<p>I'm pretty determined to go into some kind of finance/banking career when I'm older, so I was wondering what kinds of schools should I look into that would be the best start for this kind of career.</p>
<p>I've got the obvious ones down:
Wharton
NYU Stern
U of Michigan
Chicago University</p>
<p>But I was wondering if anyone could maybe give me some more options.</p>
<p>A little bit of academic background (just a summary to give a good idea of what schools I should look into)
-Going to be a senior in the fall, applying for colleges (yay)
-Around 4.57 GPA W/3.90 UW (Rank 4 out of 512)
-4's and 5's on 4 AP tests
-Really crappy sat score though...1980...definitely retaking that senior year to boost up to 2100-2200
-Good at writing creative essays and will have good recs, so those shouldn't be a problem
-My extracurriculars include Cross Country, Track each year, FBLA (went to state each year), the usual various assorted community work, ....and some unusual extracurriculars (working with financing and stock predictions for Second Life, made some money off of arbitraging gold in World of Warcraft, etc...)</p>
<p>And one last question:
I'm really interested in going to UCLA, but I heard that they don't have an undergrad business program...do they still have a good economics/finance undergrad department?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! :D</p>
<p>The top schools in terms of banking and finance placement are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Wharton</li>
<li>Dartmouth, Columbia, Duke, NYU Stern, Penn (College)</li>
<li>Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Michigan (Ross), Berkeley (Haas), Amherst, Williams</li>
<li>UVA (McIntire), UNC (Kenan Flagler), Vanderbilt, Rice, UCLA, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
And one last question:
I'm really interested in going to UCLA, but I heard that they don't have an undergrad business program...do they still have a good economics/finance undergrad department?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>With the right internships, which I would assume will be on offer for you in abundance if you do well there, UCLA's business/economics program would be good for you. The more math you can do well at, by the way, the better you will be in general.</p>
<p>Do not get too caught up in which schools have or don't have undergraduate business programs. Many people think that such pre-professional programs are entirely unnecessary. Schools like Harvard and many other Ivy League schools are represented extremely well in finance and business areas despite not having undergraduate business. If you plan to pursue a career in business, it is an equally good idea to major in something like economics or math and then get an MBA later on.</p>
<p>That's good to know, especially since working either in the bay area or in Los Angeles has always been an option that appealed to me...</p>
<p>I took Calculus AB/BC, got A's, really easy, probably got a 5 on the ap test.
As for Math 2 SAT...uh...only a 690, but also going to retake that as well, since I kinda took it cold turkey ;p</p>
<p>"Chicago University"</p>
<ul>
<li>:rolleyes:</li>
</ul>
<p>Business (& Marketing) is a relatively popular major on college campuses. For the USNWR Top 50 schools, 32 of the schools have undergraduate business & marketing majors being pursued by 5% or more of their students. Following is the full listing.</p>
<p>One major caveat. You do not need a business degree to go into banking/finance. There is excellent recruitment at many schools that don't have dedicated programs. In the Top 20 alone, none of the following have dedicated undergrad business programs and yet their graduates are often found in the financial world-Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, U Chicago, Dartmouth, Columbia, Northwestern, Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>Recruiters for investment banks and the financial industry want smart people who can learn the necessary finance to do the first job, who can communicate, who work well with others, who have a competitive streak and personal tencacity, etc. Personal qualities and achievements have great importance. Often, where you went to school or what you studied is the least important variable. So, go to an undergrad business school if you like, but know that it is NOT a prerequisite for beginning a career in investment banking and the financial world. </p>
<p>28% Lehigh
26% Georgetown
26% USC
25% U Penn
23% Tulane
21% Notre Dame
21% Boston College
20% NYU
20% U Florida
18% Wake Forest
18% Penn State
15% Emory
15% U Illinois UC
14% Georgia Tech
13% Cornell
12% Wash U StL
12% Carnegie Mellon
12% U Texas
11% U Washington
11% UC S Barbara
10% W & M
10% Case Western
9% U North Carolina
9% U Wisconsin
8% Brown
8% U Virginia
7% MIT
7% Rensselaer
6% U Michigan
6% UC SD
5% Rice
5% UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Yes, as long as you get into Stanford, Harvard et al you are fine. But you dip below the top 15-20 elite schools and the picture changes dramatically. Then you have a better shot coming out of a good business program at a good (Top15-50) school.</p>
<p>UChicago is a much more academically inclined school than the others you listed... what it shares in common with Michigan and Wharton is bright students, prestige and a strong program (Chicago does not offer a business major for undergrads), but similarities end about there. The undergrad emphasis is on academics, not on pre-professional stuff, and while students do go on to do business, it's not part of their undergrad experience. Keep that in mind when you're looking at the school.</p>
<p>My daughter has ambitions similar to yours. After speaking to many people on Wall Street she did not put Cal or UCLA on her list. For the very ambitious, life after undergrad seems to start in NYC for training. They may hire you for London or Hong Kong, but rarely for SF or LA (same places she'd like to live in the long term). Those that really want SF often major in engineering to be in demand in Silicon Valley.</p>
<p>After Wharton, my daughter would choose Dartmouth or Yale before any other business program. This is simply because she met so many people from those schools while checking out Wall Street and she knows they favor their own schools (human nature).</p>
<p>I hope she chooses an ivy or LAC because you don't need to specialize at this age IMO.</p>
<p>You don't give us your SAT score breakdown, but hopefully math is your strength. Wharton wants to see very top math scores. I think you must retake with that 2200 as the goal.</p>
<p>If you are good at math, check out Northwestern's MMSS or Kellogg undergrad certificate program which compliements economics very well.</p>
<p>unless you are in-state, the UCs are very expensive and finaid is targeted towards in-staters; UCLA is $45k for OOS.</p>