Worth it to go to Stern?
I applied ED2 to Stern and was accepted. I was offered a 36k scholarship and some federal loans which would bring my total cost of attendance down to $35,000 for a year.
Now, my family can’t afford this so I could opt out of ED2 for that reason, but I’d just like some advice on what you guys think. I believe that I’d be competitive at Stern, given my highschool GPA at 3.9 and 14 APs, so I’m used to rigor, so without trying to be pretentious or anything, I think at Stern I’d do well. I applied to Duke, Cornell, Northwestern, and WashU for the regular decision round. Do you guys think it’d be worth it to take on the 100k+ in debt to go to Stern? I eventually want to go to IB and end up in PE.
Any other seniors who are in similar situations, feel free to reach out to me. I think it’d be a good idea to talk about this with another student
Absolutely don't go there. $140,000 for an education, especially when your family cannot afford this and you will take out student loans will ruin your life. Especially for "Stern" which is at best a semi-target school with hundreds of kids vying for the limited spots on Wall St. I had the option to go to a school of the same caliber and I'm so glad I turned it down and went to a state school for free. I am now entering a top BB in one of the top groups on the Street. I am no genius, all I did was hustle from day one. If you aren't born into money, NYU or any school like that is not worth it- borrowing to pretend you're rich is just a recipe for disaster, and trust me you'll regret the day you ever decided to take on this much debt. It seems far removed right now, but imagine you don't get a good position- or even if you do. Every.single.night. you lay your head down you will have a mountain of debt waiting for you when you wake up the next day. It will take more than a decade to pay that off (unless you do land a top IB job in which case it will take shortest 5 years). Also, people don't like to mention the fact that they say oh yeah whatever I dont mind spending my entire bonus for the next 5 years to pay off debt, but could you imagine seeing ZERO return to your life and literally just paying for a piece of paper- its nuts, dont fall for the hype man. good luck
Currently an upperclassman at Stern with an offer from a top BB. Feel free to pm me if you have specific questions about what it’s like at NYU or Stern specifically.
How can he PM if you’re anonymous?
upperclassman at Stern
I think everyone everywhere has "grass is greener" syndrome. with that being said, stern def has objective pluses and minuses.
pluses: - if you want IB, you can get IB so long as you are competent (high GPA, technicals, behaviorals), well-spoken, are involved in the right clubs, and impress the right alumni - my anecdotal impression is that a lot of good kids don't focus on IB anymore, the kids who do IB are generally pretty conformist and risk averse, i think more ppl are focusing on data science / tech / other finance roles (prop trading, quant stuff, etc) - there is space to breathe if you want to, stern will definitely continue to shed the "wall street feeder" conception over the course of the next decade - city means good access to networking / internship opps, relatively speaking - lots of kids work part time during the semester (i suppose this is not a unique advantage of stern, any nyc school has this) - generous AP policy - lots of ppl graduate sem early
cons: - if you aren't in the know (right connects), you are almost certainly screwed for IB recruiting (unless you are diversity or your dad is the head of investment banking somewhere or you are somehow the most polished kid in your class yet somehow not in good clubs) - expensive, although on a tuition basis it is no longer the most expensive, dorms + meals kill you though, also everything is expensive in the city - finance ppl are pretty judgmental, ive noticed ppl tend to have closest friends based on 1) clubs 2) major / concentration and it is somewhat of a "us vs. them" mentality in more ways than one - most sternies are objectively mediocre, less mediocre than the average state schooler tho. i think big 4 accounting firms are our largest employer, joke that all sternies are wharton rejects is almost always 100% true - nyu is not really an integrated college, lack of school spirit and if you are IB oriented it probably means you socially self-segregate to business/finance ppl so you don't get a chance to have make cool friends (finance bros are not cool, as much as they think otherwise)
a lot of sternies don't have an entirely favorable memory of stern for a reason. but, good kids place well into wall street so that speaks for itself. but good kids place well from plenty of other schools too. stern is a good place if you understand the tradeoffs and i think it will improve in the future.