Help me chose a school for Finance/IB

College Search & Selection
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The five schools, posted below, seem to be pretty close when it comes to ranking and salary. Unfortunately, I can’t really decide on which one is the best for my career goals. Does anyone know, which ones are more prestigious and “popular” on wall-street? I’d love to hear from someone, who has experience with wall-street. For this thread, I am really just focused on salary and career opportunities.

UVA: This is my favorite right now. They seem to have a phenomenal business/finance program and the school has both a high-salary and high-ranking (except on QS for some reason.) Also, the location seems great.

Emory: This school seems like an odd-ball to me. They have awesome rankings, yet I have read more negative than positive things about the school. Things such as the University “falsifying” statistics and students not enjoying the University. Also, I have never heard anyone talk about it… ever. Is it worth going to a school that nobody seems to know?

Notre Dame: Seems like an amazing school, but I can’t find any decent information on salaries, or opportunities.

UNC: The school seems popular for finance, but I am also lacking some information here.

Boston College: This school looks like the weakest link in here. It’s ranking is the lowest and the salary seems to also be the lowest.

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I can only speak about your options regarding UNC. UNC has a good Business school that is ranked well. But don’t pick UNC solely with the goal of getting into the B School because the chances of transfer students being accepted, is extremely low. If you’re going to be completely unhappy if you are unable to study finance/business, I would suggest either picking a different school where your chances of studying finance are more guaranteed, or researching other majors that you might be satisfied with at UNC, incase you don’t get accepted into the B School.

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out of this only UVA has really good representation on wall street

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@Wilmarie Hello again! So yeah… I think as of right now I’d pick UVA and Notre Dame over UNC, because of the transfer issue. I’d chose UNC over BC, but I am not sure how to rate Emory.

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@Vincent1997 The Emory issue with using scores for admitted students but not matriculating students was several years ago under a previous administration. However, it doesn’t sound like you even want to be there. Your bigger problem at Emory is that you would have to wait a year to go into the business school because of the 30-hour rule where you have to do 30 credit hours at Emory College before entering Goizueta Business School. As a rising junior, you would lose a year of credits, making Emory GBS problematic for you and you may want to cross it off your list.

I don’t know where you get this thing about Emory students not “enjoying” Emory. They graduate an extremely high rate of their freshmen classes. As for “target” for Wall Street, it’s considered a semi-target and many at GBS get jobs at the investment banks. However, you would expect a more collaborative BBA program where many go into consulting and management as well.

Boston College is not the weakest link either. It places students very well with typical Wall Street investment banks. Your problem with BC would be similar to your Emory problem. Carroll School of Business does take in direct transfers, but they take in fewer than a handful. Counting on BC/Carroll is a longshot for anyone as a transfer. If you are admitted though, you should consider.

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@Vincent1997 : maybe withdraw the application or just…don’t bother if you have been admitted. If you don’t want to go, there is no need to bring up things that do not effect and say “I heard X” (this sounds like a certain politician in the white house) and change “people not enjoying Emory” to “party animals not enjoying Emory”. It is a more academically focused, semi-intellectual, multi-cultural school that has plenty to do, but does not have a huge party scene. Despite what you have “heard”, data does not support what you say. There will always be naysayers at any school but this is surveyed every year when seniors graduate and the overwhelming majority (over 85%, usually over 90%) express satisfaction or high satisfaction with their time at Emory. If some people don’t fit (yet would matriculate at any top school they were admitted regardless of fit because they prestige whore) and wanted to just party more, oh well, they should not have been at Emory in the first place and I am just not all that sympathetic. I’m just not. If you mainly want to party and have a sports or Greek centered school spirit, bye. Go elsewhere and don’t waste space on here taking unwarranted shots at the school.

Also, I am over the “target” stuff because I am tired of hearing it. If you want to be recruited (as people are) by the Wall Street firms (only shooting for WS is problematic and strangely elitist in and of itself. One should be happy with any job in a decent city that pays well…and believe me, there are many places when the pay from a firm goes much further than that from WS firms. It is NYC), YOU need to prepare yourself. The firms come and take the students that are leaders/are best at meeting their qualifications. This is not some passive act whereby firms come to “targets” and “semi-targets” and just select anyone. Some places are targets because of more than just prestige. Many places have huge chunks of graduating cohorts throwing applications at them in extremely high numbers. If they are elite schools, it would be quite embarrassing if enough of them were not qualified/talented enough to get an offer. The way people say “target” is like acting as if ALL (at some of the super elite schools, may as well be all which is kind of just said as technically students at them can be very successful and even well-paid in a variety of jobs and careers) students in a program are (or should be) applying because there is literally nothing else to do with business or economics, which is false and that everyone who does want to chase the prestige of WS is qualified/a great candidate versus competitors which is also false. The fact is, if you aren’t on the level of a typical recruit, they won’t want you, no matter the elite school you went. If you do, you likely get an interview.

