Betting on landing a finance job from Wharton

<p>I'm thinking about applying to Wharton without asking any FA (I'm an international). If I was to be accepted, I might have to take about 10-15k loan/year, depending on the EUR/USD currency rate and whether I am granted a scholarship from my country. </p>

<p>I was looking at the career survey with 85% response rate on the Wharton website and apparently only 6% of the graduating class of 2007 were seeking full-time employment. Of the 85.4% who landed a job, about half went to IBanking and about 25% to other finance related fields. Average salaries were around 60k base and 40k annual bonus with 10k sign-on bonus. </p>

<p>To me the salaries suggest that graduating with 40-60k in debt from Wharton wouldn't be such a terrible financial burden, when it is so unlikely that I wouldn't land a job upon graduation. Is there something I didn't notice, or is this really how it is?</p>

<p>How much debt would you be willing to take on over an undergrad degree with post-grad total compensation of 100k on average?</p>

<p>
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without asking any FA

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</p>

<p>Is there any particular reason you won't be applying for FA?</p>

<p>nshah9617,
Because Penn has limited financial aid for internationals and applying for aid would put me in a much more competitive pool for those ~50 aided places. I doubt I would get in with aid, unless I got really lucky.</p>

<p>keep in mind that most of those salaries go to american citizens. There's no guarantee that you'll get a work visa after you graduate(in fact, chances are pretty slim, especially once you graduate), and you might have to go to london/hong kong or some other foreign destination. That said, I heard financial services in asia is very hot right now, and that many bankers/traders in london/hong kong are making as much as, or even more than those in NYC, with the added benefit of taxes being lower in hong kong. so yea, if you graduate from wharton with that much debt, you shouldn't be worried</p>

<p>quag_mire,</p>

<p>Hmm, I'd still like to work in the US though. Do on-campus recruiters only recruit American citizens? I tried researching this work-visa maze and found nothing to suggest that a work-visa would be difficult to acquire if a company is willing to employ someone. However, I could easily be mistaken as it is past 2am here and my observation skills might not be at their best.</p>

<p>It's true that right now London and Hong Kong are way better places to be working in finance than NYC, but by the time this person graduates the US may be on the path to recovery (or total economic ruin, depending on who wins the election lol).</p>

<p>I'm not going to comment on your decision to apply with/without FA, but I'll state this, if you really want to go into financial services, there's no better school in the world than Wharton.</p>

<p>If you go to Wharton, put in a decent amount of work in classes, and are not completely anti-social, you absolutely will find a job.</p>

<p>it is not impossible to work in the US if you're hired by a management consulting/IB firm.. which i think like BBs.. if you get into a BB, you'll almost certainly get a work visa and stay in the US.</p>

<p>
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you'll almost certainly get a work visa and stay in the US.

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</p>

<p>no you won't. there are about 55000 visas availabe for foreign students, and about 150000++ visas are filed. there is a "lottery" and the 55k visas are selected at RANDOM from the pool of 150000++ visas. so a wharton grad has an equal chance of getting his/her visa picked as a South Dakota State grad (no offense to students of south dakota state). by the time the OP graduates, there will be significantly more applicants for the limited number of spots, so there is no guarantee that the OP's visa will be approved. I suggest the OP look beyond Wall Street and consider london/Hong Kong</p>

<p>quag_mire is correct. Getting a H1b visa is based completely on luck and at best you have a 50% chance (that is if all goes perfectly with the legal process).</p>

<p>is it actually true that everyone who wants to work in the US needs to go thru the lottery? I thought as long as a company wants to sponsor you you can stay in the states</p>

<p>^ yea everyone goes through it. My parents have. My dad got lucky, but my mom didn't lol. She actually had 2 companies sponsor her, but both of them weren't selected in the lottery</p>

<p>quag_mire,</p>

<p>Isn't the quota for H1-B visas 65000 (+20000 for people with Master's degrees etc)? The green card lottery has a quota of 55000.</p>

<p>In any case, I still have one year of HS, a year of compulsory military service and then 3-4 years of college before these types of visas become relevant to me. So I'll just hope that Obama gets elected and acts like he said:
"We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. As part of our comprehensive reform, we should examine our ability to replace a stopgap increase in the number of H1B visas with an increase in the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. I will also work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers."</p>

<p>Sounds good to me!</p>

<p>Or, if McCain gets elected, I hope he continues to support H1-B visas:
"I will continue to support H-1B visas, but, I'm telling you, the American peoples priority is, either rightly or wrongly, and we live in a democracy, is that we secure the borders first"</p>

<p>Securing our borders does sound a little ominous to me though.</p>

<p>Not only does acquiring an H1 visa depend on luck, but also the strength of your employer. That being said, if your employer is one of the top Fortune 500, then you'd get a better chance to win the 'lottery'.</p>

<p>^oo.. so what i said was not ENTIRELY false.. get into a BB and you'll increase your luck!</p>

<p>I called the US consulate and they seemed pretty confident that the H1-B regulations will be very different in 6 years time, in a positive sense. So planning H1-B visas now is futile.
However, do you think that London School of Economics would then be a better choice for me, if it is unlikely that I would get a job at a US company?</p>

<p>From what I know, getting a job and working visa in London would be far worse than doing the same in the US</p>

<p>^i hear otherwise.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Not only does acquiring an H1 visa depend on luck, but also the strength of your employer. That being said, if your employer is one of the top Fortune 500, then you'd get a better chance to win the 'lottery'.

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That's BS. It's a lottery. </p>

<p>
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From what I know, getting a job and working visa in London would be far worse than doing the same in the US

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I don't know about getting a job, but since he's from Finland, he wouldn't even need a working visa to work in the UK. (Schengen country!)</p>

<p>At OP: Why do you limit yourself to Wall Street? The girls and hours are far better elsewhere...(And with the current $/£ currency rate, the salary probably too)
Also, your student visa would allow you to work in the USA for about 12 months (google "Optional Practical Training). You could also try your luck and participate in the Greencard Lottery (DV) before and during your studies in the USA.</p>

<p>^ That is not BS!
You wanna do an investigation on H1 visa bearers?
You'll see if I'm right or not.
There are much more H1 visa bearers from large companies than smaller companies. At least that's what I've heard from some attorneys.</p>