So I have been accepted to both Vanderbilt and Brown for my sophomore year of college. I want to pursue a major in Mathematics and eventually work in finance afterwards. They are both the same price and both ranked #16 by USNews. My father claims that Vanderbilt is up and coming and didn’t even rank in the top 20 up until recently while Brown comes with the Ivy League label and centuries of prestige. On the contrary, Vanderbilt is seen as a synonymous with Harvard and Yale in the South. In terms of undergraduate experience and alumni network/name recognition, what do you all think is best?
Brown students certainly do well for themselves, but for what it’s worth, it’s not seen as a “target school” for Wall Street. I wouldn’t choose a uni based solely on your future profession, but if you want serious pre-professionalism, you won’t really find it at Brown I don’t think.
Congrats on getting into both schools! Either one will take you far. But from the bankers I’ve spoken to, Brown really isn’t on their radar for recruiting. That doesn’t mean you can’t make it, it just means there won’t be as heavy of a recruiting presence.
Here is the most recent post-undergrad employment data for Brown Applied Math undergrads:
http://www.brown.edu/campus-life/support/careerlab/post_grad_data/concentration/APME
Analyst, Barclays Capital
Analyst, Communications Media Advisors
Analyst, Goldman Sachs & Co.
Analyst, Landmark Partners
Analyst, PIMCO
Assistant Trader, Susquehanna International Group
Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
Associate Consultant, Bain & Company
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Banker Analyst, J.P. Morgan
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Analyst, Communications Media Advisors (CMA)
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Analyst, Greenhill & Co.
Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Analyst, Peter J. Solomon & Company
Analyst, UBS Investment Bank
Applications Engineer, Oracle Corporation
Assistant, Baseball Operations, Tampa Bay Rays
Associate Consultant, Bain & Co.
Associate Consultant, Boston Consulting Group
Associate Consultant, Boston Consulting Group
Consultant, Arcadia Solutions
Consultant, Exeter Group
Consultant, Exeter Group
Financial Analyst, JBG Companies
Fixed Income Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Investment Banking Analyst - M&A, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Investment Banking Analyst, Citigroup
Investment Banking Analyst, Citigroup
Investment Banking Analyst, Lincoln International
Investment Banking Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Investment Banking Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Investment Banking Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Investment analyst, Bruin Holdings
President, Prive Event Planning
Private Equity analyst, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board
Professor of Piano, Capital University, Capital University, Shenyang Conservatory of Music
Research Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Research Assistant, Stanford University Law School
Research Associate, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Risk Management Analyst, Citigroup
Sales and Trading Analyst, Citibank
Senior Officer, Singapore Economic Development Board
Software Support Engineer, Black Mountain Capital Management
Wealth Management Analyst, Morgan Stanley
As comprehensively stated above, I know both large consulting firms and a host of financial types, with everything from traditional Wall Street to Silicon Valley VCs to Greenwich, CT hedge funds recruit at Brown.
So you all would choose Brown over Vanderbilt? Where does Vanderbilt fall into all of this?
Brown has one of the top Applied math depts in the country. I can’t comment on Vandy as I know little about it.
No, not necessarily. I was simply responding to @cassat’s comments regarding corporate recruiting at Brown.
@adbfhoei Have you visited? Attended a class? Hung out with students? Which school fits you better?
What programs does each school have to assimilate transfer students? What are the Math departments like? What classes are offered? Have you planned out your curriculum for each school? Where do Vandy math grads go to work? Have you thoroughly researched the web sites to answer some of these questions?
Best of luck.
If you do something like Applied Math, you’re obviously going to have job prospects on Wall Street. But that goes for any school. If you look at forums like Wall Street Oasis or whatever, you’ll see that ideas like “target schools” do matter for some firms.
Obviously Brown is a very well-respected school and you’ll get a good job from there if you succeed. I’m just going off what family friends on Wall Street have told me, when I consulted them about my own college choice. Take it however you want.
But again, I wouldn’t recommend choosing a school solely for its career opportunities. Brown and Vandy are very different.
^^^ Okay so I Googled Wall Street Oasis. It seems they like Brown. What am I missing?
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/comprehensive-list-of-target-schools
Also majors other than math seem to be heavily recruited. Here is Brown econ class of 2013: http://www.brown.edu/campus-life/support/careerlab/post_grad_data/concentration/ECON
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k when I said “something like Applied Math,” I thought it was clear that I was referring to majors with an obvious correlation to markets/finance/math. Econ is part of that. As is the Business, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations major. And others.
When it comes to “which is better for Wall Street” between Vandy and Brown, you’re splitting hairs. Brown is on a list of prestigious schools that will look nice on a resume. Obviously. I’m just saying that people I’ve talked to haven’t had that much to say about Brown, perhaps because they have fewer people applying for banking jobs than, say, Wharton. The list for econ placement looks nice, but it’s also identical to every other top school.
Also, other posts on WSO which go into ranking the top schools often list Brown below its peers for recruitment. I feel like if you’re successful, rankings shouldn’t matter, but that isn’t the question at hand here.
Obviously you can disagree with me! That’s just my experience. Some people will say Brown is far superior because it’s a great school with fewer people applying, so less competition. Others will say Vandy is better because, although you won’t have the same name recognition as Brown, it’s also a great school with a loyal alum base and a sizable Wall Street contingent.
It’s all a matter of opinion. OP, you can’t go wrong.
Since one is only arguably more prestige than the other, I would just go with “fit.” Would you rather be in Nashville or Providence? Where do you want to live after graduation? Vanderbilt probably has more recruiting opportunities in the South and Brown probably has more on the east coast. Best of luck and the good news is you can’t go wrong.
Like @wtfiscollege said, at this point you should go where you feel most comfortable. I was deciding between Middlebury and Vanderbilt (two very different schools) this cycle, and ultimately went with Vanderbilt. After I narrowed down my college choices to those two schools, my father made a similar comment about Vanderbilt’s growing national reputation. Having said that, it has for the longest time been considered a very prestigious school in the South and Mid-Atlantic (where I’m from – VA). You really can’t go wrong.
@cassat I’m not sure if this was directed at me, but I know absolutely nothing about corporate recruiting at Vanderbilt. I have no idea how Vandy compares to Brown in that regard.
Again, I was just responding to the specific advice you are giving to students about corporate recruiting at Brown.
By “you” I meant anyone who is comparing the two schools! My bad, sorry for the confusion
I think those two are comparable schools, you cannot go wrong in either. It is what fit that counts. By visiting both you should be able to make up your mind better.