NYU Stern vs Carnegie Mellon vs Emory vs Washington U vs Swarthmore
Im a senior in high school this year and I am deciding between NYU (Stern), Carnegie Mellon (Tepper),Emory, Swarthmore, and Washington University in St. Louis . I hope to work as an investment banker so I wanted to know which of these schools would give me the best opportunity to fulfill my goal. Would appreciate some feedback. Thanks
Stern by a long shot. You'll also have much more opportunities to network and do off-cycle boutique internships, esp. since NY is full of boutique shops that you can cold call your way into.
I know NYU is great because of the location, but i also hear everyone there is gunning for ibanking so the competition is fierce. Wash U is my top choice but my concern is that not many banks recruit from there. Is this true?
Go to the school you think is the best fit for you personally. You're going to spend four years of your life there so going somewhere just because you think it gives you an incremental edge for a job you think you want to do a few years from now isn't the best option personally. Of course, the reason I say that is because all the schools you listed will allow you to do just about whatever type of job you want post-grad if you build a strong network and get good grades.
If you go to Wash U and get above a 3.5-3.6 you should be able to break into I-banking it just might be mm in Chicago depending upon your network.
NYU or CMU. I'm a Finance graduate and I know what it's like without a brand. Definitely go for the brand value.
I'm sorry I have to put it this way, but think about recruiters as the most shallow girl you'll ever chase. Be extremely cynical and negative - like the stereo type no money no honey, if you don't have the glitz and glam (brand), then it just won't cut it. And don't forget you want the network of your school.
Mein bhi desh se, magar punjab se nahi. Good Luck.
Definitely NYU. You'll learn a lot of practical finance skills there and be in an easy spot for networking. People from my school ride a 5-hr bus to NYC for their final interviews....
Swarthmore isn't a school to scoff at either. From a purely IB recruiting standpoint it's not the best per se, but it's a top LAC (read: "preftige") with extremely loyal alumni. Just ran some really quick LinkedIn searches and Swarthmore definitely has some alumni on the street. Not many, but not bad at all for its size. Definitely going to have a better college experience there than at NYU and probably even CMU for sure.
Definitely not Stern. Go talk to some alums and you'll understand how cutthroat it is for banking. You'll want to kill yourself after one general info session where you see tons of desperate asians and indians clamoring for facetime and just dying to ask stupid questions such as "Do you think it will help if I pass my CFA before I apply?"
Even with a 3.5 (deflation) you'll likely end up in a big 4 unless you want to be on your knees sucking away like the others. Go to Swarthmore and network and you'll be fine and much happier. None of us ask hard technical questions of lib art majors, but to differentiate yourself at Stern you'll get grilled pretty hard. You have plenty of time to be miserable (i.e. banking). You'll also have an easier time in banking interviews.
There has been some great advice so far, so I am not going to write out several paragraphs. What I will say, though, is that as competitive as Stern is, it is not going to get any easier from a competition standpoint. That is not to mention the numerous banks that recruit on campus or the vast alumni network. I would choose Stern.
EDIT: Not sure why I replied to SanityCheck, but this was not meant to be directed at anyone in particular, just my general thoughts.
LOOOOOOOL. You should have thrown in the Visa/H1-B/OPT issue to add some more sadistic comedy to it.
You said you're choosing your school based on your goal of working in banking post-grad and NYU is simply a tier or two above the other schools mentioned in terms of recruiting. I'd go with Stern unless you really dislike the idea of living in the city, which probably wouldn't make sense since you're gunning for banking.
As far as how cut-throat it is, there is definitely some competition. Every year we got a resume book of maybe 150+ kids from Stern alone. However, we interview ~30 and hire ~12-14 for summer spots. That's just at one BB. So you have like 8 (?) BBs each hiring a solid number of Stern kids, plus the added benefit of all the MMs and boutiques that are definitely not going to the other schools listed for recruiting. At the end of the day, a large majority of Stern kids seeking banking get jobs in banking.
As far as the social aspect, NYU is a truly massive school. If you don't want to hang out with the Stern crowd, then there are 20,000+ other undergrads to meet. Not to mention, you're in Manhattan. With no real responsibilities. It's not hard to find your niche and have a good time. The Stern Finance kids are admittedly a bit ambitious and are probably 50% international, but nobody tries to backstab anybody else. It's not "cutthroat". It's actually way more collaborative than most people realize. But again, you can avoid those people and still do well if you want (90% of my friends were from outside of Stern).
I really don't understand all the hate this school gets on this site, especially from people who've never attended. Is it perfect? Obviously not. If you care more about getting a traditional college experience, then it's probably not the right school for you. If you like the idea of living in NYC at that age or care solely about recruiting, then Stern is almost as good as it gets. It's almost like choosing your undergrad is an incredibly personal decision and the right school varies depending on different preferences...
I think Emory is really being overlooked here. Boutiques like Lazard recruit pretty heavily from Emory and there aren't as many kids going for IBD there. Beyond that, it's a really fun school and you'll definitely have a better 4 years there than you would at Stern.
At the end of the day, any of those schools will get you into banking if you want it badly enough and you should really pick more so on where you think you'll have a better time. I chose an Ivy target over Emory and have certainly regretted it after going through the recruiting process and realizing the individual matters more than the school (to an extent) and I would have done just as well and probably had a better four years at Emory.
My two cents is either Emory or Swarthmore.
Thank you all for the advice! This will definitely help me make my decision
Wait, applications aren't even due yet. Why are you deciding between these schools?
Keep looking. If you're interested in a small liberal arts environment (Swarthmore), but want good OCR and a pre-professional focus (Stern), then I would recommend checking out more professionally-focused LACs like Middlebury or Claremont McKenna.
Emory has a pretty strong representation on the street. Think of it as a more southern Georgetown in terms of placement on the street.
Emory has about 400 kids working in NYC finance, according to LinkedIn. Georgetown has over 1100. Apples to oranges.
Are there not more kids trying to go to ny from Georgetown than Emory?
If you go to a good school and network and get good grades you'll have a good shot at IB. If you choose one good school over another BC of possible marginal gain on employment opportunity in three years your an idiot imo. You would be way better off visiting each school overnight and seeing which student body you better fit in with.
According to their Websites Emory's undergrad B-School has 250 in their graduating class while Georgetown has 560. I wasn't trying to say that Emory is more represented on the street than Georgetown because that is not true. What I am saying is that Emory is similar to Georgetown in the sense that you wont have a difficult time getting interviews on the street. I would definitely suggest Georgetown over Emory, but if you go to Emory and do well you will have no problem getting interviews.
For finance placement Stern is your best bet, but Emory is actually also very good so really can't go wrong with either
If interested in quantitative side of finance (prop shops, quant HFs, derivatives trading, etc.) i'd imagine CMU gets a solid amount of recruitment for those kind of positions.
How about actually gaining admission to these schools before deciding where to attend? None of the early deadlines for these schools have even passed yet.
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