Vanderbilt vs Alabama?
High School senior here. I was admitted to both Vanderbilt and UA for the upcoming school year. The trouble is that Vanderbilt would cost around $70,000/yr of money I don’t have while UA would be a full-ride (I would get paid to go there).
Of course Vanderbilt affords significantly more opportunity when it comes to on campus recruiting, but it doesn’t even have a business or finance major. At this point, it is hard to see how Vanderbilt would offer $280,000 of additional value compared to Alabama despite being a better school.
For context, I am from Tennessee and would be recruiting primarily in the South. Am I crazy for leaning toward a non-target over a regional target?
It depends what you want to do. If you're thinking Houston banking, Vanderbilt with a decent GPA and some networking would get you any interview vs. not sure how Alabama would do. You can probably pay off the loans living in Houston and making banking money in less than 3 years if you’re frugal. However, it all just comes down to what you want to do
If you have a perfect/near perfect GPA from Bama and the scholarships on your resume, you'll probably be more impressive than the average Southern target kid on paper, but maybe not the top kids from Vandy/Rice/UT/etc. I'm not sure the latter matters since it's mostly about interview performance after you get one.
On-campus recruiting is not the be all end all; it just reduces the need to grind cold emails to gin up connections. You're on here as a high school student, so I think it's reasonable to assume that you'll be capable of finding the right resources to be successful in recruiting.
Is Vanderbilt actually a financial option here?
most schools do not give 100% of the loans needed to attend - ex. You need private loans or parents to pay out of pocket for some number each semester
I think Vanderbilt is worth the extra coin here (many doors will be shut with bama on your resume and you’ll probably be restricted to Atlanta IB mostly)
despite what the other poster said - there’s not many (more than 3 tops) bama guys who have made it to houston. A few that did lateraled via Truist internally (Suntrust back then)
you have a shot at most cities with Vandy on your resume - NYC banks probably won’t take bama guys (unless you’re a varsity football player)
This just isn’t true.
Recent alumni at PWP, GS, Point72, DB, MS, Moelis, Barclays, Nomura, Wells, BofA, UBS, RJ, Mizuho, Citi,
https://www.uaiba.org/alumni
The better placements are all women.
just an observation.
Edit: there’s only 10 a year that get IB jobs? That is so weak
I would go to UA, absolutely kill it your first year and try to transfer to schools that will give you scholarships and have more recruiting might. You can land a seat from UA but you need to be incredibly involved, have a bunch of internships and network, likely be in a frat if you're targeting the southern banking scene.. it's a long list of things to do well.
If you're really thinking Houston, the Texas schools (UT, SMU is generous sometimes, certainly A&M) would get you there all day long. If you want to be in Charlotte or more regional banking areas like Florida or Atlanta, I'd look at the classic schools like UGA and UF as well as some of the semi-targets that might give you money as a transfer.
I think $280k of loans is a very poor financial decision for a semi-target with no business school and not a whole lot of OCR. I'm obviously quite a few years out of school, but the Vandy kids I have spoken to mention it's hard to get finance on their resume since there are so few finance clubs there, so something to consider. If it was Harvard vs UA that would be a different story, Vandy you still have to put in quite a lot of work to get an IB seat.
He’s a high school senior in Tennessee - he’s not getting money out of state as a transfer at UGA or UF - those finance clubs or whatever tend to take applications from college freshman
Sorry, I meant some of the private semi-targets would give him money... think Emory, Elon, Wake etc
Also UGA's IB program (Corsair) is only open to sophomore applicants, so he would be fine there. I don't know much about UF programs but UGA is a pretty strong school to recruit from and their out of state tuition is a lot more reasonable than full pay at Vandy
This makes the most sense. One thing to consider is that a lot can change in few years- maybe your future self will want to something other than finance, a part of finance that doesn't need banking, and/or recruiting somewhere other than the south. In that sense optionality is valuable, however, as the poster notes I'm not sure Vandy gives you $280 k worth of optionality vs. Bama. Do all the right things there and after year 1 see if you can get a "Vandy" level option with scholarships so better ROI or something that is worth paying up for relative to Bama (Duke/UVA or perhaps some non southern alternatives)
Just to piggyback off the top rated comment, can confirm SMU can be quite generous. Friend of mine was grabbed a 35/36 on his ACT and despite a mediocre GPA received a nearly full ride to SMU. Perform well your freshman year and give it a look if your LT goal is southern banking, the school places quite well if you're in their top finance clubs. Best of luck to you.
If your goal is getting into southern banking (Houston, Charlotte, Atlanta) I think going to Vandy would be ill-advised. If you network from day one at Bama, join the right student orgs, and maintain a high GPA, you should be able to get looks from those areas. You already know you want to do IB before you stepped foot on campus and that puts you ahead of the curve. A quick LinkedIn search shows that there’s a decent number of IB analysts in the South and even NYC. Sure, some may have had to lateral around a bit but if your goal is just southern banking and you’re not too hung up on a specific firm I think it proves it proves it’s doable.
