Dartmouth v. Georgia Tech

Hi everyone!

I narrowed my choices down to 2 colleges:


Dartmouth (roughly 60k in student loans when I graduate)

Georgia Tech (less than 10k in student loans)


My planned major is in math & computer science and some minor in economics. Although this may change, I’m pretty set on the STEM fields.

My career paths:

  1. Finance/Consulting. Wall St. I'm fine with either investment banking / hedge funds or quantitative finance.
  2. Computer engineer. Preferably, in software engineering at any of the top tech companies in Silicon Valley, or companies equivalent.
  3. Entrepreneurship. I do have many ideas I'm working on now and I will pursue them vigorously in the college incubator environment.
  4. Possible graduate school (if I don't pursue BS/MS programs).
  5. In all of the careers, I seek to move up into management positions.

The Dartmouth community is so warm and I feel like I belong there. Yet for Georgia Tech I was accepted into Grand Challenges LLC so I’m sure that would be a tight-knit community also.

I am fine with both campuses.

My major questions are:

Can I still enter Wall St. finance if I go to Georgia Tech? Will the school’s reputation get me in? Or do I NEED to be at an Ivy school like Dartmouth?

Dartmouth’s engineering program obviously isn’t as well known as Tech’s. Am I disadvantaged to go into the major tech companies if I go to Dartmouth?

Which school fosters/has better resources for student entrepreneurship?

Do you need an Ivy background to land management roles in either tech or finance industries?

Congratulations.

I think you should consider both the weather and location as the schools are polar opposites in this regard. For GT did you get into the computer science engineering program? If not, I would research the difficulty in changing to that major. If you are deadset on double majoring check how plausible that really is at tech. First semester they preach only taking 12 credit hours and many students do not take 15 per semester delaying graduation. On the other hand GT is strong with internships/ coops. If you want to go to Wall Street, Dartmouth will have stronger connections, whereas, I think Tech is stronger in engineering. If you have any interest in the liberal arts I would choose Dartmouth. Both are great schools but quite different in many regards.

Georgia Tech is better for one intending on studying engineering. Dartmouth College & its Ivy League prestige should be attractive to Wall Street recruiters.

Since you like both campuses–seems odd to me because they are so different as one is quaint & rural while the other is urban–Georgia Tech is the better choice due to cost. The $50,000 plus interest saved will pay for a one years specialty masters degree in finance or analytics or any other business concentration of interest to you. With a Georgia Tech BS & a specialty masters, you should be an attractive candidate for your targeted employers/careers.

There are so many misconceptions about banking out there. If you want to be entered into a 3 year analyst program Dartmouth gets you in the room. But banking isn’t just about these grind programs. There’s IB boutiques. M and a law There’s prime brokerage. There’s commercial banking a global giants with credit training. Uber high end private banking. There’s analysis at brokerage shops Actually a quant background from gtech is better for the hedgies. Private equity. It depends. Distressed real estate would like gtech. The others unless the founders went to Dartmouth require top b school and undergrad at an ivy is a good to have but not as great as a gtech Kellogg type combo. What part of the country. S valley banks and SF PE like ucs and Stanford as a generality

And out of all the kids that go to ivy duke Stanford do you know how many end up here as a percentage. And stick with it. Or are actually any good. Bankers who make the top $$ are the rainmakers not the grinds.

Everyone please stop watching the movies

@privatebanker : What educational background is needed or preferred for “M & A Law” ?

GaTech you can change majors after one semester. If you declared College of Computing, then you can easily take a lot of mathematics and get the CS major. The Theory thread will require you to take 6-7 math classes in fact to graduate. You can choose from 8 threads in CS, and need to pick 2. Modeling thread may be helpful too. GaTech is stronger in CS, engineering and probably math than Dartmouth.
Gatech really does not offer double majors, exactly though, unless you have a lot of AP credits, will be hard to complete a CS and a math major in 4 years, but you will be getting more math than the Dartmouth CS major by far in GaTech’s regular CS bachelor of science degree, its very math heavy (discrete math, a year of linear algebra, year of calculus, combinatorics,information theory and many other math classes are required for some threads in College of Computing ) You can get a minor in math,at GaTech with your major in CS by taking these classes–

https://www.math.gatech.edu/undergraduate/minor-mathematics

At GaTech, you may want to join a fraternity if you want to head to Wall Street. Look for a finance related fraternity at GaTech. Grand Challenges will keep you very busy with a freshman research project, which might be good, you will built friendships that way. All the problems for Grand Challenges are related to social problems and not so much CS or finance, but still a good experience.

