<p>Excellent stats, you’ll have choices, just be advised that even with a stellar record like yours, you’re competing with a lot of similarly credentialed people for places at the most selective institutions.</p>
<p>If you’re really interested in finance, you should look at some of the top undergrad business schools:</p>
<p>Penn (Wharton) - can’t be beat for finance, in Philadelphia
MIT (Sloan) - in Cambridge/Boston
UC-Berkeley (Haas) - near San Francisco/Oakland
Michigan (Ross) - well, near Detroit, but Ann Arbor is a great college town
NYU (Stern) - in NYC, need I say more?</p>
<p>Top econ departments as rated by US News would include:</p>
<h1>1 (tie): Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Chicago</h1>
<h1>5 Stanford</h1>
<h1>6 (tie): Yale, UC-Berkeley</h1>
<h1>8 Northwestern</h1>
<h1>9 Penn</h1>
<h1>10 (tie): Columbia, Minnesota</h1>
<h1>12 (tie): NYU, Michigan</h1>
<p>I’d suggest that, as a starter, you apply to a mix of top business schools and universities with strong econ programs. Most of these schools are extremely difficult to get into, so you’ll need to add some “match” and “safety” schools, but I think you could be competitive all the way to the top, so why not start there?</p>
<p>Of the B-schools, definitely apply to Wharton and either Sloan (MIT) or Stern (NYU). I’m also partial to Michigan but it may not meet your “big city” criterion.</p>
<p>As for universities with good econ departments, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Columbia, and NYU will give you the most big-city feel. Northwestern is quite suburban, but Chicago is easily accessible from there. Penn is definitely urban but I don’t think you can apply to both Wharton and Penn’s undergrad liberal arts college, and given your interests Wharton may be the better fit. Stanford to me doesn’t feel urban at all, but it’s fairly close to San Francisco; great school, though.</p>
<p>As for “match” and “safety” schools: of schools I’ve listed, Michigan (LS&A, for econ) and NYU (undergrad liberal arts, for econ) would be matches or possibly even safeties for you, though I wouldn’t put Michigan in the safety category because they sometimes reject people they think are just using them as a safety. The undergrad business schools at NYU and Michigan are much more selective, however. As between the two, I think Michigan gives a better undergrad education and a better college experience, but that’s a question of taste. A hedging strategy might be to apply to some super-selective B-schools and econ programs, while using Michigan LS&A as a likely-admit match (i.e., almost a safety), then if you end up at Michigan apply for admission to the Ross BBA program as a sophomore, and you’ll be at one of the top undergrad B-schools in the country. </p>
<p>Carnegie-Mellon (Pittsburgh), Emory (Atlanta), Minnesota (Minneapolis), Washington U (St. Louis), and Georgetown (DC) are some other good urban B-school options, easier to get into than the super-selective ones named earlier. Minnesota and Wash U are also good econ department options.</p>