280,000 is an insane amount of money for the benefits of going to Vanderbilt- think about how many years that would take to pay off, even with banking pay!
If you go to UA you need to do everything in your power to get into IBA (investment banking academy) and CIMG (culverhouse investment management group). The only people who get NYC IB that aren't in those two groups are generally diversity. However, it’s worth the risk in my opinion as Vanderbilt would be incredibly expensive and orders of magnitude less fun. Roll tide!
Yes thank you for mentioning those groups. I was initially very worried that there would be no finance organizations at Bama to latch onto, but I was pleasantly surprised that there is decent infrastructure and even a solid history of placements for those involved. Of course, some of those might be diversity while I am most certainly not
I was in a very similar situation a year ago, but was Ross v UGA v In state. You can look at my profile if you want to see those discussions.
Ended up choosing UGA, and so far have not regretted it in the slightest. Look for some sort of IB infrastructure at Bama, like clubs programs etc. If those things exist I would highly consider Alabama. You’ll most likely have more fun, be more confident, more flexibility. When you graduate you can be that guy/girl from bama, 4.0, head of clubs, president of frat/srat. Hardest part apart it will be finding alumni to connect with at firms, but all it takes is one employee to refer you to others who work at the same firm.
Just my opinion on the matter. Helps if you’re diversity to get into early insight programs. DM me if you have more questions.
Bama Alum here - While the amount of alumni in banking is low, the ones I reached out to and connected with were always willing to chat about their experiences and give advice on how to land a banking role
Look up the alumni listed on the IBA (Investment Banking Academy) & CIMG (Culverhouse Investment Management Group) student org websites. Almost all of them land jobs in NYC for IB, with recent alumni going to Moelis, Barclays, GS, MS, PWP, etc… There’s also a few who appear to have pivoted and ended up in consulting at BCG.
If you want to stay in the South, there’s also a few recent Alumni that are at Truist as well. I’m sure Vanderbilt students do great too, but if you can go to Alabama for free, get into those groups, and maintain a 4.0+ GPA, you’ll have a good shot at recruiting.
Another interesting point about Alabama is the way they do GPAs. They operate on the +/- scale, so you can rack up A+s early on to have a GPA well above 4.0 and coast your last few semesters getting below a 4.0 and still finish off with a 4.0 GPA.
Unless it has changed since my time, the A+ (4.33/4.00) cant be carried over from semester to semester. The highest GPA you can get per semester is a 4.0
Yeah it’s changed. The 4.33 can be carried over.
Honestly go Alabama. Make sure you have a stellar GPA and list your full ride and ACT/SAT score (I’m assuming it must be killer) on your resume. People will understand if you say you went to Alabama for fiscal reasons
As a person currently undergoing recruitment, you will be asked why you chose the current school you attend. It will be an easy answer for you to say the choice was a full-ride scholarship vs $280k in debt. People respect that more you’d think.
When networking / interviewing, you can very succinctly mention that you got into Vandy (and any other “better” schools) but decided on Bama due to financial reasons AND now love it there because of… (i.e. end it on a positive note). Like others have said, make sure you get close to a 4.0 at Bama to show that you are clearly Vandy caliber.
If I heard a candidate say this, I’d instantly be impressed by your maturity, view you in the same light as someone else who actually attends Vandy, and push for you assuming all else is equal.
Disagree with the comments on Alabama for life after IB (PE or anything like that). Name brand matters for PE and those options will be very weak, if options at all, for PE in NYC as a white dude
Please don't go to Vandy for $70k / yr unless your parents are paying for it all and can afford it. Cost is only going to go up each year too.
If you’re smart and get a 4 at bama and network your ass off you can have any job on Wall Street. It’s entirely what you make of it and taking out 300k in lines is literally the dumbest investment you can make - source: I can tell you this as a kid who went to South Carolina and did it. It’s not rocket science, you just have to work harder
If you want to do Houston IB go to a Texas school. If you want Atlanta go to Bama. You can realistically not join any of the groups fuck around for 1.5 years and study for 3 months/network leading up into Atlanta recruiting season and get a job there. You don’t need to join a frat
If you want to do IB/ER in NYC join CIMG & IBA as soon as possible.
This is terrible advice. Nobody is hotdogging it for 1.5 years and lucking it into NYC IB / ER from ALABAMA (as a white dude)
analyst classes are shrinking significantly which means less non targets
Notice how it was caveated with if you want to do NYC IB/ER join CIMG/IBA.
Southern IB is not nearly the same rigor as NYC recruiting
Money aside - Vanderbilt over bama for nearly every aspect except social life.
Also important to factor in name brand throughout post IB career/life.
How comfortable are you spending 270k should be the main question
$280,000 is better than the shame of going to Alabama. Forever it will be a stain on your resume. Alabama is a joke of a school.
