how is UVA viewed on the street

WorldTraveler88:

Target school for sure, but at the bottom of the list. You'll have access to all BBs but once at final rounds it may be hard to compete with other schools.

Oh, really? It's harder to compete in the final rounds? Because it doesn't seem to me that the school you attend has any prima facie influence once you've already made it to final rounds.

That being said, I hate having attended an UG business school. But if you want a balance of academic and social life uva has both (with the caveat that you should seriously consider joining a fraternity.) The girls are obviously way prettier than you're going to find at an Ivy league school.

highrolla:

so overall UVA is good? i feel like it is the perfect balance of social life and academics and if you excel there you should be set... why is at the bottom of the list?

Zima and terrible football. Yeah, awesome social life.

merkin:

I got into Darden but ultimately went with McCombs, due to my own geographical preferences and the fact that it is 1.) a target 2.) the best in the region.

While Darden is a target, there is a lot of competition in that part of the world. Obviously in NYC but even the DC/Atlanta/Charlotte market you have Georgetown, Emory, UNC-KF, Vanderbilt, and then the lower tier schools. Still a great program, just takes more to shine, I would think.

Ahh, you probably forgot the biggest competitor of all...Duke...but point taken.

Regards

kalice123:

i assume you're talking about undergrad, uva has a fantastic reputation within the finance industry.

if you transfer as a sophomore, you should still be able to get into McIntire, which is one of the best undergrad business programs in the country. all the major banks recruit there. PE and HF exposure isn't as good as wharton but uva graduates have historically done very well in those areas as well.

highrolla:

I am talking about undergrad right now I would be attending Villanova, but it is also 50,000. UVA instate is less than half the price. I would also apply as a sophomore to arts and sciences and then to Mcintire, im guessing its worth it. I am actually more interested in PE/ HF, so other than Wharton what are good options? UVA is good but others...

It is good that you are thinking about your future, but why don't you start at a school before you look into transferring. You might actually like something if you give it a chance.

ibdreamer:

How much of a disadvantage would a person be if they went to UVA as an Economics major and weren't in the business school?

Not much competition from econ majors when it comes to recruiting for banking, and if you know your stuff it won't be a problem. You will be asked though in interviews why econ and not mcintire. 90+% of the recruiting is done college wide, not just for the commerce school.

Easy E:

If you go to UVA, don't forget to pick up the University's standard issue clothing items: flip flops, khaki pants, and pastel polos (with collar popped) - 5 each.

Good school, but by far the douchiest place ever.

Only number 25 according to GQ, and popping your collar was soo 2005. Fraternities are a big part of the social scene, especially at McIntire, but UVA is a big enough school that you can have fun and avoid the greek life if you so choose.

highrolla:

And do people in non-mcintire make into finance?

Yes

i don't think so. there's already 8 ivy league schools; even though they're not all T10 in us news, they are thought of quite highly by recruiters.

UVA is most likely not a top ten financial recruiter. Lets see, off the top of my head I am going to assume that at the undergrad level the following schools probably get the top recruiting: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton, Stanford, UChicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Stern (maybe). However, UVA is definitely one of the premier public universities for financial recruiting and a qualified student should be able to land a job coming from there. But I don't see it having more recruiting on campus than the aforementioned 10 (and I'm sure people could argue my list a bit, taking one school off and adding another school on, etc).

Hope that helps.

I would also add Brown, MIT and (maybe) Berkeley. I would take out Stern.

Good call Banana, MIT over Stern for sure, but Stern is still possibly above UVA (which further proves UVA is not top ten for financial recruiting).

I dont think so. Good recruiting, but not top 10.

Lets see off the top in no order:

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, Dartmouth, Wharton, Chicago, MIT.

Contenders: Cornell, Brown, and Stern

Thanks for the responses guys. I forgot to specify that this was McIntire, the undergraduate business school at UVA, not just general UVA. How much does this change the lists?

This probably gives it the edge over Berkeley and Stern, but is this enough to edge it out over any of the Ivy League schools or MIT and crack the top 10?

Also, is it conclusively better than Northwestern, Michigan, Georgetown, etc. or did you guys not mention these schools because the difference is small and debatable, and would rather just name 10 schools UVA just doesn't compete with?

Thanks again.

Michigan-Ross has really good recruiting comparable to some of the top 10. Just forgot to mention it. It's a top 3 business school.

Georgetown and Northwestern...hmmm not too sure...I know Northwestern has good recruiting, but not sure in relation to the ones I mentioned.

This is not to discount UVA, as it has good recruiting, and I have met quite a bit on the Street from the business school.

