Hello Potential PwC Scholars of Binghamton University’s Class of 2019!
My name is Anthony, and I am currently a freshman PwC Scholar within Binghamton University’s School of Management. I decided to create a thread where any potential scholars could ask me questions they have pertaining to the program or to the School of Management in general. Congratulations on your acceptance into the program, and I hope I can help clarify any confusion!
@adeninis: Thanks for making this thread. I actually have a bunch of questions, but I only have time to post a couple right now, lol. Hopefully if you answer them, I’ll come back for more :D.
1- What made you choose Bing over another school/what schools were you accepted to? I’m assuming if you got PwC, you were accepted to schools that are “better” than Bing - what we’re they, and what made you decide Bing was the better choice?
2- What has been your favorite part of the program so far? Anything you were completely surprised about in a positive way? Anything you’re not satisfied with?
3- Does being in the program increase your odds at getting a job/internship? How difficult have you found the search (if you have searched for any internship yet)?
Edit - just saw you answered some of my questions on another thread - thanks for that, if anything overlaps, you don’t have to repeat yourself.
@jamesjunkers good questions—what thread did you find the answers to your questions?
@rgr717, OP posted this in another thread. . .
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First of all, congratulations on your acceptance into the PwC Scholars program! The scholars program within the School of Management is an extremely selective program that prides itself on academic excellence and serving the university and surrounding community in all ways possible. I am currently a freshman PwC Scholar at Binghamton, so I may be able to help you with some of your questions. Regarding your previous question about the possibility of completing the MS in Accounting in 4 years rather than 5, it is highly possible to accomplish if you do come in with a significant number of AP credits. I believe that each year the initial number of applicants accepted into the program is somewhere around 40 to 50, but the number of students who actually enroll in the program is usually 25 to 30 (it always works out nicely, constituting the top 10% of the incoming freshman class). As far as the dinner in New York City goes, I would highly recommend going to the event, as you will meet the Dean of the school, a partner at PwC who is an alumnus of Binghamton, as well as several outstanding freshman scholars. If you have any other specific questions pertaining to the scholars program, please do not hesitate to direct them to me. Good luck with your decision!
@jamesjunkers: Making this thread was absolutely no problem at all! Hopefully I can help you see what makes Binghamton University and the PwC Scholars program so special. I will address your questions in order:
1.) When I was going through my college choices, the three other schools I was considering were NYU Stern, UVa, and Cornell (AEM). I was accepted to NYU and UVa, but I was rejected from Cornell’s Applied Economics and Management program within CALS. Since at this point I am considering going into public accounting (just like you!) or possibly the financial services sector, I chose Binghamton’s scholars program within SoM because of the unique connection it has with PwC. PricewaterhouseCoopers as you may know is one of the Big 4 accounting firms, and being able to have direct access to recruiters and professionals of high status in that firm was one of the main reasons I chose Binghamton over my other options. Although NYU Stern has an exceptional accounting program as well, I was not so sure that it was necessary to pay more money to enroll there if I had the same career opportunities at Binghamton. In other words, if I had gone to NYU, I had know doubt that their career services department would have the ability to connect students with Big 4 recruiters, but being amongst so many students looking for accounting jobs from the same school may have been very competitive. Plus, at NYU, the connection with PwC and accounting firm recruiters may have not been as personal. As far as UVa, I chose not to enroll there because their business program (The McIntire School of Commerce) is only a two year program. I felt that enrolling in Binghamton’s SoM as a freshman would give me the opportunity to get more hands-on experience with the field of business much earlier. Additionally, although I was initially upset (last year) about being rejected from Cornell AEM, I have come to realize that if you do well at Binghamton, you can pursue any career you desire (and have the same opportunity of recruitment as an Ivy league student).
2.) My favorite part of the program so far without a doubt has been MGMT 150. Officially known as Ethical Issues in Business, MGMT 150 is a writing and oral presentation course that all new freshman PwC scholars are required to take in their fall semester (it is taught by the director of scholars, who is an incredible professor and an amazing person!) What is really awesome about this class is that it is a great way for new scholars to bond and to increase their public speaking and professional skills immensely. Another part of the program that I have really enjoyed so far is the freshman fundraising committee. Each year, the new freshmen of the PwC scholars are required to work together to create two fundraising events throughout the course of the year in order to raise money for the program as well as for our community service projects. Last semester the other freshman scholars and I hosted a MarketWatch competition which involved over 100 students signing up to trade stocks on a virtual stock market game. About two weeks ago, we just held our second freshman fundraising event which was a 3v3 basketball tournament consisting of a bracket of 32 teams. Between the two events, we were able to raise over $1,100, which is a new freshman scholars record! The freshman fundraising events have truly been invaluable experiences because they have allowed us to take on unique leadership roles and to really make something that we can call our own. As far as things I dislike about the program, there really isn’t anything! However, one thing that I do find could use some work is networking between underclassmen and upperclassmen scholars. (If you want me to elaborate on what I mean by that, please let me know.)
