Current Stern Sophomore: Ask Me

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
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<p>Under a 3.0 you won’t get anything anywhere remotely competitive. One year that low can be fixed, but graduating with something that bad usually shows that you are below average in intelligence, work-ethic, and commitment. If you had other things that were affecting your academic performance (i.e. working full-time to put yourself through school), they’d expect you to have the sense to prioritize and strike a better balance.</p>

<p>3.0-3.5, you could definitely get just as good an offer as a 3.8+ kid if you networked well and positioned yourself strongly. Something below 3.5 probably wouldn’t affect your fulltime offers out of school, but it would definitely hurt you for business school applications 4 years down the road onto Wall Street.</p>

<p>I found out earlier this week that I got offers for both remaining summers in both S&T and IBD at Morgan Stanley. There isn’t much better than that, and I did it with a sub-3.5. I had a number of other things going in my favor that I was able to capitalize on though. I had a shot at Goldman this morning but I screwed up the first-round of the superday. Morgan offered me more money for the two summers than Goldman would have though.</p>

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<p>So hellodocks, would you say that your offers came as a result of networking or your GPA? Is that for a summer analyst position or as an intern?</p>

<p>It seems that networking is really important at Stern, but that could be said for any university I guess. So you network with fellow students, recruiters, and teachers?</p>

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<p>hi! I’m back :D</p>

<p>how many points do people take per semester (Im asking this to calculate approximate costs)? </p>

<p>What’s the point of the winter session (It’s from January 4 to January 22!)??</p>

<p>When does the Fall session start and finish? When does the Spring session start and finish?</p>

<p>How much does a year at NYU cost, approximately?</p>

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<p>@GamBino
Networking. A GPA simply gets your resume kept in the ‘maybe’ or ‘interview’ pile rather than thrown out along with 90% of the stack. You have to have a 3.2 to meet most firm’s bare minimum, a 3.5 for nearly every special program (i.e. Credit Suisse’s Douglass L. Paul Scholarship, Goldman’s SFE, BarCap’s Boot Camp, etc.), but after that it’s what you do to differentiate yourself.</p>

<p>Students is a given. Your immediate peers won’t be an asset until you’re all in the workforce together and you realize you’re part of an immediate network of kids in the same year spread across all the major firms, but the seniors with fulltime offers are tremendous. Their only concern is keeping a strong enough GPA to keep their grad school options open, so some are very open to doing mock interviews with you, advising on specific firms’ recruitment, or resume reviews.</p>

<p>Faculty isn’t as important in my book, because few will benefit you outside the classroom. However, never underestimate the significance of a strong recommendation. One professor I spent time getting to know outside the classroom ended up providing two recommendations that ended up leading to $45,000 of external scholarships for my last two years of school.</p>

<p>Recruiters are clearly by far and away the most important. Stern is a target school for every bulge bracket firm, many boutiques, and countless F500 firms, so they’re here.</p>

<p>@konig
12-18 is considered full-time. 12 doesn’t make sense in my book since you’re paying the same as you would if you took 18. I’ve taken 16 or 18 every semester so far.</p>

<p>The winter session is good for kids trying to graduate early. If you applied a stack of AP credits and can take one course for your first three winters here and 16-18 credits for three years, you might be able to graduate after only 6 semesters compared to the normal 8. The appeal of it versus summer sessions is that your housing is already included in your fall-spring license, whereas with summer you pay more than the flat rate for the school-year.</p>

<p>Fall session starts Aug. 30ish normally with Welcome Week with classes starting the day following Labor Day and ends on Dec. 23rd each year. Spring is normally Jan. 22ish-May 15th or so. The dates are a bit different for studyabroad and vary between studyabroad site as well.</p>

<p>NYU is expensive. All in it was about $56-58,000 my first year, more this year.</p>

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<p>Is the 50k+ worth it (in terms of recruitment and jobs after graduation)?</p>

<p>so 50k+ is including housing, correct? </p>

<p>How much without housing (looking for it on my own off-campus)? Would off-campus housing be significantly cheaper??</p>

<p>Traveling back during the winter break (Dec.23rd to Jan. 22ish) will be too expensive for me (Trans-atlantic flight!), so I most likely will be staying in NYC if I do enroll. What would you do during that time? Is there a Study Abroad program during the winter session?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>konig, I know this is a thread to ask hellodocks questions but I’ve done some investigating into the on-campus vs off-campus housing situation: It gets more economical with the more roommates you have since the cost of an apartment doesn’t increase significantly w/ added rooms (1br @ $900 vs 4br @ $2000—$900/person vs $500/person), and if the average traditional dorm at NYU costs about $11,000 that comes down to 1,222.22 per month of school. I personally plan on living on campus my first year for the experience, but getting an apartment soon after so I can stay in the city during the summer and intern. (btw those are generic number I found trying to demonstrate my point)</p>

127

<p>I’m so confused…what is the commonapp short answer? I did the personal statement and supplement stuff, what else is there?</p>

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<p>nevermind I figured it out lol…wow I feel stupid</p>

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<p>Thank you very much! That’s exactly what I needed to know! :)</p>