Prob best recruiting in the South, 2nd only to Duke.

why is stern so underrated? i thought stern was one the premier target schools for banks. in addition, isn't stern #2, after wharton, in finance undergrad? so why isn't it a definite top 10 recruitment? i feel like in this forum, stern is almost like an afterthought. or am I missing something? does MIT/caltech really get a lot of ibanking recruitment?

is usually purely based on the alums who are willing to reach out and visit the schools. If you break down wall street, id say a high % comes from those schools mentioned above. As a result, they take great pride in recruiting from their alma maters.

MIT? Absolutely

Caltech? Not so sure, mainly because I am not sure there is great interest in banking there. Maybe I'm wrong

From what I've read and seen, it's a top 10 public school for recruiting including Haas, Ross, McCombs, and UNC's school.

how about carnegie mellon? is it better to go there than UVA or Umichigan??

i got in tepper, but the ppl there said there isn't that much recruitment for ibanking. umich ross, however, is great for ibanking. dunno much about mcintre.

Before this turns into a massive which school is a target, which is a semi-target debate, I will just say that there are probably 8 or so schools that are the most heavily recruited. Then 3 or 4 that are the second most recruited. After that there's some top public schools and top LACs where it's pretty debatable about who gets recruited the most heavily. Then the the list takes a massive, massive dive. So let's just leave it at that without getting into a flame war.

UVA is a great school, and is among the best public universities in the USA, but is probably not in the top 10.

If you're at UVA and thinking about getting into banking, I wouldn't worry at all. Many top firms recruit from both UVA's undergrad and business programs.

Berkeley overall probably just outside top 10. But Berkeley - Haas is tops for finance recruiting, probably among top 8 or so. SO yah definitely better than UVA McIntire.

aceman - that's absurd. UVA's undergrad business program is ranked #2 behind Wharton and is far and way more recognized on Wall Street. Berkeley's Business program isn't even top ten. Theres 4 or maybe even 5 other state schools that beat out Haas, not to mention all of the Ivies. Are you serious with that crap? Tops for finance recruiting??

No way does Virginia, even the B-school, get better recruiting than Stern. Whoever told you that is just flat wrong. I would imagine Michigan gets better recruiting too, definitely has much more respect on the U-grad level and was more represented at my SA. I'd say Virginia has a slight edge over UT, and it is probably only due to it being closer to New York.

I feel that many people who have replied on this thread are a little behind the times. Despite its inaccuracies, being ranked the #2 undergraduate businesss school by Business Week has infinitely increased UVA's credibility, prestige, and reputation. Whoever originated this thread is probably a bitter, pessimistic loser.

I don't think Duke is in the top 10. Stern would rank higher for financial recruiting than Duke, for analyst positions.

Here's my list (everyone has their own): Harvard, yale, princeton, columbia, chicago, wharton, MIT, stanford, dartmouth and brown.

Paul Tudor Jones went to UVA so it seems ok. Not a top ten for finance recruiting, I can 100% give you the top 10. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stern, Wharton, Stanford, Dartmouth, Chicago, Duke

Btw, duke was ranked #5 last year, so i doubt that the recruiters overlook it.

and again, be more concerned with GPA, where you go to school is where you go, u can transfer but to be honest you're not going to be at THAT big of a disadvantage as long as you have a good GPA

top ten:

harvard, yale, princeton, wharton, dartmouth, columbia, stanford, MIT, chicago, duke

stern is getting too much cred. most consulting firms don't take many stern kids and on the street i'd say they're much less represented than even dartmouth, which has a tiny class.

Interestingly, in my SA S&T class the school best represented - Cornell, in the same class duke and stern had the same number of students which was more than UVA....

Stern is in NYC and has a highly respected finance program. Most of the sternies are very qualified for an entry level position given their finance skills. People on this board need to get their facts straight. I summered at a BB and quite a few SA's there were from Stern.

he is right...stern is fantastic..there are more people from stern than from brown or dartmouth...my list goes like this;

Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, NYU, Berkeley, Michigan (so many of these in Credit Suisse),

nystateofmind, where did you see that berkeley's b-school isnt top ten? i always thought that haas was one of the premier bschools out there.

As an undergrad in Stern I can say that the recruiting is phenomenal, almost every day first semester a BB or top tier bank/boutique was on campus for FT positions. The same was true last year during SA recruiting. The top consulting firms also recruit, although I am not sure how many kids they take every year. Another advantage of Stern is being in the city and being very close to downtown/midtown. It is easy to get finance internships even for freshman and start building your resume/contacts. The only weakness with Stern is I am not sure of the strength of the name outside of NYC. An Ivy has name recognition nation possibly worldwide, but Stern’s might be limited to the Northeast.

Undisputed top 6 for banking: harvard, yale, princeton, wharton, columbia, chicago.

nystateofmind, in regards to your comment: "Berkeley's Business program isn't even top ten."

According to BusinessWeek Berkeley's B-school is 3rd in undergrad and 8th in full time MBA. No offense, just stating facts.

instead of chicago maybe dartmouth or stanford for the undisputed top 6 for banking