Need Quick Help - Stanford vs Penn Wharton vs Cornell

College Search & Selection
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I recently got off some waitlists, and I’m having a hard time deciding between Stanford and Wharton (I don’t really like Cornell because of its location so I’m leaning towards the other two).

I’m unsure right now as to what I exactly want to do in the future, but if I had to pick right now I would guess finance/consulting or something along that route.

Some things I like about Stanford is the weather, the school spirit (I’d love to go to some stadium-packed football games), its sterling reputation, and the idea of going to college in California seems very exciting. It just seems like that quintessential “fun college experience.”

What I don’t really like is that the campus is so huge, suburban, and in a bubble (I would prefer to be in a city-centered campus and in a city in general, and Philly > Palo Alto, but I suppose SF is not too far away). Also, since New York is the place for finance, I do wonder if it may be harder to get a job in finance since I’m on the opposite coast. Another concern is that Stanford, with the whole “techy vs. fuzzy” divide, seems to me like a tech feeder school. I don’t want to go to a school where the whole culture revolves around CS or engineering. Maybe the entrepreneurship culture that comes with this, though, is something I like, but Wharton also does a great deal with entrepreneurship. I may think about minoring in CS, but I just don’t want to go to a school where the STEM culture is dominant and overshadows everything else.

Some things I like about Penn/Wharton is its incredible, second-to-none reputation at the undergrad level for business related opportunities in finance and many other fields, its city-centered campus, and the fact that it seems like the school slightly revolves around Wharton or is at least more balanced than say the STEM vs other divide at Stanford. The facilities and attention that Wharton gives to its students specifically I think is really cool. Also, another thing is that I feel like I would have more fun learning in an applied and practical way than in a theoretical approach, and if I choose Stanford I would be studying more theoretical Econ which I’m not really sure if I would enjoy as much. Also, I heard Stanford Econ can be pretty math-heavy (does anyone know if this is true?) and though I could push through it, I wouldn’t really like taking those higher level math courses. At the same time though, I guess if I chose Wharton I would still have to “push though” some boring classes like Intro to Accounting. Philly of course, is much, much closer to those high finance jobs in NYC than Palo Alto is. What I don’t like about Penn is the weather, maybe not as much school spirit as Stanford?, and the fact that maybe its much more intense since everyone is kinda gunning for more or less the same jobs. Also, I heard that your GPA may get hurt because of an extreme curve in most classes. Both schools at least seem to have a very vibrant social/party scene which is awesome, on that point.

I don’t have much time to decide, so input would be greatly appreciated!

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(@ZzXxYy , a friendly suggestion: for your own security, in the future you may want to avoid disclosing personal information such as your first name and location on sites like this. If a need ever arises to make a personal connection with another poster, you can do so via private messaging.)

IMO STEM does not overshadow everything else at Stanford. If it’s stronger in CS or engineering than some peer colleges, that doesn’t mean it’s weak in other areas. However, I do agree that its setting is something of a bubble. SF is not as easily accessible from Stanford as Chicago is from Northwestern, Philadelphia is from Swarthmore/Haverford, or downtown Boston is from Harvard.

Bay area weather certainly is much nicer than Philly’s. On the other hand, mid-Atlantic winters are less severe than Chicago’s.

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Unless you are absolutely sure you want to major in undergraduate business/finance, I would choose Stanford. It is top tier at everything it does, and if you do decide that you want to go to Wall Street, it is a target school for that as well (although most people there choose to go to Silicon Valley).

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Tech and engineering people need finance people to complete the ecosystem. Stanford has it all.

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In reading your post, it seems clear you prefer Wharton. Both are great choices, but if businees is in your future, you can’t do better.

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Congrats on such a fantastic problem to have! :slight_smile:

I think you’ve done a good job of laying out the pros and cons of each. As for Stanford, there’s a train station on the edge of downtown Palo Alto that will take you straight into SF, but the likelihood of you doing it much is slim. People just don’t get around to venturing very far or often from campus. If you think it will bother you to spend those years in a suburban bubble, it may not be for you.

On the plus side, it’s a beautiful bubble to be stuck in, and yes, you will find more school spirit there IMO. Home games are a big deal, games at Cal are easily accessible via the train to BART, and it’s not uncommon for students to do road trips to UCLA/USC games.

