Help Me Narrow Down My College Search

College Search & Selection
1

Hello CC,

I was looking for some help with my college search. I have some schools picked out that I like, but I am looking for advice on my list and what I should be doing over the next year!

Some background info: I am currently a junior, I am looking to go to school for a combination of Applied Mathematics and Economics/Finance as I am hoping to get into Investment Banking, Hedge Funds, etc. out of college. I appreciate all help in editing my list of colleges!

Schools I am looking at:
UPenn, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford
CMU, UCB, UChicago
UCLA, USC, NYU, Babson

My Stats:
ACT (breakdown): 35 - 36E 35M 34R 36S (waiting for writing)
SAT II: Will be taking Math 2 and Physics
Unweighted GPA: ~99.2
Weighted GPA: 103.5
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/603
AP Scores: AP Stats: 5
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C, AP Lit, AP French, Business Law, Photography, AP Economics, AP Psychology, Gym (Will be taking Multivariable Calc and Linear Alg. out of school)
Awards: Principal’s List, Student of the Month, Widener High School Leadership Award, 1st Place in the State at DECA (twice), 3rd in the State FBLA, Consumer Bowl Champion

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: DECA Treasurer, FBLA VP, Business Ed Honor Society Treasurer, NHS, Peer Outreach, Freshman Transition Exec Board, Math League, Mu Alpha Theta, Science League, & French Club.
Job/Work Experience: Cashier at local restaurant, run my own start-up (making 4 figures/month)
Volunteer/Community Service: Around 300 hr, various events, was able to run a Target Shopping Night in which my school purchased toys for those in need during the holiday.
Summer Experience: Attended MIT Launch

Other
School Type: Public
Caucasian Male
Have taken college level math courses in Statistics, Pre-Calculus, and Trig. Will be taking Linear Alg and MVC (and maybe Diff Eq, not sure)

2

Your profile is impressive, for sure. I would just caution you with regard to safeties- the only true safety I see on your list is Babson, and with its high-ranked business school it might be more of a match. Be sure to find more safety schools.
Are you out of state for CA? Can you afford the OOS tuition?

From your list, I would remove UCLA and UCB if the tuition is going to be unpayable (no financial aid to OOS students). I would also remove MIT and Princeton- just from my opinion, UPenn and Columbia are going to be more geared to finance. Stanford is good too. Keep CMU, but UChicago is kind of a quirky school. Do you feel like you would fit there? Keep USC and NYU.

Other recommendations for good undergrad econ/math/business programs: Harvard (obviously), UMich business school, Georgetown MSB, Villanova business school, BC Caroll, Indiana (Kelley), Emory.

3

That’s a nice profile. Excellent work. You forgot costs/affordability/aid. Future financier.

4

@QuVntt Given you academic/career interests I think you should definitely keep Penn, Columbia and Princeton. Keep Stanford and NYU too. Chicago is kind of a quirky place so make sure you would like it there. It is is not usually a great fit for really pre-professional kids interested in wall street. Usually the ivies are a better fit for these kids of people. Similar point for MIT. You could break into ibanking, HF from MIT of course, but there is not much interest for these things at MIT so you might feel out of place there. If I were you I would switch UChicago for Dartmouth and also maybe MIT for Harvard (or just drop MIT without replacing it). Also I would drop CMU.

5

I think you need a better selection of safeties/matches.

6

@yonceonhismouth Thank you for the feedback! I am OOS and probably would have a hard time affording the tuition at the UC’s so thank you for that advice! With regards to UChic, I got the chance to visit and really liked it from what I saw. Plus Chicago is a great city so that’s a bonus. Also, thanks for the list of schools to look into, will check them out!

7

Northwestern might be good, and unlike some of the other top colleges without undergrad business majors, they have developed a variety of programs for people like you we hope to get into the financial/business world. Check here;

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/28279713/roads-to-business-northwestern-university

8

Which state are you in? Often, the best bang for the buck, and most predictable admission is at one’s state flagship. None of the schools you have listed are safeties. You’ll need to choose one or two in-state schools.