Current Stern Sophomore: Ask Me

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
141

<p>Many do. It’s probably a majority, but I’d say a majority of that majority either lacks the drive, acumen, or ability to have a chance at it. A lot want to do consulting too, and many more just take finance because we have the #2 program in the country so why not make use of it.</p>

<p>Look, you’ll hear horror stories from every quarter. If you’re someone whose intimidated by some 40-year-old telling you how hard 120-hour work-weeks are, you probably don’t belong in banking. Yeah, it reaches 120 now and then. 100 is more typical. Still, it’s only a 2-year rotation in most cases, so if you’re willing to put yourself through 4 years of relative hell in a serious school, why not take 2 similar years that pay you absurdly well?</p>

<p>@clemo
Send both. They’ll take your best composite, they do with both the SAT (definite) and ACT (I believe).</p>

<p>@sonic
To be completely frank, I doubt it. Many juniors aren’t, and they’re the ones entering crunch-time recruiting because their internship this coming year is pivotal for full-time offers. I was willing to put in the work, put in the effort, do the research, know my ****. I don’t think I’ve met any other sophomores who tried as hard or eventually did as well as I ended up being able to. Even a lot of the juniors come up to me now and ask me for contacts in certain firms, insight into the recruitment process, or resume tips.</p>

<p>If you don’t do something sophomore year you aren’t screwed. Junior year is pivotal because firms look to fill their full-time analyst class from that year’s summer analyst (SA) pool, so normally 90%+ of their full-time offers go out to SAs. In my mind though, any and everything you do that better positions you for that junior year is crucial. If you can get something freshman summer, do it. Sophomore summer? Do it. Inter-year during the semester? Do it. The more you have going for you the stronger your candidacy will be.</p>

<p>Senior year is fairly irrelevant for most kids. They summered somewhere, be it bulge bracket IBD, consulting, or somewhere else, and they came away with an offer in August. At that point, you’ve signed full-time, received your signing and relocation bonus, and you’re just finishing your undergrad as best you can so you have a good shot at b-school. Internships during senior year are therefore essentially useless because you’ve already got an offer, and if you don’t, anything you do during senior fall won’t help because you’re trying your hardest to net an offer somewhere in Sept/Oct. If you DO have an offer, chances are you’re fairly burnt out from the challenge, you’re tired of recruiting and school, and you want as much free time as possible. Money isn’t a concern because you see that fat six-figure salary you signed for, so a paid internship doesn’t mean much to you … a lot of kids travel the world because they recognize there won’t be another opportunity again for many years; finance is a soul-consuming career.</p>

142

<p>My son should have pulled a 3.5 to 3.8 first semester. He is an athlete and it will be hard for him to get an internship during the school year with his sports schedule. It looks like he can get an internship at a CPA firm after his freshman year part-time. Will he be able to get interviews if he has a lower GPA due to his schedule? How does the business community perceive a good student/good athlete?</p>

143

<p>Hello- I am a high school junior looking at NYU as my #1 choice. I am curious as to what my chances are at admissions. About me:</p>

<p>GPA (first 2 years)- 3.67 UW/3.86W (did not take freshman year seriously enough). Should be able to get all A’s in junior year which should bump my weighted GPA to just above 4.0. Mostly honors courses and 1 AP so far. Most AP’s will be available only senior year and I plan on taking them. </p>

<p>ACT- Planning on taking ACT in Feb. Should be able to get 33, maybe a 34 if I am lucky</p>

<p>Extracurricular- Played/refeferred soccer, did not make JV or varsity team though, still play on club team; Fed challenge club and Wall Street club at school; attended 5 week rigorous math camp last summer</p>

<p>Other- Ethnicity mixed (caucasion/indian); thinking of signing up (and hopefully getting in) macro econ class at NYU next summer to improve my odds.</p>

<p>Any thoughts??? Thanks so much.</p>

144

<p>Hello- I am a high school junior looking at NYU as my #1 choice. I am curious as to what my chances are at admissions. About me:</p>

<p>GPA (first 2 years)- 3.67 UW/3.86W (did not take freshman year seriously enough). Should be able to get all A’s in junior year which should bump my weighted GPA to just above 4.0. Mostly honors courses and 1 AP so far. Most AP’s will be available only senior year and I plan on taking them. </p>

<p>ACT- Planning on taking ACT in Feb. Should be able to get 33, maybe a 34 if I am lucky</p>

<p>Extracurricular- Played/refeferred soccer, did not make JV or varsity team though, still play on club team; Fed challenge club and Wall Street club at school; attended 5 week rigorous math camp last summer</p>

<p>Other- Ethnicity mixed (caucasion/indian); thinking of signing up (and hopefully getting in) macro econ class at NYU next summer to improve my odds.</p>

