West Coast vs East Coast College
I recently got accepted to UC Berkeley, NYU, Cornell, Babson and have been browsing various forums and wanted to see what the reception to this hypothesis would be on WSO:
A former recruiter from Goldman/Blackrock, on Quora, claimed that if " schools like UCLA and Berkeley were within 150 miles of New York City they’d be among the most actively targeted schools by investment banks, due to the number and quality of students in them."
This leads me on to wonder what the quality of schools on the west coast are vs the east. Rankings are dominated by east coast schools, however it would be rational to equate
Stanford ->H/Y/P/W
UCLA/Cal->Rest of the Ivies, Duke, etc...
USC_>UVA, UNC...etc...
so why would anyone choose an east coast school if the quality of the school on the west coast is the same, as well as the brand (potentially) being better globally. In Asia UCLA/Cal are very popular for example. Moreover, Cal and UCLA would be far more selective if there were not state school quotas to fill
Let me know your thoughts, and help me decide on what college to pursue
Just before going into my personal opinion: pick a school where you'll at least enjoy yourself for 3-4 years. Take into account the area, social life, and the overall vibe before settling on just the name alone. I know friends who chose schools without visiting just because of the name and ended up regretting it and transferring. Was in your shoes once and attended a West Coast target (Stanford, UCB, UCLA) despite getting into Cornell, Dartmouth and NYU. US News rankings don't really mean squat if your school doesn't have good industry connections to be honest. Ask current students how OCR is and what companies have good relationships with the school.
Now on to your question about east coast schools vs west. Think about it from a geographical perspective, it would make more sense to be at school in NY/PA if I wanted to work in NYC for finance. You are closer to the epicenter of all the action, thus have more exposure. Even though say UCLA might be ranked higher based on academics than NYU, NYU would still be better for finance/IB despite "rankings" for academics and so on. The whole concept of a brand name is really the strength of the school in an industry. I.e. UC Berkeley engineering is world renowned than compared to NYU engineering and you're closer to the center of tech development. Get the gist? So it comes down to what you want to do in the end (Hard to really say as an 17-18 y/o being very honest now). Getting to college your interest and passions will change.
Now going off your school list. UCB is a great all arounder, getting exposure to finance is there though competitive. NYU STERN is very strong though just as competitive from what I have seen and heard. Cornell has a good network though being in Ithaca just is not a vibe if your looking for that city experience. Babson is strong for entrepreneurial pursuits, not so much finance. Also take into account of location if thats a deal breaker so like weather, what there is to do during the seasons and so on.
lol so u went to either ucla or ucb then. why not just say that intead of including stanford lOL
arent UCLA and Berkeley both targets as well? isnt lumping in (Stanford/Berkeley/UCLA) the same as putting (Harvard/Princeton/Cornell) - all are targets no?
I went to Stanford actually. West Coast recruiting is mostly out of those three due to sheer size of each school.
Lmao now you look like a dumbass for assuming he didn’t go to stanford
Ok thanks so much for all the info; definitely looking towards berkeley. What are the relative outlooks on being from a west coast target such as Stanford/Berkeley/UCLA, in terms of 'prestige/eliteness' vs a cornell/Ivy, etc...?
Lol are you asking if Stanford is viewed with the same prestige as a Cornell? You can't be serious
If you are talking about quality, the differences are negligible.
If you are talking about prestige, there's no doubt that east coast private schools are usually superior (apart from Stanford). They have been around longer and have been performing well for a long time. In your comparisons, I think it would be more apt to switch UCLA/Cal class with USC class. USC is the next tier private school after Stanford and Caltech. In terms of public schools, it's more apt to compare UCLA/Cal to UVA/UNC/UMich etc. It's just different. UCLA/Cal have enormous student bodies that are multiple times those of east coast private universities.
For the statement from Quora, you can easily say that about any good school in a subprime location (although Cali is not bad at all compared to places like Ann Arbor and Nashville). Moreover, without state quotas, UCLA/UCB wouldn't be what they are. These schools were founded by California pumping a shit ton of money into the UC-system, which is only possible by allowing their own residents to go to school there (because they are paying for it).
Personally, I'd go to Cornell. I prefer Cornell over NYU and east coast over west coast.
–From a MIT graduate
usc has a similar student population as ucb and ucla
well i'd say 10,000 less undergrad students is a lot
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