3.) Undoubtedly, being in the program increases your odds at getting a job/internship immensely! As far as securing a job upon graduation goes, if you are thinking of going into accounting, the placement percentage of scholars who apply for positions in one of the Big 4 accounting firms (EY, PwC, Deloitte, or KPMG) is almost 100%. Once again, due to the fact that our program is sponsored by PwC (and one of the partners from PwC who graduated from Binghamton), trying to get a job within PwC is almost guaranteed as long as you maintain a good GPA and show some involvement on campus! In fact, I have not yet heard of a senior scholar who has been interested in going into accounting who hasn’t received a full-time offer if they were good students and interns. If you are still unsure about whether or not you want to go the accounting route, we also have many graduating seniors each year who study finance and go on to work at investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and even Blackstone. Also, if you do choose to enroll here, I would suggest applying for the Dean’s Mentoring Program during the application process in late October. This program is even more selective and allows freshman and sophomore mentees to develop their professional and networking skills even further. Another main perk of being involved in DMP (Dean’s Mentoring Program) is that it boasts a history of 100% job placement in any career path for all of its previous mentees. Concerning internships, both the PwC Scholars program and DMP help students secure summer internships in fields related to what they are studying. I have personally found that these two programs have made the search for internships very easy. As of right now, I plan on interning at my local NBT Bank this summer.
Sorry for the overload of information. I hope it’s not too overwhelming! If you have any more questions or need any clarification on something that I have said, let me know. 
@adeninis, thank you so much! Not overwhelming at all! We have/had a lot of the same school options. I too am hoping for Cornell AEM, and am going through the same thought process as you did about Virginia. I didn’t apply to NYU, however, the city school is just not for me Your message truly helped me though, and made me more interested in Bing. If I have more questions that come to mind, I’ll come here :). Again, thank you so much.
Hi @adeninis
I was wondering if one can transfer to this program in the subsequent years at Binghamton if accepted to another school in the university?
@AlvinT: Yes, you can definitely transfer into the PwC Scholars program later on if you happen to start at a different school within Binghamton University. I know that coming out of Harper (the main liberal arts schools), the School of Management expects a high GPA (around 3.8+) and good extracurricular activities from its internal transfer students. I believe that students from the other schools in Binghamton can apply to transfer to the School of Management after each consecutive semester. For example, we just had new freshman scholars join us this spring semester after they decided to complete a competitive application process to enter SoM. If you did transfer into the School of Management and were also interested in joining the PwC Scholars, you may have to complete an extra writing supplement or interview process. Hope this helps!
@adeninis Thx for the response!
Another quick question: Do you know of any international students who has had success with this program? Or even received great job offers to work in the US after they graduated?
@AlvinT Hi again.
At this moment, I am not exactly sure if we have any international students within the program. I know that there are a plethora of international students in the School of Management in general, so I am sure that it would be possible for them to join the scholars if their academic records were strong enough. However, one thing that I do know with absolute certainty is that a majority of the international students who study business at our university end up with both job offers in the US and in their country of origin. If you are an international student and wish to obtain a job in the US (at an accounting firm, bank, start-up company, non-profit, etc.), I am sure that you will have the same opportunities as any other student!
@adeninis Thx again for the answer!
@adeninis: Another question that I just thought of. . .
My friend is under the impression that PwC comes with some sort of monetary reward (merit scholarship), however I see no evidence supporting this. It’s not true, is it?
@jamesjunkers: No, you are right, that would not be true. Students who enter the PwC Scholars program receive no special monetary reward or merit scholarship. On another note, some of the other perks that I forgot to mention about being a scholar that can sort of relate to this question are priority housing and early class registration. In the summer of your freshman year, if you enter as a PwC Scholar, you would be granted first priority in on-campus housing selection, which many people love! Pertaining to early class registration, freshman scholars also get to register 1 hour earlier than all other students for their classes during the summer orientation, which is extremely helpful. After the initial fall semester, scholars are granted 24 “ghost credits” which increase their theoretical class standing. This means that as a freshman, you could technically have the same class registration priority as a junior (assuming you also come in with a decent amount of AP/college credits from high school). Hope this helps!
@adeninis that sounds awful to those who came to BU SOM. Seems that the fact you are in PWC scholars should NOT give you ghost credits, that is literally putting other students at a significant disadvantage who did NOT get into PWC Scholars. My son got into SOM and is there now, he said the PWC scholars make up the majority of the accounting students hence there is no real advantage to being one but an obscene disadvantage to not being one. The fact that they had more AP classes from HS does NOT make them any better students. AP is not college level, when colleges have actually tested AP and IB students with comparative true college level exams, the vast majority of students fail. Part of the issue here is the overgrading that happens in Long Island schools, where they now offer AP everything and GPA’s can get as high as 6.0. To put one group of students over another for ACADEMICS when they theoretically already have more classes is a serious degradation of the system. Something teaching these kids, is why they come out of college with significant attitudes expecting to jump to manager spots when they can barely audit cash. BU is teaching these kids a terrible thing by offering to give them fake credits and put them ahead of others when they didn’t do anything to earn it while in college. He is regretting his decision to attend BU SOM due to this. From a child who has 2 parents who are CPA’s who came from state schools . Integrity begins at home, yet seems isn’t cherished in BU. Integrity does not put a scholar over any other, you should be happy to be part of a program, that should be enough!