Hello everyone! My career goals: working for an international organization (scientific research+public policy) - world bank, UN or governmental agencies; also considering investment banking (healthcare/environmental field)
So, here are my advantages at each of them (financial aid is relatively same):
Columbia - was named one of the 10 Science Research Fellows (part of the Columbia University Scholars) meaning that I have first-hand, privileged access to faculty (Nobel Prize mentors for my 10k USD-funded research), allowed to attend seminars for scholars only, love the curriculum, 2 paid internships.
Princeton - the prestige... the HYP Holy Trinity
Stanford - only 1 or max 2 students admitted/year from my country (international student)
Life Sciences and Management program at Wharton+UPenn CAS (BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CAS + BS in Economics at Wharton) - super exclusive program for 25 students only (the advisory board includes JP Morgan directors, CEOs of pharma and biotech companies, amazing science faculty)
You can’t go wrong with any of those choices. I just thought I’d say that just to reassure you to not look back when you end up at X university.
Based on what you’ve listed as your career plans, most of those opportunities are located at NYC, or a short train ride away. Seeing as you’ve struck gold at Columbia with the Science Research Fellows program, I’d personally choose that. Then again, turning down Wharton or Stanford is tough LOL.
From first to last choice, I’d say:
Columbia
Penn
Stanford
Princeton
Have you visited any of them yet? Deciding to spend your next four years at NYC shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Investment banking - Princeton, Stanford, Penn, Columbia
Medical Research - Stanford, Penn, Princeton, Columbia
Public Policy - Stanford, Princeton, Penn and Columbia
For healthcare banking, LSM > Princeton > Stanford = Columbia - not quite sure about which would set you up w/ international organizations. Typical LSM grads go into finance (investment banking/PE), consulting, or medical school after graduation.
@texaspg I agree with the health care and policy but for ib Penn and Columbia are the best Penn had the best undergraduate finance program and Columbia is right there by wall Street. Then princeton and then Stanford. Obviously he would do great at any of those schools but I think that would be the best order
I read a little once about that Penn program and it does look quite amazing. I am not a big fan of business in undergrad but that program is really special and the grad profiles I read were amazing. And they head in science areas and business areas so the option is open to go the direction you discover is best.
Just looking at what you listed for your options, all superb of course, the only reason you listed for 2 or 3 is ego. Once you get over your thrill you can see that you only listed exciting and good reasons to go to 1 and 4. Instead of polling people on the internet, though maybe it is helpful to do some reading here, you should dig deep and really try to see what it is like as a student and dig into the programs and see what your course flow will be like.
If you are an international student, do you have any knowledge of U.S. geography? Have you traveled around at all in America? Each regional area of our country has unique physical/weather related characteristics, regional ways of speaking/interacting/level of friendliness, etc, and those differences might make your college life more or less interesting/fun/difficult/unbearable.
Do you have any relatives in the U.S., or friends, or any kind of contacts at all? Living near a relative (even if it is 4 hours away vs. 3000 miles away) might give you some sense of comfort.
What are your plans for after college? Will you try to return to your home country? Sometimes American college students end up getting jobs near where they went to college.
Since all of your choices sound great, I would suggest you look at these other factors and see if they make a difference to you in your final decision.
Hi guys! Thank you so much for your responses! Both Columbia and Wharton offered me likely letters and have sent me tons of information and scheduled many Skype calls with current students, program directors, you name it! (Columbia even sent me a book written by a faculty member with a handwritten welcome message on it). I am not that much into Princeton (yet people in my country believe it’s the most prestigious of them all), nor was in Stanford. However, things changed once I entered the Stanford Facebook group and researched this amazing university more (didn’t think that Stanford would prefer me to international CS or maths olympic students when I applied) and I really see myself there.
Regarding how I envision my future…well, I want to live in NYC and also travel frequently to Washington DC. I plan to return in my country for a limited period of time (to make a change ).
I know that Columbia would fit me very well, but I don’t know if I lose something of a true college experience or just a different experience (west coast, the campus etc.) if I turn down Stanford and choose to study in the city I will live my entire life (hopefully)! What are your thoughts?
PS: I think I love the people in the LSM program more than the program itself! Haven’t seen greater care exhibited by a faculty member than my program director’s at any other university! Also, I can see how much an impact this program has on the development of its students from the extremely self-confident and positive attitude of the students themselves.
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