Columbia recruiting for finance

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
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<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I'm wondering if any of you current columbians can shed some light on how well you feel your school is recruited by the financial sector (banks, hedge funds, private equity) in comparison to say Wharton or Stern?</p>

<p>I've been told Stern is recruited more heavily than Columbia for the world of finance, but want to see your take on things. I'm currently at NYU and considering transferring. My wish is to move back to Cali and among other things, I feel Columbia would really set me apart back in my home state while I compete against UCLA, USC, Berk and Stanford kids for jobs.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Wharton is in a league of its own when it comes to recruiting. There are elite boutique shops, hedge funds, and PE firms that will only take undergraduate from Wharton (albeit even in those cases, its a very, very small number of people).</p>

<p>Without meaning to start a flame war, on the Street and in general, there’s no doubt that Columbia is more prestigious than NYU/Stern. Having the Columbia diploma/name will allow encourage others to give you the benefit of the doubt, and simply presume you are intelligent at the outset. </p>

<p>However, with that said, objectively I feel that Columbia recruiting is on par with Stern recruiting. All the BB’s come recruit, and we have a small number of boutique banks, hedge funds, and some very small PE funds. I’m pretty sure Stern will have more (for example, one of my friends works at Perella Weinberg Partners, a very, very elite boutique that recruits at Stern but not Columbia. Evercore, Greenhill, Qatalyst etc. also don’t conduct OCR at Columbia).</p>

<p>So let me sum it up as follows:</p>

<p>Ease of getting a summer internship –> Stern (although <em>everyone</em> at Stern wants a finance job whereas at Columbia, there’s only a minority, albeit a strong minority, who want to do finance)</p>

<p>Career progression –> Columbia. From having worked at 2 bulge-brackets, the internal network for Columbia is quite extensive. At the senior levels, there’re a fair number of Columbia alums that will help you whereas for Stern, I really didn’t see that many alums at senior levels ironically.</p>

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<p>This is great to hear. </p>

<p>My experience at NYU has been alumni = no where. I reach out to alumni, and get no response. </p>

<p>I’m trying to do finance in Cali when I graduate, so I feel that recruiting for Cali shops as a Columbian may be easier than a Sterni-an(?), simply due to the large alumni base in LA for Columbia where as Stern is almost entirely focused in NYC. </p>

<p>At this point I’ve also collected enough HR contacts that I’ve made my own recruiting center - thus relying on the alumni that view my resume to hopefully pick me lol.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help!</p>