It’s okay that you didn’t get laid in college dawg. No judgement here.
Consider if there’s any external fellowships/scholarships you can apply to in order to lower the cost of Vandy. Maybe grab an army ROTC contract, commission into the reserves and get your education covered? Not a recruiter but I’ve seen it as a legitimate tool. Big commitment but it could yield a whole other network of vets and give you your prestige/quality education.
However I’ll say Bama full ride>Vandy full cost in your case. Follow the other good advice posted here.
Edit note: Expect to see full retardation on display at a school like Bama. There is plenty of it at any college, but in a place like that with frats ruling the whole campus and a crazy inbred weirdo fanbase - just beware that’s a whole different world of idiocy.
Just did a quick LinkedIn search for my own curiosity. There are lots of Alabama kids in Atlanta for banking, mostly Truist is seems.
If you're set on the south, I don't think saving money and going to Alabama is a bad idea. You'd probably have way more fun at Alabama than Vanderbilt (vandy kids are kinda weird and risk them rubbing off on you - and having a good personality is 1/3 the recipe in banking)
Alabama is a super duper uber target if your goal is to get to the NFL
While vandy is expensive and what I’m about to say might not sound convincing, I can tell you it will be worth it. I transferred from a party school nontarget to Vandy - and while some people definitely get into IB from bama as they did from my old non target - I think you have to consider the value you place on being around “like minded people.”
i made some great friends at my old school and enjoyed the social life aspect to the fullest, and definitely didnt party as hard at vandy.
however, once I got to vandy, I realized the value of surrounding myself with people whose major wasnt blacking out every weekend. If part of your identity is pushing yourself and achieving (likely given that youre posting on here as a hs senior), the chances of any given classmate being someone similar to you is simply higher at vandy.
there are going to be tons of ppl you’ll vibe with at bama too, but I personally couldnt put a price on drastically increasing the odds that the person next to me in class has similar goals. After all (while risking sounding like an admissions officer) these people could end up being your lifelong friends, spouse, business partners, etc.
also, to second a point made earlier in this thread, retardation will be in full display at bama. Nearly every weekend at my old non target, kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to run down the halls and “mario punch” the ceiling tiles in the dorms and leave the bathrooms unusable (not just puking in the showers, but like bringing down the entire ceiling framing in the whole bathroom). Getting wasted is part of college but you might enjoy doing it with kids more similar to you (again, given that youre on this forum in high school)
8000 vandy kids who were all bred from preschool to get a 36 ACT are less likely to do that than 40000 rolltide bama fans.
Disagree think you can find a group of serious-minded people anywhere. I'm sure people at Bama's engineering school aren't complete degenerates for example. Also Vandy has a ton of people who black out every weekend. I visited my friends at the "southern ivies" Duke, Emory, and Vandy and Vandy definitely had the highest share of partiers. Its an amazing school but 300,000 dollars is boat load of money
no shame in blacking out. but when its all you have planned for the next 4 years plus, its depressing. kids at vandy have at least something else going for them
I go to Vanderbilt, we are not a target school (yet). We only have a business minor (no finance major or anything, only Econ). Will say that we are getting a lot more students into finance jobs, so maybe could help us become a target school eventually?
love my business professors. they really want you to succeed and make an effort to support everyone’s success. I think I’ll graduate with enough business class hours to have fulfilled a common major’s class hours requirement — there are plenty of business class options but doesn’t count as a major for your resume.
My friends are working at top BB (MS, GS, JPM, etc) so it is definitely possible to get there. We are starting to get a lot more attention from places now that we have more recent grads in analyst positions plus people’s parents making an effort to recruit other Vanderbilt students with the hopes that Vanderbilt’s name becomes more prestigious/the school becomes a target school. Hope this helps
You could literally pocket the 280k and pay some associate 500$ to drag you in front of their MD. I just in no world see how Vandy justifies that price tag over bama especially when you’re on a site like this before college even starts.
I’d bet on a high achiever like you making it from bama any day as long as you get the grades and network from the beginning.
I’m sorry but the responses here are insane. One of these is a top-15 school that places a ton of people into BB banking and MBB consulting, and the other is the 150th-ranked school with 30k undergrads and an 80% acceptance rate where some butthurt students feels the need to troll WSO so they can name their literal only ten IB placements to make themselves feel better about the fact they had a shitty SAT and go to a moron school. If you go to Alabama, you should consider yourself chopping off 99% of your upside. Full stop. I’ve worked in banking and PE in New York for five years and I’ve literally never met somebody here from Alabama but know tons of Vandy people. It’s pretty weird the cost difference is like that - from what I’ve been told Vandy has insanely generous need-based aid. Are your parents just not willing to pay? If they are, who cares about the price difference. And if they aren’t, you just gotta face reality. Half the folks in here are Bama kids trying to sell you their own failed dreams.
older brother senior at UA. He wasn’t in the top IB clubs there just finance association and crypto club and landed ft position at umm.
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