USC, UVA, or Emory?
Hello everyone, I have to commit to USC, UVA, or Emory and I'm still undecided. I would like to go into investment banking, consulting, private equity, real estate or other top finance careers. At USC, I will be in the Marshall School of Business (or do applied math/econ). At UVA, I will be majoring in Econ in the College of Arts and Sciences and then I will apply to be accepted into McIntire during my sophomore year (50-60% acceptance rate so shouldn't be too bad hopefully). At Emory, I will be getting my BBA from the Goizueta Business School and I'm also thinking of majoring in Econ as a double major. Which school would position me best to break into IB/consulting/PE/VC/etc? What are their pros and cons as well? Any advice is appreciated. Once again, thank you.
I would say USC for overall lifestyle, academics, and ability to recruit well on west coast. Alumni connections are very real and you will love your experience imo
Because NYC is on the west coast ... ?
California > NY
USC actually recruits very well for New York. I know many people that have done it. More than I can count. Both top BB and EB and their respective top groups. Hope this helps.
UVA easy
I’d say location should be your top consideration - where do you want to be most for the next 4 years and the years beyond. If you’re not opposed to LA / SF or Atlanta, you can consider USC or Emory. However, it you want NYC, UVA is by far your best option.
USC cuz weed women weather.
Marshall has great resources/mentors for IB recruiting and TIS/GIS/VIG are the most popular finance clubs.
Tons of stepping-stone internships in LA and SoCal and all of them regularly hire from USC.
I disagree that USC will localize you to west coast.
The majority of my peers who wanted to work in NY, ended up getting an offer there; it just happens to be that a lot of USC students are interested in working on the west coast FT cuz of family and friends.
But because most of your USC network stays in LA for their family that means most of your college network is in LA. Doesn't mean you can't network into NY but it's probably easier to network into an LA office for that reason
Wake up at 6am. Get ready, brush teeth, shower, shave, put on clean clothes and some nice cologne.
Go to Fertita Hall Library, look up networking target on LinkedIn, add them to you excel sheet with potential emails.
Its 8am, which means 11am EST; so I start sending emails to NY bankers. M&A, Restructuring, Capital Markets
I take a break and grab coffee from one of the 5 Starbucks' around campus; Maybe I'll get an acai bowl too
It's 10am, I go to class. 12pm grab lunch. 2 pm class. 4pm send emails to CA bankers. Wow! I get a reply in 5 mins from a VP. I speak with them at 6pm and they connect me to 12 analysts and I can choose. 2 months later I get a superday and literally chilled at the superday without any interview questions, and the other one the interviewer shows me her pajamas.
Classes are easy, I think I developed a superiority complex.
Weed Women Weather they say, life can't be better.
This is the USC life.
West Coast or East Coast, if you're sharp, you will get where you wish. Jake Freeman would agree.
Fight On!
Happy Summer
Don't trust women they will leave you
Hit the gym 6 days a week, lots of protein, and have good style.
I go to USC. I'd say USC for west coast and UVA for NYC, but if you're open to both, It will be easier to do USC --> East Coast than UVA --> West Coast. If you want to work in the south then UVA > Emory > USC.
Have you gotten an internship fairly easily?
If you get good grades, study technicals, and practice interviewing you should be able to land something, but definitely harder than Ivies, Stanford, etc. Huge network on the west coast and viewed as a semi-target or target for most SF and LA banks. Lots of small PE/IB internships in LA for first internships. First internship I got was directly through a finance club at USC, the rest were through networking.
Emory and UVA are pretty equal in the south. In the south I would say Emory has a slight edge
.
This answer would be different for different years but I would say Emory. The undergrad BBA is very good and respected in all those areas. https://goizueta.emory.edu/documents/BBAEmploymentReport.pdf
It is a more academically rigorous school than the others and people recognize this. If you want to be on the west coast then USC obv. UVA is good if you like wearing pink pants.
I was just accepted to WashU off the waitlist and wanted to know your thoughts on it
Good school, but the other 3 you mentioned will place much better off the bat. It’s one of those schools that certainly won’t hurt you but won’t help you a great deal either. You’ll have to hustle very hard on your own. With that said, one of the smartest guys I know at a major infra fund went there. His path was not totally straightforward but he’s crushing it now.
would not go to usc if you are interested in ib in nyc. current sophomore here and would say most kids who get ny ib offers are diversity or have connections - it is possible to do so otherwise but it can be a major uphill battle and many kids end up recruiting west coast despite wanting ny to better their odds
got it, USC places really well in LA and SF right? How is it going for you?
generally you'll have a shot at most la/sf offices. some of the top groups can still be difficult to land - for example, no one to my knowledge even got a hirevue from gs tmt sf this year. recruiting has been relatively tough this cycle for sc kids as a whole and placements are down quite a bit vs last year but that is a prevalent theme at many schools and reflects the less favorable macro environment we find ourselves in.
Honestly I think USC is a little overrated for east coast. Emory and UVA are a cut above for IB and consulting. I would pick between the 2. They’re 2 very different experiences so think about that but both place very well into IB and consulting.
My parents aren't a fan of UVA, so I went with USC. Will I be at a severe disadvantage? Can I still recruit to west coast banks?
No. You’re career prospects are gone, and you’re life is over. Might as well kys.
Current USC sophomore here going through IB recruiting. My thoughts on West Coast and NY recruiting so far:
West Coast: literally yours———alumni all over LA, SF, and Menlo. If you join certain clubs and their programs in Marshall, and at the very least, make minimum contact with alumni at the firms you're interested in, you have guaranteed first rounds with them. Almost all firms come to Marshall for public info sessions and the ones that don't will host private info sessions with the clubs. After that, it's up to you and how much work you put into the interview process.
New York: a little bit tougher, especially for EBs———you'll likely find less than 2-3 junior bankers across the entire office. The same applies to BBs but there're more guys due to size. 100% doable, but you have to be willing to go the extra mile and keep ringing phones late Fall and early Spring.
All in all, solid target for West Coast. Semi-target for NY. One thing to have in mind, though. Trojan alumni truly pull for you. Obviously, I have never attended other schools, so I can't speak for them, but my response rates with an average resume have been extraordinarily high. These guys really wanna have more USC kids in their groups.
Since you're not attending college only for your recruiting semester but actually for seven more, my experience at USC has been fucking great. Good balance of great weather, big city, hard-working campus culture, and parties all over the place....annnnd we're back at being good at football, fight on baby.
were you able to land an internship on the west coast easily? Also, are there opportunities for VC?
I didn't recruit on the West Coast. I put all my eggs in one basket and worked my ass off in NY recruiting. But yeah, I landed an offer at BB.
Current sophomore at usc and just finished up with recruiting…100% echo this, couldn’t have said it better.
This will give away who I am from anyone who went to USC - but the "afters" you will experience at USC are second to none. Dont let these kids fool you, warehouse parties until 8am near skidrow are a lot better than you think.
as a trojan myself, idk who you are but you're a man of culture indeed
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