<p>Any thoughts??? Thanks so much.</p>

145

<p>As the economic condition is so harsh, is it possible for international students to find jobs in Stern? Many friends just told me that no investment company offer intl’s job opportunities.</p>

146

<p>Hi, hellodocks and thanks for answering for taking the time to answer our questions!!</p>

<p>When people on CC say, “Oh, NYU’s Econ Department rocks!” are they talking about the economics courses in NYU’s CAS or the economics courses in NYU Stern?</p>

<p>CAS economics courses:
economics, economics + math</p>

<p>Stern economics courses:
business economics, economic theory</p>

<p>Which school would have NYU’s Econ Department? Or are they all equally respected and awesome?</p>

147

<p>Hello, hellodocks ＸＤI’m currently a grade 12 student from canada who just got accepted into NYU CAS. i’m going to be majoring in Economics& Mathematics starting in september of 2011. Although the economic department is prestigious and renowned, i still want to transfer to Stern. My intended major in stern will be finance. My questions are:</p>

<p>1) what are the chances of my selected internal transfer?
2) If my intended major is finance, and i’m going to spend my freshmen year doing econ, wut courses should i take to not be behind in my sophmore year?
3) if possible, wut is the percentage of succesful transfer each year?
4) How big of a role does ur highschool GPA and SAT score play in? and my SAT score i applied to nyu with is 2110 ( 770 math, 680CR, 660 Writing). If i choose to take the sat score in may or june later this year, which is after my university acceptance letter, would they look at the highest one? or would they only look at the scores u recieved before ur university application.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time, i greatly appreciate your help :D</p>

148

<p>@VballDad
Is he already here? Anything 3.5+ ought to be golden for anyone; athletes often have a more lenient standard applied anyway. All a GPA does is act as a filter for HR. They’ll weed out people definitely not worth looking out with that, and after that it’s all about networking and how you differentiate your candidacy.</p>

<p>Again, any internship after freshman year is tremendous. Freshmen will frequently take PWM, or private wealth management spots. It’s commonly given to them because they don’t require much quantitative knowledge, only general market interest and basic intelligence. Accounting is a good step too, several of my friends summered with CPA firms.</p>

<p>@chickenme
It’s good you’ve identified your interests so early. Your GPA is a bit low, because weighted is never looked at like unweighted is. Definitely do your best on the SAT and ACT, SAT preferably because East Coast schools tend to favor that. It’s good you have interests you participate in outside of school, but try to spin your club experience as a leadership position, failing to make any sort of real school team isn’t that great so you need to paint that in your favor instead of a slight. Relevant experience in finance-oriented clubs is great, do your most to get a leadership position there. If you can’t, propose a new one and convince them to let you do the role you suggest. Taking classes here probably won’t help you <em>that</em> much, but it’s definitely good to get some exposure to the school and see if it’s something that definitely interests you.</p>

149

<p>@btcflyer
The only reason international kids have trouble getting work is because the hiring firm ends up being required to sponsor them for an employment visa extension from the F1 student visa. That’s a huge hassle, so unfortunately firms tend to be a bit less inclined to take foreign candidates. That’s why you see so many foreign kids (especially the Asian students) pursuing summer and full-time employment in mainland Asia or HK or Singapore.</p>

<p>@diemking
You’re welcome, glad to have the opportunity. Generally when people say NYU econ they’re talking about CAS. Stern does have an econ department, but there’s a bit of difference in approach. CAS focuses on it as a science and therefore it tends to be quite theoretical and abstract, whereas ours is exceedingly practical and hands-on. </p>

<p>CAS’ econ department is ranked top-10 nationally, which is tremendous. Many students there pursue careers in finance and succeed. However, I’d say just from talking with the alum base and current students that it’s more challenging breaking in with that degree than with the Stern name. Read back through some of the recent pages of this thread for more on the difference between CAS/Stern econ, many people already asked about it.</p>

<p>@CastoStern (haha, good name)
Congratulations, first off! Good luck on an internal transfer. I’m not exactly sure of the rules, but I’m fairly certain you have to spend at least a semester in your accepted program before you try to transfer. Also, once you do complete the app in March your freshman year, you better have a damn good reason for wanting to transfer than you can express in your app. It can’t just be “Well I got in but I really wanted Stern all along.”</p>

<p>Again, just as I’ve cautioned people through this whole thread, there’s far more to Stern than just finance. Explore a bit, don’t be afraid. As for coursework, just work on getting all your MAP requirements out of the way. CAS kids will have more than Sternies, but take your math, NatSci, English, Texts & Ideas, and Cultures & Contexts courses. Ignore that CAS wants you to take a language and a second NatSci for the MAP, if you get into Stern you won’t need them. As long as you get MAP done, almost every Stern freshman will be working on those first year so you won’t be behind sophomore year. We have a 6-credit stats that’s different than the CAS 6-credit stats, and we have micro that’s different from CAS micro. Try not to take the CAS versions freshman year, save it for sophomore fall and you won’t be behind at all. Some Sternies get those out of the way freshman spring (I did) but many won’t.</p>

