I know Harvard, Princeton, and UPenn are way up there but I’m wondering how these schools do:
UMich
USC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Northwestern
Stanford
Stanford
Northwestern
Berkeley Haas / UMich Ross / USC Marshall
Berkeley L&S
UCLA L&S
Michigan LSA
USC LAS
@goldenbear2020 Thank you!
Few questions: How about are these schools in a general sense? Also, why is there such a big difference between among programs in the same schools. If I wanted to double major in Econ and Math at USC in LAS wouldn’t that be more useful than an accounting or BA degree from Marshall?
@goldenbear2020 's list is pretty spot on although I would probably put Haas & Ross slightly above Marshall.
@LordBendtner in terms of program recognition within the same schools, it is no different than comparing two different universities. Universities are commonly broken out into separate schools for fields of study (USC LAS vs USC Marshall for example). Each of the sub-schools have their own curriculum, Dean, endowments, professors, admissions sometimes, and that leads to a separate quality of education. This in turn leads to target schools for professional career recruitment. If I were a bank recruiting for finance positions I would rather receive a pool of candidates from USC Marshall since students there can actually major in finance and would have a better foundation for internships or full time work. The more this occurs, the more USC Marshall alumni there are in the industry which perpetuates the cycle creating target schools, increasing endowments to the school, and repeating the overall cycle to strengthen that relationship.
This isn’t to say students from USC LAS can’t find success recruiting for similar positions but they won’t have access to the same resources or curriculum offerings.
@LordBendtner Does Princeton offer a finance degree? I was under the impression that Econ was their “business degree.” Do you think a business degree from Princeton would put someone on the same level as an applicant with an MBA from an average state school? Is a degree from Princeton really the game changer Princeton alums say it is?
Are you looking for undergrad? Stanford/Harvard/Princeton don’t have undergrad finance major. And for many of the other schools you’d want to apply to the b-school (ex. Wharton, Haas etc.). Do some research and be sure every school on your list offers what you want. If you want “prestige” levels I guess the USNWR ranking of undergrad b-schools s as good as anything.
You should start off by doing some basic research on your own. Read some college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) which you can buy or probably find in your guidance dept. or library. Look at colleges you are interested online and see what majors they have. etc,
Ultimately for finance, brand name matters much more than what major you’re in. Most of the things you will learn on the job or through formal training programs so an econ or even art history major from an Ivy will be much more sought after than a business major from a state school.
@BigNoodle I would have to disagree. I think it’s a popular misconception that gets spread from recruitment classes to students using a small pool of actual cases. Recruiting classes at the top BB banks at least in NYC offices have a strong mix of candidates. UMich, UT Austin, Indiana U, UVA, just to name some of the top state schools with heavy representation on Wall Street, have no problem producing competitive candidates. Brand name helps in getting your foot through the door, or being able to attend a recruiting event since firms only allocate HR resources to select campuses, but it pretty much ends there.
A lot of top schools don’t offer formalized curriculum in finance but often have available courses, so while candidates that may not have formal business majors will be recruited, it doesn’t mean they haven’t taken any relevant coursework. While I have met 2 classmates in a banking internship without a formal business major (1 English major and 1 Psych both from brand name universities), they were also extremely high performing students that were able to learn quickly in the 3 months they interned during their junior summer and wouldn’t be reflective of the average non-major candidate.
Additionally, applying for an internship versus full-time opportunity with non-relevant credentials are very different and will be much harder for full-time positions.
On the job learning and training are perhaps the best ways to learn for any career field but getting the opportunity to learn in those environments requires you to first compete with candidates that already have the foundational knowledge and skills. If you don’t have those, then you would definitely have to be a very strong candidate in your non-relevant field and show the aptitude as well as reasoning as to why you’re applying.
@proudmom1106
@happy1
I plan on doubling in econ and math/stats but want to get into finance
Corrected to a non-Californian bias:
Stanford
Berkeley Haas / UMich Ross / Northwestern
USC Marshall
Berkeley L&S
Michigan LSA/UCLA L&S
USC LAS
Interesting article if you are looking to work on Wall Street:
http://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2015/02/04/the-top-feeder-schools-to-wall-street/
Wharton/Stern/Michigan…
I’m debating between USC Marshall and Berkeley pre-Haas.
I feel I fit in much better at USC and will be more successfull because of the non-cut throat environment,but it costs double. I can afford both but is the guarantee of Marshall worth going over Cal where there’s no guarantee of getting into Haas, but it’s much cheaper?
same situation, to the letter
Let’s see - not as good school but more expensive…