MIT vs Yale for undergraduate

Hi everyone. I’m a senior in high school with just a few days left to accept admission to either Yale or MIT. I plan on pursuing a career in finance after graduation but I’m torn between two great options. I plan to study a combination of computer science, data science and economics, so MIT would seem the best option as it’s programs in these areas are superior to Yale’s. On the other hand Yale’s recruitment appears to be better from what I’ve read. I like both campuses and have been recruited to play soccer for MIT so it is not a question of where I’d enjoy more, but which has better post graduation opportunities.

 

I would imagine that you could get any job you want with either school; however, MIT will probably give you a lot more access to more quant-focused jobs compared to Yale considering how quanty MIT is known to be. This is what I am thinking.

MIT doesn't get mentioned a lot on these forums. I would suggest waiting to see if someone who has a connection to MIT could shed better light on what I said.

 

Would take Yale. The quant prowess of MIT is only marginally stronger than Yale per second, but the flexibility to change direction and a ivy member solid network is hard to match.

Alternatively you could pick MIT for location, cross reg at Harvard, quant only reputation, PhD goals etc

You also get preferential treatment if your parents donate $30MM to the school.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. -Dr. Alexis Carrel
 

Mostly applies to the ivies..penn has a legacy admissions group separate for children whose parents went to penn..no doubt the amount donated in alumni donations by parents correlates positively to the admit rates of legacy admit children...

MIT Sloan = Engineer MBAs. Just look at the top funds and see if any went to Sloan. Wharton/HBS/Stanford and somewhat Booth are feeders to PE. Sloan in all honesty is a crappy MBA, you might as well just get a financial engineering degree and truly be well versed in financial mathematics and call it a day.

 
socola2003:
Mostly applies to the ivies..penn has a legacy admissions group separate for children whose parents went to penn..no doubt the amount donated in alumni donations by parents correlates positively to the admit rates of legacy admit children...

MIT Sloan = Engineer MBAs. Just look at the top funds and see if any went to Sloan. Wharton/HBS/Stanford and somewhat Booth are feeders to PE. Sloan in all honesty is a crappy MBA, you might as well just get a financial engineering degree and truly be well versed in financial mathematics and call it a day.

Lol. Sloan is a great business school. It is true that they have a tech focus, but they place well in consulting and finance as well. It's definitely weak in private equity but pretty strong for investment management, certain types of hedge funds, trading. I'm considering applying there since sloan gets recruiting from the major boston IM shops. My beef with it is that they have grade disclosure and the social scene seems the worst out of the top b-schools. Also, you're going to run into HBS students a lot, and you will probably feel a bit of an inferiority complex since the HBS guys get more respect and will get more chicks.

 

@socola- I guess I'm glad to get your opinion - as I asked for it, but it's obviously not well-informed if you say that "sloan is a crappy MBA". (1) Sloan is an MBA business schools">M7 school and (2) my dad went there for his masters so I take offense to the comment

@Brady - thanks for the comments. I know that it's very strong in consulting (check employment stats), but it's harder to tell in terms of IBD etc. since you see, for example 16 people got hired by GS or whatever bank, but you have no idea what kinds of positions they're taking there... I'm not that worried about the female situation - boston is a big city....

@Asatar - yes, you do get an advantage, and I feel it can be substantial - particularly if your parent(s) are active (i.e. they give money). I went to an ivy and a huge portion of my friends there (typically white male, private school, etc.) were legacies... so was I, of course, so I'm not hating... but it's a reality. Often times the number of applicants accepted at an ivy will be below 10%, but ~40% of applying legacies will be accepted. Those numbers are somewhat misleading because often times the legacies are (1) smart, (2) went to top high schools, etc, but it still tells you something... the schools openly say that if there are two students of "equal qualifications" they'll choose the legacy.... and it's so subjective a lot of the time that this means a huge amount.

 
International Pymp:
Two random, unrelated questions:
  1. If you go to Yale SOM will your kids become TRUE legacies at Yale? Meaning when they apply for UG at Yale will they get the same level of advantage as the kids of someone who did undergraduate there? That would be HUGE (not at all kidding).

  2. Anyone have insights into the recruiting for IBD and/or REPE at MIT Sloan? I'm considering the school for a number of reasons, but I'm not sure how good it is in terms of getting the jobs I'd like to get... I feel it's more of a school for Tech, but I know that the real estate master's is a good at MIT, so I'd be surprised if the business school wasn't okay within the REPE / REIB areas.... Recruiting MUCH worse than columbia/chicago?

  • legacy only applies to the college, not the graduate schools. Going to Yale SOM won't do anything for your kids admissions to Yale college

  • get into MIT first then worry about whether you should go

  •  
    mikebrady:
    International Pymp:
    Two random, unrelated questions:
    1. If you go to Yale SOM will your kids become TRUE legacies at Yale? Meaning when they apply for UG at Yale will they get the same level of advantage as the kids of someone who did undergraduate there? That would be HUGE (not at all kidding).