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@bernie12 I am simply asking questions, which is what college confidential is for. If everyone knew everything, then nobody would go here. I got those things about Emory from the internet like any other person. I come from Germany and now live in California, I can’t just visit the campus and ask people myself. I don’t care about the party scene, believe it or not. I am literally on here asking, if my opinion is right or not.

I don’t care about being happy in any job. If I don’t get into the field that interests me, then I will just not take any other job. Yes, I have other objectives, but if I am competitive for an IB, then I will be competitive for the other occupations as well. It’s always good to go for the harder stuff first. I am “elitist”. I don’t see a problem with trying to achieve the best outcome possible. I am aware that it comes down to the individual, but clearly you have a better shot coming from ivy than from a California State University.

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@Vincent1997 : This

" Emory: This school seems like an odd-ball to me. They have awesome rankings, yet I have read more negative than positive things about the school. Things such as the University “falsifying” statistics and students not enjoying the University. Also, I have never heard anyone talk about it… ever. Is it worth going to a school that nobody seems to know?"

Is not asking questions. That is being immediately dismissive and shady (I don’t see how you are in a position to do this). Oddly, many of the ED1 candidates have found plenty to like or have “heard” plenty of things to like about Emory beyond rankings, yet YOU highlight NONE of that. Instead you bring up irrelevant stuff that has literally nothing to do with the quality of education you will receive. Most admissions offices are not particularly ethical/great actors yet their activities do not effect what goes on in campus life or in the classroom. If you are worried about what you heard, there is more research you can do on your own part if you are actually serious about finding things good about each option.

You may start with Emory’s website:
http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html

Also, who gives a damn if “no one” (who are you defining as “somebody”?..I don’t know, employers seem to like it and they seem like pretty important people, maybe I’m wrong…you do want a job right) talks about it when the students are well-paid and hired, especially those coming from the business school: https://goizueta.emory.edu/degree/undergraduate/index.html

Poets and Quant features Emory an awful lot

Emory academics contribute to the news (major publications) or make it into the conversation an awful lot much like any elite school:
http://news.emory.edu/press/more_in_the_news.html

If you seriously don’t want to try to find something good to say…just do not say anything at all.

Also, you may go to P and Q and much stuff is mentioned about Notre Dame and features of its program…you really aren’t trying hard enough. It almost seems as if you are ill-informed or already have biases that you want confirmed. I say drop those, and go to the schools’ websites and investigate the features you want in a business school or overall university in terms of your personal and professional development instead of dwelling on pettiness and “what you have heard” about things that will not effect it on the internet. Go back and read you initial post and realize how shallow a lot of it was…there was literally no serious question especially in the Emory part:
“Also, I have never heard anyone talk about it… ever. Is it worth going to a school that nobody seems to know?”

This isn’t a question, this borderline an attack.

Also the BEST possible outcome is not necessarily a WS IB…sorry, that is only your opinion. And from what place it is coming from, I don’t know. If you become competitive for whatever, then you are competitive for it. YOU have to become competitive. These schools aren’t going to perform magic. Not about how WS views them so much as how they view the candidates as individuals. I suggest you take that approach no matter where you go among these. None of them are like CalState so that statement was irrelevant…they are all way above it. If you don’t land wherever at whichever one you attend. You either stumbled upon bad luck or simply were not competitive. Period. Differentiating between them in that realm is a waste of time. Worry about how you will pursue your education, intern, and gain leadership positions on whichever campus instead of “popularity” and “prestige”. There is plenty of information on each programs’s website that market different academic programs, ECs, and professional development opportunities. YOU can go look them up.

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Your reply makes even less sense now because no one said about switching “fields”…believe it or not, IBs exist apart from WS. And there are several other high paying jobs in the finance sector as well as consulting and other sectors (many that pay as high, especially for entry level positions).

Also, A job you are happy at usually suggests an interest in what the job entails. Just throwing that out there. You prefacing everything else with that sentence is revealing and suggests you are willing to pursue things you are not interested in for the “best possible outcome”.