Current Stern Sophomore: Ask Me

<p>when you apply to stern, do you declare a major? I wanted to know whats the information systems major is like?</p>

<p>Nope, you don’t need to declare, and if you do declare, your intended major has no impact at all on your admissions decision.</p>

<p>Information systems is something I have no experience with so far, there’s only one class mandatory for all Sternies as part of the core and it’s called InfoTech, I’m taking it next fall. I’d help you more if I could, but I have nothing I could tell you. I don’t think it recruits well though, otherwise there would be more kids in the program. I don’t know a single kid who has it as his primary major, only a few secondary. If it’s something you’re genuinely interested in though, you should definitely arrange a visit and speak with some faculty in the program and some students if you can swing it.</p>

<p>hellodocks, are you going to be responding to this thread from Florence? Either way, have fun there!</p>

<p>Hi!
Can you please explain the WST? And can students who plan on pursuing more than one concentration apply for this?</p>

<p>Yeah, I’ll do my best to stay on top of things. Things are a little wild here though so no guarantees. I have little inclination to be on a website when weekend trips to the Alps have become my new daily life.</p>

<p>@veggie
It’s a course of study designed to promote a global perspective in modern business, students spend back-to-back semesters abroad, London in sophomore spring and Shanghai junior fall. There are some slightly different courses, mainly a few global econ (macro with a very high-level perspective) and probably some politics or law-oriented too. I have no clue if this is true with the new concentration system, but WST has been open to all majors for current students so I imagine it would be for 2015 and later classes.</p>

<p>Great, thanks! Hope you have a great time in Florence!</p>

<p>@Hellodocks</p>

<p>Congrats on securing the internship at MS. What my question is, Why are they giving you a S&T internship this summer to then give you an IB internship for junior year? I would imagine if they are offering you an internship in S&T, they would want you to stay in their group since they are essentially investing money and time in you. Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to do their sophomore IB program?</p>

<p>Also, I was told by a senior member in the IED that the s&t program isn’t considering any sophomores?</p>

<p>The way my MD explained it to me is that sometimes in life you have to make bets on people and he was making a bet on me. He wooed me away from GS with this absurd offer, got me an interview for the sophomore IBD program upstairs so I’d be happy (ended up being 12th kid in line for a program with only 10 slots), promised me he wouldn’t let me fail, and said I’d get another chance for IBD next year.</p>

<p>You’re right, I want to IBD long-run (at least at this point, and I was very frank about that with him) so it makes more sense for me to do it now too. That option didn’t end up working out with MS though, and since they gave me a better offer at this point than GS did, I needed to go with them as a sophomore. And you’re correct that S&T isn’t taking sophomores. I’m the first they’ve brought in.</p>

<p>That’s great. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your experience this summer regardless. The traders I met at MS were all a great bunch. By any chance, was the MD G.V.A?</p>

<p>Nope. None of the four involved in my recruiting process were, sorry.</p>

<p>hi hellodocks, thanks for all your help so far</p>

<p>can you talk a little bit more about how superdays work, and what your experience with some of the superdays firms that you interviewed with was? thanks!</p>

<p>Have you interviewed at all yet? What year are you? Which division are you looking at? There’s a lot I could say but I’d rather narrow it down based on what you’re looking for.</p>

<p>I have a friend who has a superday coming up at GS IBD. I remember you mentioned that you had a superday with them before, so i thought it would be helpful to find out some information to help my friend out</p>

<p>Google it or search it on wallstreetoasis.com. I wouldn’t say much different than anything there.</p>

<p>Anyone else? It’s been awhile. If not, I can give you more info about IBD at GS. I imagine the superday was probably Saturday though, it may be already done.</p>

<p>Hellodocks, </p>

<p>How has Florence been so far? As of right now, I’d like to go there the most.</p>

<p>How popular is a consulting career at Stern? Do any firms show up on campus? I’ve heard consulting gets very light recruitment at Stern.</p>

<p>Stern is ranked so high for finance that it’s pretty much what we’re known for. Given our #2 ranking and our location, we get tremendous recruiting from the Street. BBs, MM, and boutiques are all in our backyard. You can get anything for the summer and during the year, it’s amazing. Consulting isn’t so popular at Stern because of the nature of that industry. There, they look far more favorably upon school prestige than major or related internship experience, so most consulting kids come from HYP, lower Ivies, or top LACs, all with 3.7+ usually. It’s pedigree, MBB is all about ideation whereas finance is all plug’n’chug, therefore they’re far more likely to take the Yale kid with a 3.8 in Sociology with an econ minor than someone from a lower target like Stern with a B.S. in Management.</p>

<p>We breed finance. That’s the faculty we attract, the kids we attract, and the reputation the school has fostered (even if unintentionally). Our alumni base bears that out. Wharton and Stern are regarded as the ultimate finance factories. Other top-10, even top-5 business schools don’t really compare because they have a broader spectrum than just finance. W/S though, almost pure finance.</p>

<p>So basically it’s impossible to get a good consulting gig out of Stern? Or are there kids who network their way into a good one?</p>

<p>It isn’t impossible. It just isn’t a primary focus of the school. I know we have several grads who place into solid consulting roles, not sure how well MBB placement is though.</p>

<p>Appreciate all the help you are giving by answering all the questions, my son is a freshman in Stern and he did not get good or I should say really bad grades, during the first semester. Maybe he took the harder classes …can’t fiqure out the reason. He is a good student…any idea what could be changed …a confused parent</p>