<p>I'm having a lot of trouble choosing between NYU Stern and Duke. I want to eventually work in the finance sector (whether or not it is strictly IB), and I'd like to know which school would both prepare me best and open the most doors. Here's how I see it. Please feel free to add or correct any points:</p>
<p>Duke
+ "True" college experience with fun classmates and great sports
+ Prestige--consistently top 10 school (if I weren't trying to get into business I wouldn't worry about this nearly as much)
+ Strong recruiting and great opportunities for econ students (see: Duke in NY program)
+ Will learn a larger breadth of materials in a liberal arts sense
- Having to study economics (too much theory for me to handle)
- Not truly being prepared for the business/financial world</p>
<p>NYU Stern
+ Location--need I say more?
+ Highly recruited and recognized by bulge brackets
+ Will actually learn finance and not just econ
- I've heard it's not really going to give a good college experience. Maybe someone can elaborate
- NYU is not as admired or known as Duke (unless you keep tacking the Stern on the end)</p>
<p>Please tell me what you think and what you would do.
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I think I saw your post on one of my threads.. well, I'm choosing Stern over Duke.. for following reasons: NYC, employment opportunity, practical finance education (I heard this can be very helpful during the interviews with the financial firms), and NYU's rise in prestige. </p>
<p>NYU, although it had been established more than a 100 years ago, was a communter school until recently and wasn't regarded not nearly as high as it is now. They have gained prestige extremely quickly over the last 10-year-period, and I think the trend will continue. </p>
<p>Oh well, you can't really go wrong with picking any of the two. They will both give you a great opportunity to get a financial job.</p>
<p>although, if you really like duke's campus and sports environment and weather/south feel free to choose duke.
if you are more intellectual and academic based choose nyu definitely.</p>
<p>although i think the differences in recruiting from those two schools are minimal, a slight edge to nyu.</p>
<p>Both are certainly respectable on Wall Street, so you shouldn't have a problem getting a job out of either, provided you have the right gpa etc. (and the pendulum swings back by 2010 hopefully). That said, the "practical finance education" that stern gives wont put you at an advantage to Duke. At least 90% of the technical questions you are asked in interviews you can just get out of studying Vault; quite a few interviews just go straight off the personal feel of the interviewer. Personally, I would go with Duke. They do have a higher prestige factor that NYU, and although NYU has the location, there is no shortage of recruiting on Dukes campus. In fact, some banks love that place. JPMorgan seems to have a fascination with Duke; I guess thats just Dimon being weird.</p>
<p>Go to duke, and then do the program in NYC spring of your junior year. several of my friends are doing it right now and love it. they got to skip first round interviews, all of them landed kick ass jobs, and they are having a great time going to bars etc in the city.</p>
<p>Go to Duke if you want to the consulting or IB, though you can't go wrong with Stern. Lots of Stern kids end up at smaller IB firms, while bulge brackets tend to go with more Duke kids.</p>
<p>Not having a finance major DOES NOT MATTER AT ALL. I'm a political science major with some econ classes and worked at a bulge bracket firm last summer (Not Goldman) and am working in consulting full time.</p>
<p>You learn everything you need to know on the job</p>
<p>Hey, I’m currently in this exact situation (for Class of '18) and I was wondering if you could tell me what you picked and how that worked out for you.</p>
<p>I work in NYC and have spent a big chunk of my career in financial services (as a lawyer). Duke is definitely a more prestigious school than NYU, and so I’d pick Duke for that reason. The only upside to NYU is location. Stern business school is the same or a tiny bit better than Duke’s business school, but undergrad and the schools overall are a completely different story.</p>
<p>Stern over Duke. Stern is probably one of the best schools you can go to for finance recruiting. It’s a school where freshman and sophomores pull down summer analyst offers that juniors and seniors at other schools will drool over. If you are dead set on finance - I would pick Stern for sure.</p>
<p>Even if you do get the same job from Duke, Sternies are known for killing it on the job and are consistently ranked as the highest performers - this leads to higher bonuses, better exit ops. Just getting the job is not the end goal - you have to think long term. By going to Stern you have a 4 year headstart to build your network & gain internship experience.</p>
<p>“Sternies are known for killing it on the job and are consistently ranked as the highest performers - this leads to higher bonuses, better exit ops.” - I’d be surprised if Stern prepares kids so much better for internships than Duke. Performance on the job is a function of the person’s work effort, technical abilities and interpersonal skills.</p>
<p>Well think about it this way: When you are at your summer internships a person who knows how to do things already will get the better responsibilities and they will be able to get it done faster. The analysts/associates are going to appreciate that lot and will really feel like they can trust the people who can really get their ■■■■ done (precisely & quickly). Also, the analyst/associates won’t have to spend as much time explaining things to the Stern students other than maybe how something is done differently at Bank X. </p>
<p>If the kid from Duke is coming in with the same knowledge/practical experience then no problem but in most cases they are not. When Stern students are going for their internships at these banks you can bet that they are not going to be formatting PowerPoints all day b/c they know how to work the models and can contribute those skills that students from non-business/finance backgrounds cannot. This allows for more interaction/networking with the analysts/associates. </p>
<p>Also a lot of the Stern students have boutique banking experience from sophomore year, summer or junior fall and have already learned from the mistakes they’ve made at their prior internships so its just a matter of refining what they’ve been doing to adapt to the way Bank X does it. </p>