NYU Stern versus Yale SOM for career change to IB?

I've been accepted to NYU Stern (no $) and Yale SOM ($20k scholarship). Which of these schools would be best for breaking into IB?

For context: I'm 29 years old, my work experience is in the public sector / at non-profits, and I have an MA in international relations. I'm leaning towards Stern because of its location and connections to Wall Street, but the Yale name seems generally more powerful. I've seen threads covering similar ground on WSO but nothing in the past year. Any insights or advice would be appreciated.

13 Comments
 

your alumni network is much stronger, and the curriculum on finance isn't really subpar to NYU Stern. slight-short-term disadvantage is possible but likely big payoff in future.

 

This logic makes sense, but I was under the impression that Stern graduates are everywhere on Wall Street. Is this the case for SOM, or is it that SOM is a tighter but smaller network? Or am I missing something?

 

Stern graduates are everywhere on wall street because people that want to go to school in NYC and don't get into an M7 go to Stern. It's a lot of self-selection.

There are anecdotal benefits from the Yale name as well, probably won't see them in IB OCR but I bet you will later in your career.

Anyway, at worst it's a tossup and the $20k tips the scales. The vast majority of people at either school that want IB probably get it.

 

I only applied to Yale (know great people at Stern though) and Yale will definitely be a smaller IB recruiting pool (probably about 40 people vs. likely a lot more at Stern). Less competition is probably nice and everyone gets an offer from what I was told. The only slight draw back is that you have to take the 2 hour train (no wifi fyi) into the city like 3 times a week in November for recruiting where at Stern you will already be there. In my opinion it is a very short-term draw-back. Yale is a great program and I highly recommend.

 

Thanks! This lines up with what I've heard elsewhere. Do you know if it's common for people to take on an internship during the school year? If so, I would think this weighs in NYU's favor, but if it's not common at MBA programs then it's a moot point.

 

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