    2. Anyone have insights into the recruiting for IBD and/or REPE at MIT Sloan? I'm considering the school for a number of reasons, but I'm not sure how good it is in terms of getting the jobs I'd like to get... I feel it's more of a school for Tech, but I know that the real estate master's is a good at MIT, so I'd be surprised if the business school wasn't okay within the REPE / REIB areas.... Recruiting MUCH worse than columbia/chicago?

  • legacy only applies to the college, not the graduate schools. Going to Yale SOM won't do anything for your kids admissions to Yale college

  • This. Unfortunately, legacy only applies to undergrad alma maters.

     

    @mikebrady- I'm not concerned about getting in, I'm concerned about whether to apply... so getting in first doesn't really make sense

    @mikebrady/seedy underbelly- thanks for clearing that up... it didn't seem like they could possibly allow that

     
    International Pymp:
    Two random, unrelated questions:
    1. If you go to Yale SOM will your kids become TRUE legacies at Yale? Meaning when they apply for UG at Yale will they get the same level of advantage as the kids of someone who did undergraduate there? That would be HUGE (not at all kidding).

    2. Anyone have insights into the recruiting for IBD and/or REPE at MIT Sloan? I'm considering the school for a number of reasons, but I'm not sure how good it is in terms of getting the jobs I'd like to get... I feel it's more of a school for Tech, but I know that the real estate master's is a good at MIT, so I'd be surprised if the business school wasn't okay within the REPE / REIB areas.... Recruiting MUCH worse than columbia/chicago?

    Did you manage to find out how good MIT's MBA is for real estate or Hedge Funds that follow related strategies (Distressed RE Debt)? I'm considering applying in case I don't get in to my first choices (Wharton, HBS, etc...)

    I'm currently in REPE.

     
    Unforseen:
    I've never had trouble with girls, why would I have trouble while getting a degree from one of the most prestigious institutions in the world?
    Sound logic.
    If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
     

    1) no, makes no sense. Legacy at SOM - yes. Yale College? No.

    2) Sloan is well-ranked and seems to do fine with IBD recruiting. The main difference between Sloan and CBS is the degree to which IB causes frenzy. REPE - do you really want to be flipping buildings now?

    The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.
     
    jtbbdxbnycmad:
    1) no, makes no sense. Legacy at SOM - yes. Yale College? No.

    2) Sloan is well-ranked and seems to do fine with IBD recruiting. The main difference between Sloan and CBS is the degree to which IB causes frenzy. REPE - do you really want to be flipping buildings now?

    Early 2011 was a good time to sell into the market. Commercial real estate was one of the best performing asset classes in 2011 by some measures ( see the table here http://www.blackstone.com/cps/rde/xchg/bxcom/hs/firm_commentary_6957.htm )

    REPE isn't just flipping buildings. Who do you think will make money off of bank & RE distress in the USA & EU? Special situation funds and the better RE investors are well positioned (see Brookfield's recent deals, also firm's like Blackstone & Oaktree have raised funds specifically for this.)

    I think Blackstone's real estate group recruited an experienced associate out of Kellogg this year, even though that school isn't known for RE. He had several years REPE experience though.

    I'm looking into MIT's MBA more now as I might be able to combine it with their MSRED or MFin (not entirely sure of the requirements for doing the dual degrees).

     

    I go to MIT Sloan and am recruiting for banking. I'll try to give as unbiased opinions on IBD recruiting as possible but take what I say with a grain of salt.

    The school has both an incredible financial history and current presence: Merton, Modigliani, Black, Scholes, Asquith, Meyers, Fisher, Johnson, Lo etc. etc. This may not mean much to IBD recruiters but there are some excellent classes in finance.

    About 40 students of the 400 student class actively recruit for banking. All of the banks recruit on-campus and the competition for the 20 first round interview slots of each bank is pretty light. Around 30 students landed investment banking internships last year. The other 10 probably ended up in structuring, IM or consulting jobs.

    Alumni presence in various banks is light which can be good and bad. They are not getting barraged by 100+ students but there are fewer contacts to make a connection with. The alumni presence in West Coast tech is huge for Sloan. Students made one or two trips out there last year and this year. I didn't go but I believe the GS office has 8+ MIT bankers.

    The finance club at MIT is one of the top three clubs at Sloan (behind tech & management consulting I think). The process for leading students through IBD recruiting is very polished: free WTS training, resume reviews, interview prep, organized on-campus bank presentations, and NYC banking day. That club is really, really great.

    A great finance club makes up for a slightly lackluster career office. MIT Sloan has made a strong commitment to tech (Google, Facebook. LinkedIn, Zynga, blah blah blah) which takes resources away from banking.

    There is a large MIT PE Symposium every year which is the total extent of PE official presence on-campus. Students who head to Apollo, Blackstone, etc. come from prior PE or banking experience.

