<p>I've recently heard back from all of my colleges, and although I didn't get into my top choices, I'm pretty happy with my acceptances. </p>
<p>I've narrowed it down to six universities:</p>
<p>Brown
Duke
Northwestern</p>
<p>and then</p>
<p>Berkeley
UCLA
USC Marshall</p>
<p>I've been trying to narrow it down further by considering many different aspects (like the sports culture, social scene, etc) and I'm planning to visit soon as well. I was also wondering which college would give me the best chance to land a good job in finance (not necessarily IB, maybe consulting, PE, etc). </p>
<p>I know that the cali schools are less prestigious, except for maybe Haas at Berkeley. But the issue I have with Haas is not being guaranteed a spot beforehand, and I also feel like I might rather want to study econ or econ+math instead of business (same with USC).</p>
<p>Can someone shine some light on this? How does the recruiting at Brown, Duke, NU, etc differ? Or is the difference marginal? </p>
<p>FWIW I’ve met quite a few people from Northwestern and Duke on Wall Street. I’m an incoming analyst at a bulge bracket bank in NY. I believe Berkeley does quite well on the west coast as well. Brown may have the most lay prestige of the schools you listed, but it’s just not very finance focused and it might be difficult finding people that share an interest with you. I can’t comment on UCLA or USC Marshall, but I feel like they’d be overshadowed for west coast recruiting by Stanford and Berkeley. </p>
<p>OP - TX provides a very good perspective, I completely concur</p>
<p>@bullet - From the sole perspective of job hunting, I suggest Williams for both tracks because I think its alumni network is more passionate (I went to NW). It’s a close call though and I recommend strongly considering where you feel more comfortable. They’re very different schools. I really loved my time in Evanston.</p>
<p>@CHD2013
Thank you. I’m personally leaning towards nu because i just like the atmosphere there and how it’s really close to Chicago. This is for sure the toughest decision i have ever had to make</p>
<p>Well the good news is you’ve got two great choices. Honestly, there’s no real way to know which will be best for you. Make a list of your top criteria, compare and make the best choice you can. Either should be an excellent experience. Good luck.</p>
<p>Brown has the advantage of not having that many kids interested in IB, but they are also on the East Coast which means you will be essentially competing against HYPS and Wharton. IB in California will always be dominated by Stanford, Cal, USC, UCLA. </p>
<p>Duke. Northwestern econ doesn’t place well unless you get into their ridiculous Kellogg undergrad certificate program which is really competitive to get into and requires a lot of unnecessary math courses.</p>