<p>I can’t give you an exact percentage of successful internal transfers, unfortunately. I know it’s exceptionally low. Single-digit percentage easily, I’d say. As for test scores, any scores you submit after your acceptance could only be used for placement into higher courses. i.e. If you got your Writing sub-section up, you could get out of WTE (Writing the Essay, the required writing class for all NYU kids that absolutely murders everyone: awkward readings, horrible teachers, ridiculous assignments due <em>weekly</em>, etc.) and do Commerce and Culture, a Stern version of the writing requirement that’s oriented around business topics (a far better class).</p>

<p>Hope this helps all of you.</p>

150

<p>Hey docks, </p>

<p>Can you please explain the Stern concentrations? Is the concentration you pick your major? I am hoping to major in International Business, but it’s not listed as a concentration, so will I have to pick a major and a concentration/concentrations?</p>

151

<p>hellodocks, one more question - what do you recommend incoming frosh do to prep for Stern? Thanks for answering and thanks for putting up with me.</p>

152

<p>Thanks :smiley: and yea i’ll bs a real reason lol no one reveals their true intentions in applications anymore lol. I have some more questions.Since i’m trying for first year transfer, that means i need to have a very high GPA in my freshman year. So i was thinking of getting ahead of the game and buy the first year books now. I went on to the economics department webpage and found 6 first year core courses. [NYU</a> > Economics Department > Course Offerings](<a href=“Department of Economics”>Department of Economics)</p>

<p>1)Are core courses mandatory?
2)and if my goal is for a transfer into Finance then would you suggest that i take all of these courses?
3)if not then what courses SHOULD i take to be prepared for my new major?
4)And where can i find what book these courses use? </p>

<p>Thanks for your help !! i really appreciate it :smiley: i’ll buy u dinner sometime next year to thank you for this :P</p>

<p>P.S By getting my writing subsection up … do you mean if i can get an 800 on my SAT writing i can take commerce and culture insted of WTE? cuz i hear from people that WTE sucks…</p>

153

<p>Is it possible for economics majors to get internships at a big fish company?</p>

154

<p>Thanks a lot. Very helpful indeed. One more question. I did a preliminary test on ACT versus SAT and it turns out that I do a lot better on ACT. So I was planning on just taking ACT and not SAT (I would take the subject SAT tests). Any thoughts? Thanks again</p>

155

<p>@veggie
Sure! Concentrations are not majors. Concentrations are simply something that allows you to quantify an area of study on your resume that isn’t large enough to be a major or minor. i.e. “Majors in Marketing and International Business, Concentration in Video Game Marketing.” There isn’t complete freedom in declaring a concentration, there are defined ones that you can choose so it isn’t like Gallatin where you it’s ‘name-your-own-degree.’ Most of the concentrations are tied to a minor, i.e. Business of Entertainment, Media, and Technology is a minor and you can choose at least 4 specializations within it: Movies, Video Games, Music, Producing, etc.</p>

<p>Also, IB is not a standalone major, meaning you cannot take IB as your only major. You have to pick another Stern major before you can declare IB. It has a lighter credit requirement than all the others so they don’t want kids gaming the system by it.</p>

<p>@justspice
Like I’ve said through the thread, brush up on your quant skills. Math, math, math. First year you will have calc, a NatSci, possibly micro and stats. A lot of kids flounder, so just make sure you’re on point.</p>

<p>@CastoStern
Well, I’m suggesting the opposite; that you avoid taking core courses because those will count for your CAS econ degree and not for Stern. I think the only thing they might let roll over is the elementary micro you’d take, and even then you ought to just wait and take it here. Get all your gen-ed done and ignore your core coursework. If you get into Stern, you’re going to have to take a larger core so you need to leave yourself the most flexibility for that, not a degree you’re trying to transfer out of. Just get the MAP done that I listed before.</p>

<p>Also, don’t stress about the books. In my experience at least 80% of the time the book has proven to be useless: either the professor doesn’t follow it at all and only made it required just to follow his department’s guidelines, it’s written far too obnoxiously to make the remotest bit of sense, or it’s outdated. You’ll do far better by paying attention in class, getting good notes, reading <em>only</em> what you don’t understand from the lecture slides they provide, and doing practice problems. That’s basically all the books are good for; you pay $120 for a textbook to do only the problems at the end of each section.</p>