Dartmouth,everyone gets the fraternity training there, how to socialize is important to making it in Wall Street if you are a trader or salesman. If you are a quantitative hire, thats a bit different.

If you want a quantitative position, GaTech is better. For Sales, either one could be helpful. Dartmouth does have good connections.

. It depends. If you want to work at skadden et al. The ivy pedigree helps but it’s about t 10 type law school more than ug. I think there’s a unique sort of currency for the UNH kid with Harvard law combo. Rare as they are. But that sort of thing A few of the best I know in the mid market space are solid UG (UCLA /NYU) type backgrounds. But in the end It’s really being good at it that matters. There are so many super regionals and regionals out there that there’s room for a talented student from any public uni with a t 15 law degree. But the super powers in nyc are big advantage to the elites. But it’s not soon after you’re on your own.

There’s so many kids with the myth of banking hat burnout or aren’t that skill aligned long term. But heck to each his own

I just see in so many sites and threads the constant drumbeat of the elixir of ivy and banking cocktails. As someone with 27 years in the business there are hihher callings.

Also I will get off my soapbox. But all the folks who look at gs LinkedIn profiles should also look at the hundreds of Regional ib

And consulting is Bain but so many more too.

I recommend Wall Street Oasis (web site) to find out what the big Wall Street feeders are. Dartmouth isn’t on the top line (Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Wharton…) but it’s on the second line with Stanford, Stern, Columbia, maybe Cornell. Others mentioned are Duke, Northwestern, UChicago. (last time I checked). Georgia Tech isn’t mentioned much. So for Finance/IB, or even Econ/Business in general, Dartmouth is better. Their Econ is outstanding and Tuck is a top-notch B school – it’s just a bigger deal to them and a stronger program.

For CS and Engineering, Georgia Tech is rock star. Dartmouth might be the weakest Ivy in both areas. (that doesn’t mean they suck, but it is not where their bread is buttered)

You could take your degree in Eng at GIT and then get an MBA at a top program, sure. Choosing that path depends on how long you want to wait to be on Wall Street. With Dartmouth, you have an easier direct line to it.

If you can’t decide, take the $50k and save it for grad school or (if you put that off) a house down payment.

@privatebanker : Dartmouth does not have a law school – assuming that is what you meant by the “ivy pedigree helps but it’s about t 10 type law school more than ug.” I find it very difficult to follow your grammar and spelling.

Here is another independent source…

http://www.businessinsider.com/investment-banking-recruiting-report-biggest-takeaways-2018-2

Top 10 law school is t 10. Ug = is
undergraduate

And you must be joking about Dartmouth not having a law school

Yes I know that. I assumed, obviously incorrectly, that the term “ivy pedigree” does not point exclusively to Dartmouth. Good lord.

The forest is missed amongst the trees.

My bottom line is that I would not want to graduate with 60K in loans so I’d opt for GA Tech.

Dartmouth is much better for finance. They do okay with IB and even a little PE. I don’t know anyone from GT in IB, but they probably exist in small numbers. Also probably better for grad school recruitment.

GT obviously for CS though

@privatebanker why do you think okay MBA programs (Kellogg level) are necessary for finance? PE/HF recruit from banks mainly now. MBAs really don’t seem necessary for people already in finance out of undergrad.

As an an example go to Providence Equity home page. They are a 50b pe firm out of little old rhode island

Open up meet the team.

They have a traditional pe group focused on media.

A ny based CMBS and real estate finance group

And a strategic growth fund.

When you look at the different groups and the associate vp. Md and smd levels it will give you sense.

Check out overseas and there’s a different type that emerges.

It will be interesting.

Most come from entry pe and not ib. But that’s a generality. Then you have the operators and senior advisors. Usually all from the ceo ranks and their backgrounds are varied as well.

Hedge funds are different animals and a completely different business as you know. It depends on the fund but many are looking for technical stars. MIT to build algos

But all of these firms need sales too Investor relations and accounting. All different and different kinds of backgrounds.

agree with @privatebanker but dont look at bios of people who are 40yo - industry is changing constantly and in 4-5 years we may see different trends including campus recruitment etc

Dartmouth will give you a definite edge for option 1 but only you can decide if that edge is worth 50k. For options 2, 3, and 4 it’s basically a wash.