Yes, really.
Can you show some stats?
This is what I saw on Rutger’s website for Business school’s top employers:
Top Hiring Employers:
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Johnson & Johnson
L’Oreal
Unilever
Deloitte
Rutgers has a very successful program called “Road To Wall Street” which starts during one’s sophomore year. Currently being expanded from just admitting 50 top business students to involve math & CS students & minorities. In the past, 86% got internships on Wall Street, while 96% were placed in permanent positions on Wall Street.
The top 11 universities placing into Wall Street finance positions include Rutgers.
Columbia, NYU-Stern, Penn-Wharton, Harvard, Cornell, MIT, Rutgers, Baruch College, Chicago, Michigan & Stanford.
Yes, there is such program, but 50 top students out of 36K+ students is not exactly a big placement. Again, a lot more of them get placed into back office.
Hard for me to believe Columbia would only place 50 students to WS/year.
This is going off the topic a bit, and a WS job is not the only good job out there, but I really had to question that “Rutgers placed well into Wall Street.”
@oldfort: No idea where you got that Columbia only places 50 a year on Wall Street. And Rutgers placement on Wall Street is not limited to 50 a year–just from that program at the business school. Would have to add in business school students not in that special program, math & CS students who, until this year, could not participate in that program.
Regardless, Poets & Quants as well as Business Insider both include Rutgers as a top university for Wall Street placement. Places best at Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Barclay’s, Wells Fargo & Goldman Sachs.(I suspect that your daughter does not work at any of those Investment Banks.)
As per a survey that is now almost two years old, Rutgers did not place at Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan or Bank of America / Merrill Lynch. Perhaps your daughter works at one of these top 10 Wall Street IB firms.
Poets & Quants 2018 survey of the largest Wall Street Investment Banks lists the top 25 universities placing into Wall Street top 10 IBs. Rutgers is listed among them. The list includes two non-US universities (University of Cambridge & London Business School).
Yes, I Googled, neither one listed Rutgers as a top 11 school. Poets & Quants includes all jobs (front and back) and Rutgers was #23. If you look at effiancials for front office jobs, Rutgers doesn’t even appear.
No, I am happy to say my daughter doesn’t work at those banks (Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Barclay’s, Wells Fargo & Goldman Sachs). 
As we know, just because one works at one bank it doesn’t mean one doesn’t know people at other banks. It is a very small community.
Wall Street Investment Banks & other finance firms tend to recruit primarily from a list of target & semi-target schools. So for Rutgers to place so well at six or seven of the top 10 Wall Street Investment Banks is very impressive. But, one seeking such placement would have better odds from NYU-Stern & Columbia as well as from Penn-Wharton & Harvard.
@oldfort: Business Insider lists Rutgers as a top 11 school at 2% tied with three other schools (MIT, Baruch College & Chicago) for all Wall Street finance positions. The Business Insider publication date is October 6, 2015. The Poets & Quants publication date is May 21, 2018. (Rutgers is not #23, but tied at #20. If non-US universities are excluded (LBS & Cambridge), then Rutgers is tied at #18 for placement at just the top 10 Wall Street Investment Banks.
This may be meaningless but as someone who worked in IB outside the US, I had met a few - not many, but a few - Rutgers alumni during the course of my meetings with people in the US. Like many other LACs, W&L was not a name i’d ever heard before I moved to the US and began researching colleges for my daughter.
That aside, I agree on the fit issue, and the suggestion to overnight on each campus if possible is a good one.
And having number of placements within WS firms is also not a validation of how good a school is, but if you want to use it as benchmark then we need to be careful on how we are reading the numbers.
@SJ2727 - for a school with 36K UGs it is not surprising that some may end up on WS.
@Publisher (#18), it’s hard to know what’s more impressive: Washington’s drop from 42 to 59 since 2012, or Rutgers’ rise from 72 to 56 since 2016.
Public Honors versus Private Elites US News 2018 Rutgers Honors College is ranked at #14 = which is outstanding. The University of Washington is ranked at #27.
Rutgers rose due, in large part, to the riches realized as a result of joining the Big 10 Conference.
University of Washington employment is outstanding. In the most recent data released last week, UW MBA led the nation with over 99% employment within 3 months of graduation.
UW also has the second largest research budget, behind Johns Hopkins for all federally funded research grants, and is about fourth or fifth overall.
US News September 24, 2018 College Value: Public Honors Colleges versus Private Elites:
-
Chicago
-
Harvard
-
Yale
-
Duke
-
Columbia
-
Vanderbilt
-
Virginia-Echols
-
Princeton
-
Stanford
-
Illinois
-
Northwestern
-
Rice
-
Minnesota
-
Rutgers
-
Dartmouth
-
Brown
-
Notre Dame
-
Georgia
-
University of South Carolina
-
University of Texas–Austin
-
Cornell
-
Clemson
-
Maryland
-
Georgetown
-
Oklahoma
-
Penn State
-
University of Washington
-
UNC
-
Delaware
Based on average SAT / ACT scores & six (6) year graduation rates.
Couldn’t get #30 & #31, but I suspect that the University of Pennsylvania should be at least in the top 31.
Aren’t we talking Washington & Lee in VA? Where did U of Washington come in?
See posts #11 & #18 above.
Yes, the discussion is focused on W&L versus Rutgers NB Honors College.
Using the US News list in post #34 above, Rutgers Honors College is a better value than half of the Ivy League Schools. OP gets even better value than the list suggests since he has a full ride scholarship to Rutgers Honors College.
The only factor that leans toward Wash & Lee that I see is that since the Jefferson Scholarship is largely based on financial need, it is unlikely to be lost; Rutgers Presidential Scholarship requires one to maintain a 3.5 GPA.
A GPA of 3.8 from either will give you a good chance at Wall St, so the decision is where do you feel most comfortable and likely to flourish?
Hardly “the only factor”. And Jefferson Scholarship? You’re confused. We’re talking about the Johnson, which is not need-based and is an extraordinarily competitive award, going to the top ten percent of a very competitive class after a rigorous weekend-long on-campus, interview process. The kids who win it routinely turn down Ivies and other fantastic institutions. It actually goes beyond full tuition. It also funds other things like internships.
OP, both are great opportunities and you should be extremely proud. Get to both campuses and see which feels better to you.