    The social scene of Sloan is pretty active and, like most business schools, involves a lot of partying. Every Wednesday the school heads to BHP (Beacon Hill Pub) and every Thursday there is free booze at C-Functions. Weekends continue the boozing. I played rugby in undergrad at a "Southern Ivy" and am drinking the same amount now as I did back then.

    n.b. The M-Fin program only places people in analyst IBD spots.

     
    Most hot girls in Boston, by-the-by, do not give a fuck if you go to HBS or MIT or whatever other pretentious school you bring up if you are douchey enough to do so.

    Lol you must be out of your mind to say that. They might not care about guys from MIT, but the hottest chicks do care about the guys from HBS.

    Check this out. I was at this really cool party in Boston with tons of hotties. I was walking around the house when I saw a long line of hot chicks waiting to get into one of the rooms. Every 5-10 minutes or so, a chick would go out and the next one would go in, and so on. ‘What’s going on’ I asked. One of the chicks says, ’Well, there is, like, this HBS guy that was, like, so kind to agree to fuck, like, every chick at this party, provided that she’s hot. So, we’re, like, lining up to get fucked by the HBS guy! OMG I can’t believe that I’m about to get fucked by someone from HBS! I can’t wait to tell all my friends and family! OMG!’

    All hotties in the house were whispering about the HBS guy and were lining up in front of his room, and after they got out of the room, they would text or call their friends to spread the word and their friends would come around to be fucked by the HBS guy. It was unbelievable! There were some MIT guys and guys from other schools there and needless to say no one was paying attention to them, except for some ugly, nerdy chicks that had tried to sneak into the HBS guy’s room, but were rejected by him on account of not being hot enough.

    I don’t know dude, I kinda understand where you are coming from when saying that HBS guys don’t get any action just because they are at HBS, but that’s simply not true. I saw it with my eyes. I feel sorry for all people who are not at HBS, but that’s life. Try your best to get in instead of spreading misinformation here!

    Peace.

     

    One year masters programs are not suited for IBD recruiting (no summer internship). In addition only MBA's and some PhD's have access to on-campus recruiting for associate investment banking roles.

    I have met people from RE PE backgrounds (ex. Starwood) and people entering the field but not many.

    Here's the course list where you will find real estate classes at Sloan: http://student.mit.edu/catalog/m15a.html

    You are also allowed to enroll in any undergraduate or graduate course (some doctorate courses require a bit of prior education or experience) outside of Course 15 (Sloan).

     

    Voluptatum quia fugit qui enim. Officiis aliquid consequatur aspernatur quasi. Dolore quia nesciunt eaque accusantium aliquam nobis dicta. Perspiciatis qui nostrum deleniti architecto enim velit. Sed et rem facilis itaque et voluptas. Tempore a perspiciatis corporis. Velit error omnis enim.

    Sint tempore ad quo aut distinctio. Veniam placeat pariatur quasi. Nihil ut itaque molestias. Minus dolorem similique delectus odit ratione cum dignissimos. Reprehenderit quisquam nemo autem quo nulla. Porro ea non recusandae consequuntur.

     

    Quas adipisci nam tempora est. Corporis et temporibus omnis modi expedita. Quis ut rerum dolore corporis ad. Eveniet et aut ducimus molestiae culpa. Et ut voluptatem pariatur.

    Id porro molestiae quo ducimus id dolor necessitatibus. Dicta aut modi eum quam et et. Magnam repellendus est dolor architecto. Sapiente asperiores rerum provident a sit.

    Inventore eos rerum quasi consequatur officiis. Et culpa esse nemo architecto quas tempora aspernatur.

    Career Advancement Opportunities

    March 2024 Investment Banking

    • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
    • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
    • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
    • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
    • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

    Overall Employee Satisfaction

    March 2024 Investment Banking

    • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
    • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
    • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
    • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
    • William Blair 03 97.1%

    Professional Growth Opportunities

    March 2024 Investment Banking

    • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
    • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
    • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
    • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
    • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

    Total Avg Compensation

    March 2024 Investment Banking

    • Director/MD (5) $648
    • Vice President (19) $385
    • Associates (86) $261
    • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
    • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
    • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
    • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
    • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
    notes
    16 IB Interviews Notes

    “... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

    Leaderboard

    1
    redever's picture
    redever
    99.2
    2
    Secyh62's picture
    Secyh62
    99.0
    3
    Betsy Massar's picture
    Betsy Massar
    99.0
    4
    BankonBanking's picture
    BankonBanking
    99.0
    5
    kanon's picture
    kanon
    98.9
    6
    DrApeman's picture
    DrApeman
    98.9
    7
    dosk17's picture
    dosk17
    98.9
    8
    CompBanker's picture
    CompBanker
    98.9
    9
    GameTheory's picture
    GameTheory
    98.9
    10
    numi's picture
    numi
    98.8
    success
    From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

    “... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”