William and Mary or UVA
I am instate for both, which school is better for ib and how much better? There is a chance I won't get into uva mactire. Also I kind of like the w&m vibe.
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Went to UVA, but I considered W&M, too. If finance is 100% the goal, then UVA will be a better option. If you love W&M’s vibe, though, then go there and get great grades and network. W&M is a great school with more of a liberal arts vibe than UVA. The social life and culture isn’t for everyone, but some people love it and it’s a better fit for them than UVA. Don’t let your career goals completely determine your decision because W&M is a great school at the end of the day. It’s just less of a pipeline for finance.
To address your concerns over not getting into the comm school, I did Econ and ended up at a MM. i know several others who did the same, but you should strive to get into comm. I got good grades the last three years of school, but I wasn’t focused at all my first year. In retrospect, it would not have been that hard to get better grades and get into comm school. The fact that you’re posting on WSO as a HS student puts you light years ahead in maturity than when I was your age. There are plenty of distractions your first year of college, but if you schedule your time, don’t skip classes, get A’s/A-‘s in the comm school pre-reqs, and go to the library often, then comm school is 100% doable.
Good luck in your decision!
I am going to commit to W&M, like the school better and I think if I am work hard from the start, I can get great opportunities, thank you!
UVA > W&M if your goal is to work in IB. UVA is just a better school IMO.
UVA is one of the better semi-targets for finance, consulting. That being said, I think W&M would be a great time. If you are deadset on maximizing recruiting outcomes then UVA
In-stater who faced the same decision, had a cousin go to WM and I went to UVA. I can tell you that you are much more likely to have a "great time" at UVA than WM. The social scene at UVA is a lot more diverse, not to mention a much stronger alumni network in just about any white-collar industry I think of, but most certainly finance and consulting.
W&L!
bro?
Bros?
From NOVA and went to UVA but was deciding on both for a while. I wouldn’t downplay the importance of fit because these next 4 years are important for your development. I had a tough first year at UVA because it’s such a big school and easy to get lost, and I feel like I would have done better at a smaller school like W&M - I also really liked the vibe and everyone I met during campus visit was great. I was ultimately peer-pressured into UVA and lost contact with my HS friends within the first few months because we all went separate ways (majors, clubs, etc.).
UVA is also really competitive and getting an offer in banking isnt as easy as the first years on WSO make it out to be… I don’t know what W&M investment clubs are like, but UVA has a few and the two that people take seriously (AIF and MII) are very tough to get into, but you essentially have to be in one of those two to get serious looks. For example, I don’t know a single person at Evercore who wasn’t in AIF – maybe they’ve taken a few here and there from MII but definitely none from GMG or VVF. If you’re not in AIF or MII you won’t get a top placement, and if you dont get into McIntire you won’t even get a look from these places. That being said, recruiting kicked off early-mid summer when I was going through the process and I’ve heard some places kick off second year spring now, so getting into McIntire probably isn’t that important anymore but that just means getting into AIF or MII is much more important.
None of that is to say I had a bad overall experience. Things got better second year when I was able to find the right crowd. I was also able to land a spot in MII and that helped with recruiting and getting into McIntire third year. I interned third year summer at a boutique in NY and lateraled full-time to a solid MM shop in one of the regional offices. UVA also has a much bigger party scene and cville has lots of bars/clubs as well as midsummers and foxfield so it’ll never get boring. Only visited W&M twice but it’s definitely not a party school.
If recruiting is the only thing that matters to you then UVA is probably a better bet, even adjusted for size. But take some time to think about where you’d feel the most “at home” and could see yourself for the next 4 years. Don’t let first years and high schoolers on WSO decide for you. If I had to do it all again I’d go with W&M just because that first year was truly horrendous, but everything worked out in the end.
How is W&M recruiting? Like will be very hard to get a decent job
I go to W&M and recruiting is actually pretty easy because not many people are interested in banking and alums are always willing to chat. I'm a gov major and a sophomore so don't know many people in the b school but I know 2 people are going to JPM, 1 going to BAML, and 1 I think MS this summer. We also have a bunch of girls do Girls Who Invest and they always land pretty solid offers - Blackstone, Hamilton Lane, Blackrock, and Select Equity, to name a few. In the year above them we have 1 going to JPM full-time, 1 going to Centerview, 1 going to Citi, and 1 I think Barclays that I know of. A bunch more go to MM banks and other misc banks based on LinkedIn search. If I had to guess, probably 10-15 people each year are actually serious about IB so those numbers are decent.
Consulting is way more popular here and most people I know are interested in public or nonprofit consulting. Pretty much all of those companies recruit on campus. Idk how management consulting looks but I think Bain does OCR here https://www.bain.com/careers/meet-us/campus/ac-schools/william-and-mary/ . Not sure about McKinsey or BCG but LinkedIn shows me that we have a decent number of alums in MBB.
I'll echo the above point about fit mattering. I'm from SoCal and was deciding between W&M and UCLA but went with W&M because I like the small liberal arts school vibe, I wanted to be as far away from LA as possible, and I'm interested in the nonprofit angle. It sucks being so far from home but I don't regret my decision at all. UVA definitely recruits better than W&M for finance roles, but I think if you do all the necessary stuff (networking, knowing story and technicals, etc) you'll get a good job coming from W&M. Do a LinkedIn search and you'll see what I mean.
Katherine - you gotta define 'hard' and define 'decent' for your question to mean anything
I would decent would be a bb job. I would say hard is getting a 3.9+ gpa and good eco, but still not pull of a bb job
W&m is social suicide
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