advice for a senior

hey guys, I am senior who wants to go into IB. I was accepted into NYU stern and Cornell but I won’t be able to afford it unfortunately. So I am going to my cheapest college which is Penn State. I may try to transfer next year but I am not sure. If I don’t transfer what is some advice I can get to be able to get into IB? Out of curiosity, has anyone heard of seton hall university in IB

 
Controversial

You're telling me no institution will give you a loan for Cornell? Dude, Cornell is so worth the money. I know the $$ amount will seem like a lot, but the Ivy League name will shape your entire career, especially in your first 10 years of work experience where name matters over almost everything else.

Please speak with a counselor at Cornell, tell them your situation, and take out loans to make it work.

 

well I already committed to Penn and I talked to my counselor and she told me that without financial aid I am looking at around 300k of loans for 4 years. My parents really are not supportive of me taking so many loans so I don’t know what else I can do.

 

lmfao this is the most retarded piece of advice I've ever seen. If he's already on this website than he's an entire staircase ahead of this competition. I went to a slightly lower ranked school than Penn State and broke into a mid-tier and guess what, I'm doing it debt free. I got into better schools but had a similar situation. This guy has no idea what he's talking about OP, don't fall for the school debt meme.

 

Glad you broke in but recognize you’re an outlier. Hoards of finance kids at Penn State fight over how many BB/EB spots? Probably a small handful. and good luck getting an offer if you’re not in the nittany fund.

I would’ve went Cornell with debt, but penn state will offer a boatload more fun. The catch: much lower ceiling job-wise

 

dude the dumbasses on this website make you think that it is literally impossible to get into banking if you're not at Harvard. it's like one big shit test; "yOu'Re tHe eXcEpTiOn" sure, but it's because I grinded hard, it's not like some sort of automatic death sentence, the competition at non-targets is lower so it actually works to our advantage in that way. Yeah it's easier from a better school but I cannot imagine how it must feel dishing out 100k in tuition for a meme education (education is a commodity at this point because the internet has open-sourced education) just to end up at the same spot as someone like me. keep coping.

 

You can say education is a commodity all you want but ask yourself why BB/EB/MBB hire 90% of their analysts from elite schools. Getting into an elite school and excelling once you’re there is a great indicator of intelligence and ambition. People will keep paying for that as long as firms keep a list of target schools.

To OP, perhaps I overstated the difficulty of getting into IB from PSU. Since you’re only an incoming freshman and you’re diversity, if you work hard, keep the GPA up, get into the right clubs, and network with upperclassmen and alum you will be just fine.

 

Poster: Disregard the above person, and here's why:

It's an ivy league school and you're looking to go into a field that is full of elitism. With the earnings you'll get from getting a front office job that a school like Cornell will get you, that much in debt is nothing.

Base IB comp will be around 150k out of undergrad. That comp will increase substantially with experience. Even if you decide not to do Finance, the brand name will allow the poster to interview for jobs and at firms that will pay at least six figures and allow her to pay off the debt in no time.

 
Most Helpful

First of all, congrats on your acceptance into those schools! You're clearly a smart and capable person, which means IMO you'll be able to break into IB from Penn State.

I was in a similar situation, turned down Georgetown/Northwestern/Duke type school for my state school. To echo points made above, I'm also a diversity candidate, and being in my school's clubs/recruiting early were huge.

Crush it at Penn State, get a really, really high GPA, solid ECs (leadership early on), and be prepared for diversity recruiting sophomore year. It's totally doable

 

thank you guys for all of the advice. I know that it might be hard but I am used to doing that. I grew up in a family that had a lot of problems but I learned that with perseverance I can do anything. I will definitely take all of your advices.

 

First of all, congratulations on being admitted to a bunch of great schools! I don´t know the exact difference in cost (and your financial situation)but I would still recommend choosing the best school available (i.e Cornell). (I guess there was a reason why you applied to these school in first place?) It is true that you might have a good shot at breaking into IB even from Penn State if you are dead set on IB from the beginning. However, your interests and preferences might change in college and NYU/Cornell will provide much better opportunities to pursue those in general.

 

well I can’t really change anymore since I already committed and even if I don’t want to do finance, the only other choices I see myself in is being in medicine and science where I don’t think my school matters as much from what people have told me. I really don’t think 300k and more of debt is worth it especially since I am planning to study more. I understand it’s an elitist world but I am not going to make myself crazy thinking of more than 300 k I have in debt and the possibility of hurting my parents already bad financial situation.

 

I actually thought of applying there but the thought of leaving my family to go to Indiana is hard for me to do since I would also have to think of the plane rides I would have to take. This is why I did not apply to schools like UCLA and USC. I was limited to apply to the east coast only specifically in the tri state area. Plus don’t I also have to get into a workshop like in the NFL for Penn state?

 

absolutely no need to take $300k of loans just to go to a slightly better school. the fact that you got into those schools and are on this site means you’re intelligent, hardworking, and interested enough in this field to put in the extra time to make it work. get a 4.0, get involved on campus, and network heavily and you’ll be just fine.

 

You’ll be fine at PSU. Don’t listen to these morons telling you take out 300k in debt. That’s an ABSURD amount of money for undergrad and will take years and years and years to pay off even with IB comp. Not only that, but when you are working 100 hours per week in banking the last thing you want is to be paying a $2,300/month student loan bill, on top of your $2,500/month rent in NYC. After taxes and health insurance there will be nothing left. This puts you in the financial situation where you MUST stay in high finance/banking/PE to survive. You really don’t want to be in that situation where you trapped into a career you may not be passionate about.

Regarding PSU, you are woman AND Hispanic. This is HUGE in terms of recruiting as there are simply far less women applicants and diversity has a totally separate recruitment process. It statistically dramatically increases your chances of getting an offer (not to say it isn’t still competitive of course).

I went to a VERY similar big 10 school and landed BB offer with zero debt. You made a great decision. This happens all the time.

Get good grades and network with the current NLF kids. Being this early puts you way ahead of the curve. You’ll get an offer if you put the work in. Good luck.

 

Congrats on the acceptances, and as a diversity candidate, you should be fine as long as you can grind your first few years on campus. Just out of curiosity though, did neither of those schools offer a financial aid package? Wondering if Corona is hitting schools that hard that they're being stingier with aid.

 

thanks but I don’t worry about it as much as I used to. I am fine with it especially because some schools like NYU have a reputation for being horrible and mean. I don’t think I would have done good in that environment.

 

I got 15k from NYU and about the same for Cornell. I also had to add the cost of living for NYC for NYU which is drastically high. My mom just had a new baby but they said they can only give me need based aid based on my parents taxes and so that’s that. even though psu is also expensive, the amount of money I will have to pay does not compare to the amount of money I would pay at the other schools.

 

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