<p>Harvard or Wharton/Fisher?</p>
<p>Is an undergraduate business degree really necessary?</p>
<p>Say if i wanted to go into venture capital, i-banking, Citigroup/Goldman Sachs and the alikes</p>
<p>Harvard Econ Degree [possibly double concentration] or Fisher?</p>
<p>Anyone else have this decision to make?</p>
<p>Thanks guys</p>
<p>Wharton> Harvard Econ in venture, capital, i-banking, citigroup, etc.</p>
<p>I dont' see why you would apply to fisher anyways if you want to do ibanking.</p>
<p>Save the business concentration for a graduate degree (MBA, etc.).
You become more valuable to get your undergrad degree in some type of Liberal Arts or Economics and then get an advanced degree with a business concentration such as Finance, etc.</p>
<p>Honestly, there is not difference. I go to Columbia Business School and am surrounded by Econ grads at the top schools (ALL the ivies) AND people who went to top business schools (Penn, NYU, etc).</p>
<p>as slipper said there is really no difference other than if you go to wharton business network will be much better than harvard. Everyone at wharton does business while not everyone does business at harvard so it terms of a business network - wharton > harvard.</p>
<p>i know a couple of kids who went to m&t over harvard - but that's because they wanted to get the engineering background. but overall from my experience with recruiting, harvard and wharton are pretty equal feeders for the finance jobs. the only difference is that if you go to wharton, you'll actually KNOW what you're talking about. econ is very different from finance ... wharton kids always make fun of the harvard kids for not knowing anything ... at the same time though, it's not expected that youll know anything and the firm will teach you anyway. the only thing is like bern said, the wharton network is better and its more focused so you get better info (e.g. you know what you're getting yourself into for banking, you know what the career path is like, you have a better idea of the ranking of banks, you know if you really want to do investment banking or something else). a side perk is if you go to wharton, chances are when you graduate most of your friends will be in the city and working finance jobs, so good network later on too ..</p>
<p>wanted to add:
a number of people who do the M&t program end up in banking jobs (VC and PE jobs are almost impossible to get into out of undergrad). a perk of being part of the program is that if you have alumni who are at the bank, they usually keep an eye out for other m&t kids. the way that recruiting generally works is that they have recently graduated people look through resumes and select. so it's always nice if you have someone looking out for you. also, the m&t program has an amazing alumni base which sometimes (if you're lucky) helps you get internships/jobs, if not at least a willing and experienced party who will answer questions you might have. for the hookups on jobs, one of my friends who is at goldman now doing banking, got a banking internship freshman year of college (unheard of normally) because he was randomly talking to an alum who offerred him an interview. and i got a internship soph year at a REIT (real estate investment trust) b/c an alumni was CFO of the REIT ... it doesn't happen all the time, but it does...</p>
<p>I chose M&T over Harvard and have never regretted that decision. Well, except every once in a while when I talk to my grandparents and they ask "What - you're at Penn State? What's Wharton?" - and I wished I could say - "no, I'm at Hahvahd." :) </p>
<p>All joking aside, you'll most likely love whichever one you choose, but off the top of my head, these are the reasons I'm eternally thankful that I chose M&T:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>M&T will open doors for you. I'm not even talking about networking and alumni base, but on a purely academic level. When you're in a program with 50 other over-achievers who're all trying out multiple concentrations and foci, you will be inspired to search for some combination of studies you can really love. I knew nothing about business, or engineering for that matter, when I came in - I'm now doing real estate and finance (through Wharton) and geographic info systems (through engineering), and a couple random minors. I would never have found that combination if it wasn't for the link between wharton and engineering, and i love that it's a unique combination that can be very applicable in future. </p></li>
<li><p>A liberal arts econ degree is completely different from Wharton's concentrations - although you don't NEED the undergraduate training to work on Wall St, classes like real estate, M&A, marketing, VC, etc are extremely valuable in teaching you what you can really enjoy, and what you might have ended up doing just because everyone else wanted to do it. Business includes so many specific fields that are really very differnet from each other - for people who feel confident in choosing a career path early in life, undergrad business school is the best way to try out these different fields so that you can be ahead of the game by the time MBA rolls around. In my summer internship, I met so many kids from liberal arts Ivy schools who were throwing themselves into the business world without prior knowledge of their field - they were dismayed to learn that the rat race is not glamorous, working in a real estate group is not like Apprentice, etc. - Wharton definitely prepares you so that you're making an informed decision - and if you decide to sell your soul to Wall St, at least you know that's your decision and not becuase career services told you to apply for whatever offered the highest salary.</p></li>
<li><p>Is it even possible to double-major in econ and engineering at Harvard? From what I remember, don't you have to create some type of joint-major where you take part of each major but not the full curriculum? You want to go where you can get the whole thing - not the discount version! </p></li>
<li><p>Other people have already mentioned all the stuff about networking, alumni, friends in NYC, etc. Just wanted to add that, from what I imagine, it might be more difficult to differentiate yourself if you go to Harvard. Imagine how many kids sitting in your econ class will be going throuh the same academic process and applying for the same jobs, since no one can really specialize in any business field. At Wharton, the option to specialize diversifies the competitive spectrum so that each person optimizes his/her talents in academics and career. Also, M&T itself is definitely a differentiator.</p></li>
<li><p>You can always go to Harvard for MBA, and since you would have already read half the case studies in Wharton undergrad classes, you can skip your work and go out more often - which is what MBA's are really for ;)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Wow - that was a monstrous entry - and for the first time i've ever posted on this type of thing too. I'm a big fan of M&T - hope you'll learn more about the advantages of it if you go to the preview day.</p>
<p>nice discussion...i have an additional question to add on:
we've compared M & T and Harvard,
what about WHARTON AND HARVARD?</p>
<p>melzzzz83,
lol...:)</p>