<p>I was accepted into NYU's Stern and McGill Desautels for business. I have am both a Canadian and American citizen, so the total costs of NYU will be around $60k while McGill's will be around $25k. </p>
<p>Money is an issue for me, and since my parents will pay up to $25k per year for college, I will wind up with more than $120k in debt after 4 years when I graduate from NYU. If I go to McGill, I will have nearly no debt.</p>
<p>What is stopping me from going into Desautels is that I hear that the program is a "joke" and has a light workload, and recruitment is weak. Stern, on the other hand, has a rigorous program and has excellent recruitment opportunities.</p>
<p>Which school should I go to? Please, any advice would be appreciated!</p>
<p>The program itself, I wouldn’t concern as a joke. I have some good friends at Stern and they agree that the curriculum is roughly similar while Desautels might be a little bit more rigorous simply because for students who took enough AP/IB/French Bac credits to start as U1, have a daunting 10 core credits to complete the first year. The only “easy” aspect is not having Management classes scheduled on Friday however you’ll probably spend it doing group projects (only time everyone can meet)</p>
<p>The curve at Desautels is demanding but so is the infamous “Stern” curve. As to recruiting, if you want to work on Wall Street, NYU happens to be merely blocks away, but all the major banks do recruit at McGill, and I have friends working as summer associates at the major firms (Canadian/UK/US/International Banks in Toronto and London)</p>
<p>The price of McGill as a Canadian-American is excellent and the education/life experience I find comparable to my friend’s experiences, actually most of them are quite jealous about the tuition I pay.</p>
<p>If you have any more questions read my Q+ A and or send me a message. Enjoy your summer!</p>
<p>Also: Montreal is a way more affordable place to live, my Stern friend is thinking about interning here just so he can afford to live in Downtown!</p>
<p>$120,000 in debt for NYU! You would be a fool to be blunt. Are your parents able/willing to take out/cosign loans for most of that amount? If you go to NYU and incur that debt then Desautels will not be the joke, the joke will be on you.</p>
<p>think long term my friend and choose STERN, hands down. Take it from a real BCom in Desautels.</p>
<p>You want to give yourself the best shot at Wall Street and at McGill only 1 or 2 make it there. At Stern, it is much different.</p>
<p>Once you make it on Wall Street, you make 70k salary + bonus. That 120k in debt will go away in 2 years and you will have the rest of your life to acrue the profit differential.</p>
<p>I agree with econgrad. This is coming from a Canadian who now lives in the USA. I did a lot of research, and it’s become obvious that Desautels not well known throughout the US.</p>
<p>Sure, NYU is more expensive, but think of it as an investment. Go with Stern. You’d be crazy not to.</p>
<p>If you are planning to go into IBanking/Wall street type schabang, the school you go to REALLY matters. NYU is one of the target schools that most of the financial firms in NYC hire from - it is very well represented along with ivies at wall street. Mcgill on the other hand is not very well known. </p>
<p>And i agree with what others say. NYU is a more worthwhile investment. People always question the rationale of people who take 100k debt for undergrad but never question the sanity of people who take 300-400k debt for med or law school…i never got the point of that. If you do well in finance you’d make as much as people with med/JDs.</p>
<p>Also, STERN is on its way up. You have the Saloman Distressed Debt Center, you have the Volatility Lab at STERN. And recently STERN’s faculty got a few Nobel Prizes.</p>
<p>The same can’t be said of McGill.</p>
<p>Plus, John Paulson went to Stern, and he is worth $16bn. If you want to make money, you have to spend money.</p>
<p>Stern is 70K per year. Which comes out to 280K for 4 years. Then there is a saying that, your schools only helps you land your first job. McGill, with proper APs could be done in three years and would cost only 60K. McGill finance faculty is equally preeminent as Stern (may be no Nobels). Their labs also use latest state of the art software. </p>
<p>If you got money to spend, Stern makes sense. A friend of mine whose dad makes $300 an hour recently completed his undergrad at Stern but chose to work at BMO on Bay Street, just like so many others who graduated from McGill, Queens or Ivy and others. So, there was no real significance, even of the Stern name, for his first job.</p>
<p>I think in the end, it is up to us and what we make of our education.</p>
<p>With education, having become pure business, it just ends up being another business transaction. </p>
<p>It is like buying an air ticket. We could spend money, fly first class, and make a lot of contacts, but the flight will land and we will have to perform in the real world. </p>
<p>It really depends on which side of the border you intend to work. If you’re content with working in Canada then Desautels is a good choice.</p>
<p>The only reason why Desautels could be considered a joke is because it is overshadowed by McGill Med in terms of sheer reputation. Of course the business education is, in absolute terms, pretty solid, even though, in Montreal itself, HEC and Concordia Molson are also common destinations for business-bound kids that carry similar local clout (if only local).</p>
<p>The term “joke” actually inspires negative confidence. It would discourage any high achievement student to even glance at Desautels.</p>
<p>From reading 100s of discussions on studentaward, wallstreetoasis, collegeconfidentil, I get a consistent but different impression. The impression being that McGill takes in the students with highest GPA amongst all Canadian business schools (even higher than Queens and Ivy). In every discussion everyone seems to agree that while McGill Med is absolutely the top, McGill BCom is consistently one of the top five undergrad business schools depending on specialization (Finance, IB, Consulting, Marketing,…). It is regarded as in top three for finance (many feel second, but no one disputes it is one of the top three - just the same way as Schulich is undisputed no. 1 for accounting).</p>
<p>This looks like a high level of achievement, IMHO.</p>
<p>HEC and Concordia Molson may be common destinations for local kids, and are no doubt good schools. But Desautels takes in like only 30-40% local kids (rest being international and from other provinces). Is the term, “Similar clout” not a bit ambiguous, as Desautels appears to be in a different class from these schools?</p>
<p>According to most rankings, NYU Stern ranks slightly above McGill Desautels. I feel reputation wise, Stern and NYU are better known. Also, NYU is warmer and English speaking while Montreal is much colder and there are a lot of French-speaking people outside the McGill bubble.</p>
<p>Financial Times ranks Stern at 19th and Desautels at 76th in the best Business Schools list. </p>