Princeton, Yale, Or UPenn's Jerome Fisher M&T Program

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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Hey

(I posted this in both the pton and penn forums because I wanted to see arguments from both perspectives)

I’m a current HS senior who got into the above three schools and a few others and would like some advice in choosing. Ultimately, I’m interested in quant (trading, not research), Trading, HFs, and maybe PE or IB. If I went to Princeton, I’d major in ORFE while I’d study both CS/Wharton finance if I chose Penn’s m&t. I’m not really that into Yale, but I hear there’s crazy grade inflation and I could major in some nonsense for a great GPA, so I’m still somewhat considering it.

I understand that m&t students are perhaps some of the most coveted students for recruiting on the street, but I’m unsure if the program is a bit too finance-focused, meaning my options would be limited if I wanted to go into a more quant role or tech in the future. Also, would anyone say there is a tangible difference in recruiting/opportunities between m&t students and ORFE students at Princeton for finance jobs? If not, I’d probably opt for Princeton since I really like their ORFE program/campus/school in general. If any alumni or current students could share their input, that would be amazing.

Thanks!

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They’re all great programs, and you’ll get looks at any of the quant shops from any of them if you have a good enough GPA. Based on the above, sounds like you want to / should go to Princeton. Don’t make your decision based on recruiting or grade inflation.

By the way though, just to address the concerns about M&T for others who may read this, if you have a decent amount of AP credits, you can do M&T + CS or Data Science Masters in 4 years. M&T is certainly not too finance-focused. A concentration in Wharton is only 4 courses, so you can still get your finance concentration having only taken 6 finance courses, including the 2 intro classes (one of which, FNCE 101, is really a macroecon class). That said, for others who may read this, if you want to focus more on finance, you can also do that within M&T.

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Could you please PM me your stats? I’m a junior about to apply and my top choice is M&T!