Deciding on college? McGill? University of Wisconsin? University of Georgia?
I am a prospective college student and am very interested in pursuing a career in Finance and more specifically, Investment Banking. My goal is to become an analyst out of undergraduate college at a bulge bracket bank, then after several years of working, pursue an MBA at a top-tier university and explore my options from there. Of course, in the higher education that I wish to undertake, a lot of money will have to be spent, and here my dilemma lies.
I could attend McGill university, known throughout the world as an excellent university (world-wide ranking of 21st) with a great finance program at a decent price (canadian schools tend to be ~25,000 less expensive than comparable US colleges). Another option is the University of Wisconsin that has (to my knowledge) a very good investment banking program and a similar price to McGill. The final option is my state school, the University of Georgia. This is by far the least prestigious (world-wide ranking of ~400) and least-recognized business school but is much cheaper at around 10,000 per year as I am an in-state student.
Are the title of the school and higher-quality of the learning worth the extra money if my career goals are to break into investment banking right out of undergrad at a bulge bracket bank on wall street, and attend a top-tier university for my masters?
In addition, if my assumptions are correct, and it is a wise investment to attend a more prestigious undergraduate university, what would my initial pay as an analyst look like? Would one of these more prestigious universities grant me access to higher pay in the future(coving the loss of paying for the college i the first place)?
Thanks!
Lol at "big bulge bank"
Goldman and JP Morgan have the biggest bulge.
...
Go with McGill if you're after banks with the biggest bulge.
yes yes yes very funny
I had two interns from UWis a few summers ago and the badgers have a good hockey team. But that is all I know about the colleges you have mentioned.
I think that yes, it is a wise investment to attend a more "prestigious" undergrad. As I already stated I don't know anything about those colleges, I don't know if there is OCR which would be important if your desire is banking. But nothing will grant you access to higher pay in the future, except for you. It doesn't matter if you go to Harvard you can still be an unemployed college grad like many people in the world.
Finally, college hasn't even started & you are already talking about your first job & MBA... Things are about to change A LOT. I think you should get the best grades possible, join as many clubs as possible, sleep with some hotties & get some internships.
Depends on the program you can get into. I may be attending McGill Honours Investment Management program...It is apparently ssuper tough, alot of kids drop out, but kids come out of there and land analyst stints at BBs in nyc. Whichever you choose, when you go down in prestige you should up the ante in terms of programs(get into Honours, not regular...).
I grew up in Madison 2 mins from Camp Randall. I haven't ran into anyone from UW at a BB. I'm sure they're around, just not very prevalent. I also personally have buddies at UW who struggled to network into IB from UW and didn't land SA spots despite strong GPAs. I think UW business programs place more corp fin roles.
That said, UW is a bunch of fun
Although, I'm a little confused how UW got thrown in the mix, considering your from Georgia. There are more competitive programs that will have out-state tuition comparable to UW. Overall, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Indiana place more kids than UW every year, but if you like UW, you can definitely make it happen there.
Placing 5 to BB w/ undergrad of 30,000...
Please, do not rely on "world-wide rankings" to judge universities. They are meaningless since the methodologies are generally pretty dumb and it is more reflection of research output than undergraduate education.
McGill's Bachelor of Commerce program isn't actually viewed as that prestigious in Canada as you Americans seem to think it is. In Toronto, you see less McGill grads than Ivey, Queens, Schulich, Rotman, Laurier and Waterloo. McGill students will probably be the top choice for banks in Montreal, but there will be less opportunities there. Not sure how McGill is viewed in the US though.
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Can't say I agree with McGIll being "definitely ahead" of all those other schools except Ivey and Queens. Just anecdotally there do not seem to be that many McGill grads on Bay Street and if you look at the employment report for their Bachelor of Commerce program here: http://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/career/data the average salary for 2012-13 grads was $46,500 which is pretty poor.
Thats worse compared to Schulich: http://www.schulich.yorku.ca/client/schulich/Schulich_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/resources/Documents/$file/2012+BBA+Salary+Survey.pdf $54,000 average salary and $47,000 median for 2012 BBA grads. I don't think Rotman, Waterloo or WLU have employment reports so I can't compare with those programs.
Interested in why you think Ivey is on a downward trend?
Some (probably useless) anecdotal evidence - I know a few guys from my year that went to UW and ended up at good MM banks (think HW, WB, Baird, etc.), and not all were in Chicago.
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