wall St.
I would do Nova and not look back. Then next would come Colgate=Lehigh then northeastern last
Villanova has those nick names because the campus is all white. The bars up the road are great, the girls are attractive and you can easily go to Philadelphia if you want more adult fun. MM IB's come on campus and alumni are all over Wall Street.
I'd pick either Nova or Colgate with a preference towards Nova.
I can answer any questions on NU if you have any. I can only speak on NU and Nova (from philly area). The co-op program is a great way to gain valuable internship experience and more FO options are becoming available (from what i've heard), however I still think Nova will make for an easier road to the positions you are looking for. That's not to say it isn't possible from NU, just will require some networking outside of co-op and extra effort on your part. For what its worth, Boston is a great college town and can be a lot of fun (so can Philly despite its negative perception from a lot of outsiders)
Colgate is in Hamilton; probably pretty similar to Bethlehem in terms of night life, etc.
I think Villanova has the best reputation as a business school, and a very extensive alumni network
Colgate. It places in front office and the students who go there often got into Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, etc and recruiters know that. Great alumni base too. Villanova is good for the middle office or sales (like institutional). Tied with Lehigh. NU, all the way bottom babe.
Colgate. Not even close. This is where youre going to find the highest concentration of really smart kids and recruiters know this. I have seen a couple of kids arpund here say "oh they have a great undergrad business program" about a few schools. Let me assure you that it's better to go a premier school (colgate) than a non wharton/uva/etc caliber undergrad bschool program - unless you think you want to do accounting, but in that case you should just got to a cheap state school and get a high gpa.
Having gone to NU, i would unfortunately have to agree with most of the people on here. NU is good if youre just looking for a FT job after school, but the most youre really shooting for is the odd MM IB position or BB ER and those are few and far between. You can certainly get a GS/MS/JPM/BARC job but its not really gonna be what youre looking for. I know a lot of kids that went to Colgate and they do have a nice old boys pipeline into some of the good shops, but at the same time definitely known for being pricks and having grown up not far from Hamilton i can tell you first hand that it blows.
Id say Nova > Lehigh > NU > Colgate (definitely biased) but thats also just because legit 100% of the people i graduated with had FT offers October of senior year and i dont know much about lehigh.
All accurate on the NU info, I agree on all fronts
Damn just when I was 90% set on Colgate I see this... although I know this is just your opinion. The isolation and small size seems pretty underwhelming but all the alum I have talked to seemed to enjoy their time and most of them ended up at great positions. Also, I live about an hour away from Hamilton and I grew up in a pretty similar town so I kind of understand the lifestyle that comes with a town like Hamilton. Nova is also about 40k cheaper but my parents seem to imply that money shouldn't be the deciding factor in my decision.
By the way, just wanted to thank everyone for replying/giving input, it was very helpful.
Pick from Colgate or Nova and disregard the other two. Colgate is a fantastic school and to be honest probably the best all around school of the bunch. It is liberal arts which makes it a little more difficult in the beginning to have access to recruiting, but the prestige of the school combined with powerful alums make it a great choice. Nova would be a close 2nd to Colgate, if not tied for first. It is a bigger school and will have a different feel to it. Definitely will have avenues to finance, especially if you're in the undergrad business school. The only thing is that you're much more focused on finance then whereas an Econ major from Colgate will give you more flexibility. Lehigh imo would be a lesser nova, no reason to really consider this unless you love it for some reason. NU is probably the weakest of the bunch. Kinda alright because its in Boston and the coop program will help you find some type of job, but the ceiling is much lower than it would be at a Nova or Colgate.
I got accepted for a full ride at NU honors for international business and I turned it down for a NESCAC liberal arts school. Had an internship at Morgan Stanley last summer and next year I have full time employment in corporate finance in a well known tech company in Silicon Valley. We didn't get much access to OCR, but our alumni pull really hard for us come recruiting season. Hope this helps.
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