Sternie2020Sternie2020
Today at 11:34 am edited 11:36AM in Cornell University
Hi all,
I was accepted into both NYU Stern and Cornell AEM and I’m having a very tough time choosing. I want to major in both finance and economics/applied economics in both schools. I want to eventually work in Venture Capital or Management Consulting. I wouldn’t mind Private Equity either, just not investment banking or capital markets. Here are my concerns:
Although I got a 40k scholarship from stern, it will still cost 33k, and I’ll end up with around 40-ish-k in student loans. Cornell, on the other hand will meet 100% of my financial needs.
Stern is in the city, which SHOULD be nice and is accessible to my family (who lives abroad) since JFK is right there.
Cornell has a campus which should be nice, but terrible weather…
I also heard that AEM is considered a joke while Stern is taken more seriously… But Cornell IS ivy. I need help
Who told you AEM is a joke? They are very misinformed. It is one of if not the most selective business program (bc of its small size)!
And I think ranked generally better than Stern. Stern folks like to think it is the best, but it is not. NYU has a few “the bests”, but in general, it is just s great school in NY that is pretty expensive.
It’s not simply a “good or mediocre” school for sure. It is great. I’m just not sure where the AEM joke comes in, as it is more selective than Stern!
Frankly, money aside, and it is always a factor, right, you pick the one you like better for your goals. Perhaps you should talk to each program’s recruiting area to see which works best for what you want?
One of my degrees is from NYU, so I’m not an NYU basher. But do check out the parts of each program that are important to YOU. That may indeed be NYU…and I wouldn’t argue that with you.
AEM is actually excellent, including placement.
My guess is that whoever’s told you AEM is a joke is a high school kid, not a big firm employer.
NYU Stern is good, but it’s not worth the pricetag when you have AEM.
Obviously, since this is posted on the NYU forum, loyal alumni/students will chime in to say Stern is better, but who can prove it’s worth 40K in loans vs. Cornell with no debt?
What specifically is Cornell asking you to pay? What does your aid letter say? Yes it meets full need, but they decide what need is (or they use to) based on their own formula.
If you truly will come out of Cornell with no debt, then grab it. But what are the numbers?
You should do what works best for you. Pick the one that is strongest in the area(s) most important to you. $40k in debt is not a great way to start, but you will be very employable, so it is not terrible if you try to pay off quickly.
Op also posted in Cornell, so the AEM folks were there too:)
So, Cornell’s 12-18k and nyu 33k. Where will the difference come from ? If from income /savings, that’s a really nice dilemma to have indeed. If from parents loans… There’s more to think about.
If I were to assume you were indifferent between the culture of the two campuses (the lifestyle is drastically different, and I’m speaking as someone who grew up 1.5 hours away from Ithaca, and went to a traditional campus freshman year before transferring to Stern), I would probably lean toward Cornell AEM. It is very difficult to enter PE out of undergraduate college and while VCs definitely hire many more candidates out of school they often are based more on networking outside of campus recruiting so I’ll just take those out of the consideration set. You could enter into either through IBD or consulting although IBD is the more traditional route into PE while consulting and IBD both share high placement into VCs (more dependent on the firm’s culture and strategy).
The reason I suggest Cornell is based on the lack of strength in consulting recruitment for Stern undergrads for MBB although it is relatively strong for the consulting arms of the Big 4, IBM, and Accenture (this may have changed somewhat since I graduated in '12 and the grad school is a totally different story). During my time at Stern I competed against a lot of other schools in intercollegiate case competitions often sponsored by firms and Cornell students always did extremely well and seemed well networked (also they were literally all international relations double majors which I thought was unusual).
I’m not going to make a suggestion based on the student loans since that’s ultimately a tradeoff you have to make based on your own financial status.
Thanks AoDay! I appreciate all the advice! I’m gonna go for Cornell because of it’s Consulting recruitment. The extra money would be loans taken out by my parents that would be paid off by me… So yeah no thanks
This is a easy decision: do you want to be in the middle of Manhattan or hidden away in NY State? Stern is definitely the better business school in terms of Finance and Global Business, however, Cornell is no joke. Some will argue these two schools are peers even (though from my research Stern tends to be noticeably better respected in my field of interest – banking). Don’t go to Cornell for “Ivy League”. Other than the whole Ivy worshiping being completely ridiculous, Cornell is well-known as the depressing, weak member of the league and won’t get you as much wow-factor as many of the other league members receive. This is a matter of “fit” and financial sensibility at this point, and is a choice really only you can make. You will likely be able to attain the same career success coming out of either of these programs. Full cost covered by Cornell and only partial by NYU is definitely a reasonable deal breaker.
@deller123 Ivy League means nothing; it’s only a sports organization. Cornell isn’t ranked highly because it’s an Ivy League school, but because its programs are world-class.
Cornell AEM is no joke, and either school you choose would be amazing. Good luck!