But if you prefer a city environment and want to go into finance in NYC, I agree that it’s hard to beat Wharton. You’re likely to find more like-minded students there (if that matters), possibly more connections to NYC finance, and the students I’ve known at Penn loved it.

Good luck!

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@ZzXxYy You can break into any job from either Penn or Stanford. Of course the edge of Stanford is in tech /sillicon valley/west coast, the edge of Penn is business/wall street/east coast. But you won’t have trouble breaking into tech from Penn or wall street from Stanford, not at all.
I personally would go with the one you fit in best. Oh schools have significant similarities in term of campus vibe, student body culture etc, but also differences too. Stanford overall is more prestigious than Penn, but penn is still very prestigious, and Wharton specifically is the very best undergrad business school in the world. In business circles the only place that rivals Wharton undergrad prestige, is Harvard undergrad. But of course you won’t be meaningfully sacrificing business opportunities by choosing Stanford. Just go with the best fit.

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Congrats on several fantastic choices. Just to provide a little more clarity on Penn and Wharton, you are correct that the school spirit is not very high, and also that the weather is mediocre for a large chuck of the year. But I wouldn’t be too concerned about jobs or GPA. There are a ton of good jobs available, some pretty much exclusively to Wharton grads, and almost everyone I know got a job they were very happy with. In terms of GPA, it is curved for all the core classes, but the curve is very friendly. If you’re smart and work somewhat hard, a high GPA is more than manageable. Good luck with your choice!

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Thank you everyone!
@Penn95 You mentioned that Penn and Stanford also have some differences, could you explain in detail what some are? Other than the urban vs suburban campus, I too found them quite similar.

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Some of the differences I see are in the following areas:

  • sports scene (Stanford is more of a D1 sports powerhouse and has one of the highest Olympic medal counts of any US college/university )
  • Greek life (30% of UPenn students join fraternities, starting in freshman year; ~19% of Stanford students join fraternities, starting after freshman year)
  • campus housing (42% of UPenn undergrads live off campus or commute; only 8% of Stanford undergrads live off campus or commute)
  • geographic diversity (81% of UPenn undergrads are from out-of-state; 58% of Stanford undergrads are from out-of-state ... although CA is of course much larger than PA)
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While Wharton/Penn is a great school, it is a clear cut choice…there is nothing you can’t do/achieve at Stanford that you could at Penn, including the finance/banking jobs. Also, at Wharton, you will be surrounded by hundreds of kids who can’t wait to go to wall street. It is very pre-professional. For some it may be good, but not in my book. Definitely not when my other choice is HYPS. You said it the best…"Some things I like about Stanford is the weather, the school spirit (I’d love to go to some stadium-packed football games), its sterling reputation, and the idea of going to college in California seems very exciting. It just seems like that quintessential “fun college experience.”. I would go to Stanford.

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Sound to me like you prefer the location and curriculum at Wharton. If so go there.

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@fivesages That’s certainly false. If completely set on business, and particularly finance, Wharton provides more opportunities. Of course though, overall fit should be the deciding factor.

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@ZzXxYy the differences lie mainly in the suburban vs urban campus, the size of the campus and east coast vs west coast setting. another difference is that tech/sillicon valley is more prominent at Stanford while business/wall street is more prominent at Penn. But as we both mentioned, there are way more similarities than differences, in terms of campus vibe, social life, academic philosophy. student body vibe etc.

@fivesages I agree with @NashSaddle . For someone really set on business this is far from a clear cut choice. Wharton is pretty much unrivaled in term of undergrad business opportunities. For example, there are some tip top firms, such as top private equity companies and top hedge funds, that recruit pretty much exclusively at Wharton and a little bit at Harvard and that is it. And in terms of actual business classes there is no comparison really. Regarding pre-professionalism, sure it is pre-professional, but you also get a well-rounded education. Wharton is part of an ivy that is strong across the board and Wharton students take 30%-40% of classes outside Wharton in other schools at Penn.
I agree that by choosing Stanford one does not dramatically sacrifice business opportunities, but overall for undergrad business Wharton has the edge.

The choice ultimately comes down to fit, but it is far from a clear-cut choice in favor of Stanford.

