What makes NYU so good?

Hey yall, so in a college search for IB, NYU comes up as one of the top schools to go to. Why is this? Other than location which is obvious, it seems like it’s a step ahead of most other schools. Is it because of a certain program, I know their econ program is awesome. It’s hella expensive, so what makes it so good?

 
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No, not their econ program. Basically their entire reputation in high finance is tied to their business school, Stern. It's recruited at heavily due to the student body's large interest in finance, and as you mentioned, the location. If you're thinking of attending, however, I have heard rumors regarding the cut-throat nature of the school (as well as the fact that there is no traditional collegiate experience), so make sure you know what your getting yourself into.

A lot of people will down-talk Stern on WSO because it seems to be the easy thing to do (no college experience, stereotypically socially abrasive student body, not the most prestigious for careers outside of finance). But from what I have seen, if you are certain on the IB/PE route, Stern is a fantastic option.

And FWIW, my prior bank (top EB/BB) had Stern as a core school. My current MF has a few Sternies at the associate level, but most kids hail from H/W.

 

"Socially abrasive" is a good way to put it. If your sole goal in life is to be an investment banker (to the exclusion of friendship, intellectual curiosity, and other things you're supposed to develop in college), then by all means go to Stern.

The thing is though, there are a bunch of schools with similar (or better) recruiting where you don't have to make the same personal sacrifices. Stern kids love to talk about their placement, but when you think about the proportion of the student body vying for those jobs, it isn't anything special.

 

I mean I didn't go to Stern so I can't tell you first hand, but I've met a handful of Stern kids an they weren't exactly pleasant people. It's worth visiting to see if you like the vibe--who knows, it could be a fit for you. Stern just tends to attract the people who are all in about finance over everything else, which creates perpetuates the cycle. Moreover, studying business in undergrad is underrated.

 

Agreed with above. I have a younger friend who went to Stern, and we often talking about the cut-throat nature. Finance placements largely due to both location and self-selection, as finance hardos will gravitate towards it while more relaxed students may go to schools with similar or better placement per capita of students interested in finance.

 

I went to Stern, so I'll offer my insight. The above comments are pretty much accurate. Stern will get you IB as long as you don't majorly fuck up. Interest in IB also is overstated by WSO. Lot of kids want it at Stern, but not to the degree that's implied in the whole of WSO. As long as you take care of your basic shit, you should be good. There's so much opportunity for kids, even the bottom barrel, to land something. However, some Sternies do indeed fit this "socially abrasive" stereotype, but they can easily be avoided. You attract the kids who are like you, so if you're a finance hardo and a douchebag (not calling you one), you'll be around finance hardos and douchebags.

 

Most of the hardasses you meet probably will be from Stern. But that's the thing. You can make friends with kids outside of Stern too. A lot of your classes aren't even in Stern, so you have the opportunity to meet such a diverse group of kids. Most of my friends were from Steinhardt.

 

This is why if you want college experience choose a public target like Ross over Stern and be less in debt too.

 

I went to Stern. A lot of my friends went to Stern. A lot of my friends went to other schools at NYU.

There are a lot of obnoxious finance hardos but you can spot them from a mile away and it’s really not hard to avoid them, especially if you don’t go near the finance clubs / business frats (which I recommend). Stern has something like 650 students per year and the majority of those are normal. I met some amazing people from all around the world that will probably be lifelong friends.

Social life is different at NYU, that’s for sure. If you’re mentally 4 years old and can’t handle the real world without a support network of chads on frat row, don’t come here. But I never understood people that say NYU has no social life. Do they seriously think people that live in NYC have nothing to do on the weekends? Boggles my mind

 

Right. One more thing, is buisness the only major you can take at Stern? I was trying to take something other than that, so that if IB doesn’t work out, I won’t have some random degree.

 

Everyone 'majors' in business (apart from the kids in the Business & Political Economy program, which is a separate application), but you have individual 'concentrations' that are what your degree content will be focused on. You can find a list here. Most kids double concentrate in two things, with the majority (70%+) doing finance + something else, but there's a lot of students that don't touch the finance curriculum, concentrating in things like management + marketing or data science + statistics.

I think that's how it works at most business schools, e.g. Wharton where everyone majors in economics but concentrates in different things.

Also you can double major in a subject at any school, e.g. College of Arts and Sciences or Steinhardt etc. I think there might be a separate application for Tisch.

 

What did the "best response" say that can be classified as misinformation? Everything seems pretty spot on.

 

There’s a lot of great resources for researching business schools. I think you should do that before coming on this site.

NYU, UMich, UT Austin, and Penn all have business programs that far surpass the prestige/ quality of the rest of the school. They all have well-developed programs for a variety of business careers. For these schools, you should aim to be in the business school if you are sure about IB.

NYU Stern specifically has a 7% acceptance rate is has placement/ prestige equal to Cornell and other lower T20s. You should think about your chances and dedication to business before applying to Stern vs CAS Econ.

For top LACs like Amherst/Williams and Top 20 colleges without biz programs like Duke, Dartmouth, Columbia, UChicago, and HYPSM, you can essentially take any major and have a good shot at IB.

Array
 

umich and penn place well across the board in most “competitive” majors... this doesn’t make any sense

 

NYU Stern is a great spot - I'm here now. Stern is the shit for any type of business. What they (outsiders and insiders included) don't (or simply won't) tell you is that employers recruit from NYU, not just Stern. It just happens to be so that the most (99%) of the competent, competitive, ambitious kids study business.

Do not come here to have a "college experience" tho. LOL

 

Err no. Well for my firm specifically, we almost exclusively took Stern kids. We would interview NYU kids and what not, but it was only Stern kids getting offers.

 

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