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<p>Thanks docks but what I don’t get is with the so called “Stern curve”, aren’t there going to be students who may have had 95% averages in classes but ended up with C’s? That doesn’t reflect their overall performance, they were just competing with some really smart kids. Get what I’m going at here? It’s just a worry in the back of my mind I guess.</p>

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<p>hey, just a quick question
I applied to the BPE program, but I’m thinking of changing when and if I go to stern, is that allowed?</p>

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<p>@hellodocks! I got in :slight_smile: haha. So now my question is: what is the application process like to get into Goddard? Essays? Short answers? Thank you again for being so helpful throughout this whole process :)</p>

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<p>I also have a few more questions now that I’ve decided that I’m probably going to Stern. Thanks for the responses as usual :).</p>

<p>-Should I apply to receive college credit for my AP courses? For Stern, according to this link, they recommend not applying for more than 16 credits <a href=“http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/emplibrary/ACFVh8dfw.pdf[/url]”>http://w4.stern.nyu.edu/emplibrary/ACFVh8dfw.pdf&lt;/a&gt;. I see that I can use my 4 in AP bio to get to get out of taking natural science for 8 credits, and I can take my 5 in AP US and 5 in AP comp sci A to get 8 elective credits for a total of 16 credits. Is this a good idea? Also, would a 4 on the AP exam mean I get a B in that class and that goes on my college transcript or would it just mean I don’t have to take that class and just get credit. Also, I’ve taken 3 UConn credit/also AP classes so far, but I don’t want those grades on my college transcript (B’s), so is that possible as well so can Stern just overlook those grades or do they take precedence (you probably don’t know about the 2nd part, but I was like why not ask anyway lol).</p>

<p>-Is there anything you recommend I have a strong background knowledge about before I attend Stern? I didn’t take Calc in HS and also got a C+ in pre-calc, so would you recommend I teach myself a little Calc before going to Stern? Any other subjects I should have some background knowledge about (econ, finance, accounting, etc… (taking ststs)). </p>

<p>-Lastly, is there anything overall you recommend I do before I attend Stern? Any sort of prep. or something.</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

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<p>@konig</p>

<p>I think so. In my mind, it’s definitely worth it. I put in work this semester, busted my ass, and signed <em>as a sophomore</em> a two-summer deal with one of the three largest firms on Wall St. larger than the figure you mentioned. And that’s a gateway to a job that gives first-year kids right out of school $100-140k thee first full-time year.</p>

<p>And yes, the total cost includes housing. Tuition runs about $48k I believe, and housing is normally $7-9k or so freshman year, $11k upperclassman years. Living off-campus <em>CAN</em> be cheaper, as that other guy already broke it down. I’ll most likely be living off campus my entire senior year, perhaps next year as well. There’s so much variability in living in your own place though, a concrete answer to that question just doesn’t exist.
i.e. If you’re willing to live 30 minutes away from school, you can get a place in Brooklyn with 3 friends for $500 each a month. If you want somewhere probably cosy (read: tiny) in the Village with one other person, you could wing it for $1000-1200 per person. If you want to live in a high-rise in Chelsea or Midtown with gorgeous views and amenities in-building, you’re looking at $3000 per person. It’s what you make of it that determines how in/expensive it will be.</p>

<p>Staying over break is really not that bad. Yes, the dorms will be very empty except for all the Asian kids who don’t want to or cannot go back for just the month, but even a lot of the kids who live on the East Coast won’t spend the whole break at home. The school offers a bunch of stuff to do, any friends you have still in the dorm will want to go out and do fun stuff to make use of all the time without classes (take advantage of living in Manhattan with no pressure from classes for once) … it isn’t bad. There is an option to take classes, but it runs about $1,100 per credit so a single class would basically cost you another $4-5000 and take 6 hours of four days a week for three weeks. Ugh. If you stay, just do fun stuff. Explore the city. Chances are you won’t even have to stay, you may meet some really cool people who are nice enough to invite you back to their home with them for the holiday.</p>

<p>@sasasa
The Stern curve sucks, I’ll be completely honest. There are a lot of rumors, so take them as you may, but I’ll simply say I know kids this semester who came out on their Marketing final with a 98 but x-number of kids got a 99-100 that <strong>literally forced them to a B+ with a 98 ON THE FINAL.</strong></p>

<p>Basically, only 15-25% of students CAN, <em>not will</em> receive an A <em>or</em> A-. In a typical class of 40 kids, that means at most 10 kids will get an A or A-, so literally in some sections of core classes the 11th highest-scoring kid at the end of the semester walks away with a B+, whether or not he got a 55/100 out of all possible points during the semester or a 98 with 10 kids ahead of him who had a 99 or 100. It’s definitely something every single kid here worries about. You just have to perform as well as you can; some kids adapt by throwing themselves into two classes and making sure they guarantee themselves an A and just shoot for a B or B+ in the other two so half their GPA is a 4.0 and half or less is a 3.3 to balance out to a 3.6 at worst. Other kids just try to get an A- in every class to keep a 3.7 global.</p>