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Stanford has a major in management science and engineering (MS & E), it is basically the same thing as ORFE at Princeton or industrial engineering at other schools. Check the list of courses if you are interested in this major. You don’t need to study econ at Stanford for the interests in finance/business.

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“Wharton is pretty much unrivaled in term of undergrad business opportunities.”

This is largely true. It has probably the largest number of wall street firms recruiting it there. So the opportunity set in this regard is big relative to HYPSM.

“there are some tip top firms, such as top private equity companies and top hedge funds, that recruit pretty much exclusively at Wharton and a little bit at Harvard and that is it.”

This is probably not true. Top private equity firms recruiting Wharton undergraduates include Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, and TPG. Top private equity firms recruiting Harvard undergraduates include Blackstone, KKR, Appolo, and Bain Capital. The lineups are similar. At Yale, they have Blackstone, Bain Capital, and TPG.

Also note that the majority of Wharton students are finance majors, and Wharton has around 600 students each year. The economics majors at Harvard are far fewer. So on a per student basis, Harvard is actually having tremendously amount of opportunities.

Furthermore, for a finance/economics major, regardless of HYPSM, Wharton, or any other university, the chance of landing a private equity job right out of college is just too slim to be really meaningful to factoring into college education. A HUGE private equity, say KKR, typically has less than 1,000 employees. A HUGE investment bank, say Goldman Sachs, can have more than 30,000 employees.

Speaking of Goldman Sachs, it took in 21 Wharton undergraduates in 2004. In the same year, it took in 23 Yale undergraduates. If my memory serves me correct, the number for Harvard was higher than 23.

For the OP: both Wharton and Stanford, just like HYP, will give you more opportunities than you could possibly handle for a Wall Street career so long as you do well (GPA, networking, ECs, etc.) at the university you choose. So identify the one that fits you well.

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This is getting off-topic, but just to correct the above post, there are still a number of Wharton exclusive firms. The most prominent are Silver Lake and Silver Point, but Ares, LGP, and a handful of others (especially hedge funds that are lesser known) also recruit only from Wharton as far as US schools go. Goldman as a whole is not a desirable option for a lot of students, but the top groups such as SSG and GSIP almost exclusively take from Wharton and Harvard. Same for DE Shaw fundamental, Warburg, and Carlyle. At the top banking groups like PJT RX and Evercore RX it is again super heavily favored towards Wharton. You mentioned KKR, but as far as I know they stopped recruiting undergrads for PE this year, and their credit group only interviewed students from Wharton and Harvard. Bain Capital pulls from a number of schools, but no longer from Yale. I would say 15% to 20% of Wharton undergrads have the chance to go to the buyside immediately after undergrad if they choose (some prefer banking, consulting, or anything else despite getting offers), thus it is actually somewhat meaningful.

It’s tedious to detail recruiting nuances any further. The point is Wharton does have quite a few options available that other schools don’t, but PE, and to a lesser degree hedge funds, are available regardless of the school you choose. I certainly agree with the closing remark though, choose the school that you feel best fits you, because you’ll do very well regardless.

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“there are still a number of Wharton exclusive firms”

“The point is Wharton does have quite a few options available that other schools don’t”

I agree. This was the reason I stated earlier that Wharton has probably the largest number of wall street firms recruiting it there. Personally, I think it is due to the economics of scale (the good number of students interesting in Wall Street jobs) that Wharton has. One can also argue that Wharton has prepared its students well for wall street jobs, which is also quite true.

I stand by my earlier post that Harvard provides tremendous amount of Wall Street opportunities on a per student basis, which refuted an earlier statement that in my view was probably not true.

“I would say 15% to 20% of Wharton undergrads have the chance to go to the buyside immediately after undergrad”

In 2016, 4-5% of Wharton undergrads went to private equity. 3% went to hedge funds.

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Are your financial aid packages comparable? If so, Penn sounds like a better academic fit. If not, Stanford’s Management Science and Engineering would work since you have some interest in CS.

My dc was accepted to both of these as well, but the Stanford fa was much better.

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@nw2this They both gave similar financial aid packages, Penn would cost me $4,000 more per year but that is affordable. Also, thank you for the MSE recommendation. I looked into it, but while I have a slight interest in CS, those other STEM courses like the Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry core would turn me off.