<p>I am a Philadelphia native and when I applied to colleges in 2009 I applied to only Philadelphia area schools. I applied to a number of schools and was accepted to Upenn(dream school) with a little financial aid and the possibility of a lot of debt. I was also accepted to Widener University (a pretty good school specially for my major, engineering) with a full ride and I just graduated from it with close to zero debt. Now I am applying for investment banking positions and I am worried my school might be on my way now. I never regretted choosing Widener but do you guys think I made a bad decision four years ago?</p>
<p>BTW, I am planning to enroll at UPenn for masters next fall.</p>
<p>I don’t think you made the wrong choice. Think about how financially well-off you are AND had the chance for a co-op. Now you’ll have money for grad school. Imagine how much debt you would’ve been in if you had attended UPenn and then even more debt from grad school.</p>
<p>You had a great experience at your university, you got really good work experience with co-op, and you are now in a solid financial position. Prestige seems secondary to all of those. in my mind. If you are otherwise happy, I don’t think you should second guess yourself over this decision.</p>
<p>Co-op is a full time work experience in college. It is similar to an internship, but it is usually for a longer period of time (often 6 months) and integrates the student more as a regular employee.</p>
<p>It’s nice you had a great college experience. But your undergrad isn’t going to do any favors for you if you want to do investment banking.
What are you doing your masters in at Penn?
I would recommend that you work for 2-3 years as an engineer and get into a top MBA program, and join a bank at the associate level. Or, network like crazy through cold calling alumni and recruiters.</p>