<p>I got into both NYU Stern and Cornell AEM/Dyson for undergraduate business. I live in NYC and am totally in love with the city. I really like NYU but it seems like it might be a mistake to give up an Ivy. I'm afraid of getting homesick and/or having too much stress at Cornell (I go to one of the top high schools in the city but I've come to resent my workload and want to have a social life and enough SLEEP). I'm primarily interested in Finance and Economics. Could you please tell me about campus life at each school, workload, and general experience? </p>
<p>Also, did anyone grow up in NYC and go to Cornell, and how did you like it? How easy is it to travel between Cornell and NYC (I would want to visit home often)? Thank you!</p>
<p>Most of my peers at Stern have also gotten into to Cornell but chose to come to Stern cause of its rep. You won’t be making a mistake by picking Stern. Its a very common place phenomenon at this school - People pick Stern over Ivies all the time. </p>
<p>When I was in hs i wanted to go as far as possible, but w/ money and everything els Stern made the most sense for me. Right now, with everything I now know, I could not even believe I even considered any other school - Close to home (NJ), Great access to everything (alumni, internships, events), top recruiters on campus every week, great travel opportunities to all parts of the globe, amazing nightlife, you’re treated like royalty on campus & get more resources, etc. </p>
<p>is it generally accepted that stern has a better rep than dyson? i know i want to do something in business so i don’t see myself switching programs. which matters more? program rep, or university rep?</p>
<p>Yes - One thing I don’t like about Stern is how much you are expected to balance on your plate - internships, active club members, grades . . its very tough in a city school b/c there are so many different things you could be doing in all dimensions (professionally, academically, socially) that it’s very easy to spread yourself thin here. When you see others getting so far you feel compelled to do the same (whether or not its necessary you don’t really know)</p>
<p>Another is how easy it is to get intimidated by your peers. I am not kidding when I say that there will be future big shots (billionaires, hedge fund managers, etc.) and very successful people in your classes and there is a lot of pressure to match everyone else’s success. Right off the bat in freshman year you will meet students who are extremely good at investing/finance and some who may already be working at Goldman, MS, JPM etc and you have to constantly push yourself here and test your limits. This is very tough but also very rewarding at the same time since you will really grow as a person. </p>
<p>The ivy tag doesn’t not matter at all - i have numerous transfers from cornell, columbia, brown, upenn so don’t really worry about that. </p>
<p>It would be unsurprising if students who are choosing or are attending Stern might tend to hold that opinion.
But I don’t what the basis is. US News rankings say one thing, Business Week rankings say something else.
I’ve found no stats broken out for Stern alone, not much for Dyson alone either though snippets can be discerned.
So I can’t say, personally. I do know a friend’s kid recently graduated from Dyson with a boatload of job offers. FWIW.</p>
<p>One of my teachers who went to NYU said there’s a lot of cutthroat competition at Stern. Is this true? I’m not afraid of a little competition but I would prefer a more collaborative environment. How is Cornell AEM in that sense? </p>
<p>I’m kind of leaning towards Cornell at this point after being reassured the homesickness goes away.</p>
<p>Its not cutthroat at all but it is competitive in the sense that when you see your peers succeed you feel the pressure to succeed as well. It’s good cause it pushes you to do your best.</p>
<p>So no more competitive than any other top school then? How bad is the grade curving? Someone I talked to who went there said only the top 20% of the students in a given class are given an A. That seems pretty harsh, but then again, I’m not sure how that system would work since I haven’t experienced it.</p>
<p>The curve averages things to a B, so in a class of 100 most people will get B-, B, or B+ and 35 people will get A’s. The bottom part 5-15 or so people will get C grades. Almost no one gets below C’s at Stern (you really have to try to get below a C in a Stern class). </p>
<p>This curve is actually very reasonable - what makes it hard is that everyone in your classes is going to extremely smart and capable of getting an A so the exams will sometimes be really really tough so that averages are like below 70 so that way it differentiates the people who really know their stuff from the others. </p>
<p>This is what most colleges are like anyway. </p>
<p>Thanks claudine and qwerty! That doesn’t sound as bad as I thought. Do you know how much college GPA matters for job recruiting and internships? What’s a decent/good GPA to get recruited and how difficult is that to achieve?</p>
I went to NYU, my daughter is at Dyson/Cornell. NYU’s undergrad program is not even close to Cornell.
I think you need to visit both campuses and figure out where you will be happy. If you are not happy, you will not succeed.
Having said that, if both seem to be a good fit for you, then I would go to AEM (Dyson), as it is a MUCH better school and program. Cornell AEM takes less than 7% of applicants, and they don’t use a waitlist, which means that they need to accept quite a few students who will likely not enroll. Nearly all students who attend Cornell were rejected from Harvard and Yale. Few NYU students apply to Harvard and Yale as they know they won’t get in. NYU uses a tremendous waitlist, with helps lower their acceptance rate.
If I were interested in business and was attending NYU, I would NOT major in business; I would major in something international or science/tech, and then use that as a stepping stone to go into business. I would try to get a paid internship in NYC while studying at NYU. The only advantage NYU has over Cornell is its NYC location. Most undergrad business programs are a waste of time. The only ones I recommend are Wharton (Penn), Dyson (Cornell), UC Berkeley and Northwestern.