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<p>@blizzard
You are totally allowed to switch. I know a handful of kids who did very early on (within the first semester). One of the classes is a real pain I hear, and a lot who just thought the program would be cool to do without actually having an interest in politics ended up skipping out after just one term. You’re allowed to change your major(s) whenever you want; doing it after sophomore year is ill-advised because of how it’ll screw with your class schedule, but it’s always an option available to you.</p>

<p>@hayley
First off, CONGRATS. =)</p>

<p>The application process is simply a short essay prompt asking why you’re interested in joining the community. Overall, it’s gotten increasingly more selective each successive year, naturally. The first year hardly anyone knew about it so it was more a matter of convincing kids or administratively placing them to fill the two buildings, but in you’re case it would be the fifth year and we’ll definitely be rejecting people unfortunately.</p>

<p>There isn’t a class per se, but you will be enrolled in a 0-credit Pass/Fail class called “Leadership and Public Service,” which will show up on your transcript as a tangible measure of your involvement in the community but won’t hurt your GPA should you fail. All it entails is attending a number of events with your floormates and the kids in your stream each semester along with something like 10 community service hours.</p>

<p>If you want to know more about NYU/Goddard feel free to PM me, I have no problem sharing. =)</p>

<p>@sasasa
Definitely get out of NatSci if you can. I’m pretty sure there’s only 4 credits required for Stern students, the 8 credit requirement is for general-NYU kids. Even still, if you don’t get a good professor in your course it’ll end up being a major pain in the ass, and some kids I consider really smart ended up struggling with their NatSci. I took mine and got an A, but if I’d had an AP score that gave me a free ticket past it you best believe I’d have done it.</p>

<p>For the others, I’d only say apply them if you want to graduate early. Some semesters in Stern end up being 18 credits instead of a simple 16 (4 4-credit classes), so a few of those along with that many applied APs might shave a semester off your program. There’s no rush to apply them though, because you can do it once you’re here. Definitely get out of NatSci though, and wait on the rest. I personally wouldn’t do it just because I like having the opportunity to take more courses relevant to my interests and that prepare me for a career I’m already entering.</p>

<p>Don’t show your UConn transcript to NYU. It’s as simple as that. I had the same experience, I took 42 college credits before I came to Stern. I had a 4.0 with them so I chose to leverage them for placement into higher-level courses, but there’s no reason to if you don’t want to.</p>

<p>As for preparation, just brush up on your math. First semester you’ll have Calc and maybe Micro if you apply an AP math score, and those two quanty subjects simultaneously will rock your **** if you aren’t ready, especially in your first semester as you’re adjusting.</p>

<p>And also, Happy Holidays everyone!!</p>

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<p>hellodocks,</p>

<p>What’s the general thought in Stern in regards to an ibanking job? Do all the finance majors want to be ibankers after graduation? I really don’t want to be an ibanker after reading Monkey Business (i still will be concentrating in finance though), and am wondering if that will make people look down on me.</p>

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<p>Banking isn’t the end-all be-all of finance.</p>

<p>In finance, there are three typical paths. Investment banking, consulting, and corporate finance. You’ll see them abbreviated as IBD, MBB, and corpfin.</p>

<p>IBD is kind of a misnomer, however, because literally the Investment Banking Division is only one of 8-13 divisions within an investment bank. It’s part of the front-office, however, the revenue-generating divisions of a bank.</p>

<p>Consulting can be known as MBB because of the three largest firms that dominate it, kind of like the Ivies are known colloquially as HYP. McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.</p>

<p>Corpfin is the least demanding track generally, just in terms of hours worked vs. compensation, but along with less favorable exit opportunities and less extravagant compensation usually. It’s the finance department of Fortune 500 companies and such.</p>

<p>Don’t rule out any options before you experience a single thing. I’m sorry, but reading a single book will in no way prepare you for anything. You haven’t taken a single relevant class, you have no idea of the lifestyle, you have nothing experiential to base your ideas on. Wait until you get here, talk to some alumni in the business, hear from professors, and take classes. Until then, you really shouldn’t be worrying about something so far away.</p>

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<p>OK, I understand your point. But the combination of that book, a family friend MorganStanley banker, and the stories from a retired banker who worked for an Asia-based bank in NYC scared me. However I know that those three accounts are too small of a sample to account for the thoughts of the entire banking population, so I will keep my mind open.</p>

<p>Also, you didn’t answer one of my original questions - do a large amount of finance Sternies want to be become bankers?</p>

139

<p>So I took the ACT twice, first time scored 31(33 E 32 R 29 M 30 S 30 W) second time scored 32(31 E 36 R 30 M 31 S 29 W), but superscored I have a 33 so should I send both scores or just the higher composite?</p>

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<p>Hellodocks,
I was wondering if all Stern sophomores are as informed as you are; you seem to have a very good knowledge of the business world.
My question is: if you are not involved in the internship-searching process in the sophomore year, does it hurt your chances at getting future internships or having good chances at receiving good job offers when you graduate? Do sternies wait until their junior/senior years to look for internships, or is that too late? thanks!</p>