<p>@brownboy
If I knew what on earth you were talking about, I might be able to answer you.</p>

<p>@chickenme
Glad you find it informative. I’d recommend taking both, because the general attitude is that the ACT is essentially the SAT just for kids in the Midwest. So schools out there tend to be completely welcoming of the ACT, while schools here look at it like “Ok we’ll take it, but we prefer the national standard, the SAT.” If you do both and one’s higher, that’ll look good because they see you went out of your way to make yourself as well-rounded a candidate as possible.</p>

156

<p>Thank you for your anwsers :smiley: Here are some more :P</p>

<p>1) You said that most stern freshmen will be working on MAP… so they have to take nat sci, culture and stuff just like the CAS people?
2) and taking a lot of math courses would help right?
3) you said that the microecon offered by stern is different. Is that course available to CAS freshmen?
4) just a little confirmation : if i have 800 on writing i can avoid WTE and take Commerce and Culture right? </p>

<p>:D</p>

157

<p>Thanks for answering my question. </p>

<p>I plan to pursue an MBA in the future. The reason for not taking Stern business classes outright is because I want to learn more from outside (I’m not here for a strictly “vocational” degree"). Does double majoring in business economics and environmental studies look like a feasible courseload? If not, I might bump environmental studies down to a minor. </p>

<p>So my question is is such a double major possible? I’m pretty bright but I don’t want to be working nonstop from freshman years to senior.</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

158

<p>Thanks for the explanation! That really cleared things up for me :)</p>

159

<p>Hello,
Can you compare/contrast (job opportunities, course focuses, etc) a major in music business at steinhardt to a major in marketing with a minor in bemt at stern?
thanks!</p>

160

<p>@CastoStern
Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but here is some frank advice. If you’re trying to pursue a career in any sort of serious profession, it’s best to come across as an earnest person. You’re asking me something I already answered for you, meaning you either didn’t take the time to read something I put the effort into writing or you weren’t intelligent enough to understand it the first time. You’re asking about MAP, and I already broke down for you exactly what MAP is for NYU students and how it differs for Sternies.</p>

<p>Math classes will not help towards your degree, they will simply provide you with a more quantitative skill-set you can use in your career. The Stern micro is only for Sternies. There is a CAS equivalent and the two are different. Some Stern core courses are open to non-Sternies, however they have specific sections separate so there will never be a mixed section with both non-Stern and Stern kids. The only ones that do that are courses Stern offers that no other school here does. Micro is not one of those.</p>

<p>Also, you do not need an 800 to place out of WTE, just a 750+. For the class of 2013, if you had an 800 you could place out of <em>all</em> writing requirements, but that was the first and only year they kept that policy in place. I guess I lucked out.</p>

<p>@diemking
Studying within Stern will give you arguably the most transferable degree possible. You can do literally anything that does not require a specialist degree with a business degree (i.e. you clearly can’t be a research chemist with a finance major). Econ in and of itself will not give you a broad skill-set; it’ll give you a degree that lets you pursue the financial services industry or else academic research/education. A Stern degree will ensure you get a core understanding of business; management, ethics, marketing, economics, finance, public policy … you’ll get a taste of everything and therefore your degree will have the broadest applicability.</p>

<p>Enviro studies would probably be better a minor than a major, regardless of whether you choose CAS econ or a major in Stern. Enviro studies is a time-consumer major, one of my exceptionally good friends and suitemate has it and even for an incredibly bright, hardworking kid (top 3 boarding school) I watched him struggle. I can’t imagine pairing that with a program as challenging as Stern (5th-ranked in the nation) or CAS econ (top 10 in the nation).</p>

<p>@veggie
You’re welcome.</p>

<p>@ExurKun
That’s like asking me to compare apples to oranges. It depends on a number of factors:
: what you want to do
: how well you network
: which opportunities you make use of during school (internships, career center, alumni base, research opportunities, etc.)
: whether or not you plan to pursue grad school
: the earning potential you hope for
: the career flexibility you desire</p>

<p>Steinhardt in general has a lower employment rate directly out of school, lower median earnings among its graduates, and narrower breadth of opportunities (industry-wise, i.e. Music Business grads only working in music or media-related careers).</p>

<p>They are both challenging programs in their own respective right, but in different ways. In terms of course focus, Music Business is far more about actually preparing you to be a music executive, i.e. one girl in my group for a BEMT class this semester had a final where she had to study 300 songs and be prepared to identify from a 5-second sample the producer, artist, and label of 25 songs. Marketing in Stern would teach you both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of successfully marketing a product both nationally and internationally, competitive differentiation, market segmentation, consumer preferences, and a whole host of other business related topics. Which suits you best depends on the factors I listed above along with anything else you consider important.</p>