WAKE FOREST vs. UVA vs. Cornell aem for Business

I am interested in finance- probably Investment banking/ hedge fund. I have chosen to attend Wake Forest. I have heard calloway is difficult but does it compare to mcintire and cornell aem? Is it up there recruiting wise? Any opinions on wake and how the business school stacks up would be appreciated?

 

UVA and Cornell are both better business schools and have much better recruiting for IB/S&T.

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 
Best Response

You might want to clarify whether you are talking about business undergrad or MBA. I'm going to assume you are talking about undergrad.

As far as an education goes, Wake Forest (Calloway) is absolutely top notch. Small classes, great professors, interesting and always evolving curriculum. Business Week has ranked them #1 or #2 in academic quality for the past 3-4 years for a reason. When you come out, you'll be able to compete with kids from the top schools in the country. All the Wake grads that I've worked with that made it in finance were extremely sharp.

That said, you might not have the chance to compete. Calloway is hard, and legendary for grade deflation. You're going to get B's - that's plural. So the trouble is Calloway cranks out tons of really bright students with 3.5s, but it can be hard to compete with the Ivy kids and their inflated 3.9s. Recruiting can also be a pain because say you're a BB coming to North Carolina to recruit. Where are you gonna go? UNC can show you 100 applicants and you can pick the 3 best. Then drive 15 minutes down the road to Duke where you'll see another 40 applicants and take the best 5. Now do you want to hop in the car and drive 1.5 hours to Wake, where you will see 15 Calloway students (most of which can hang with anyone you pluck from Duke/UNC)? Or do you want to just drive 20 minutes back to the airport and take your 8 Duke/UNC resumes back home to New York? As a result, you don't see many New York BBs at Wake, mostly just BofA and Wachovia recruiting for IB. You'll have to be more proactive in your recruiting. Reach out to alumni. You can definitely get in, but it will take work.

So Wake in a nutshell - excellent education, great professors, but size and location mean that you're going to have to put in some sweat and networking during recruiting.

- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Thank you capt. K that was very helpful. I would love to go to cornell/ uva. Btw this is all undergrad. I am definitely interested in finance. MY goal is to kill it wake first semester and hope to transfer. For finance BB/ hedge fund what are the best options?

 

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