Stern or WASH U

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
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<p>I got accepted by both and I will definetely go to either of them. But I am kinda lost now.
everyone I need your help.</p>

<p>For Wash U, I am planning to double major electrical engineering and finance. but is electrical engineering in Wash U a little bit not as famous as those of other top colleges? and is the location makes it hard for job placement? how is olin actually like? even I am not going to double major. I plan to go to grad school for MBA in the future.Also I like the campus feeling.</p>

<p>For NYU, the prestige of Stern is attractive, and the job placement rate for last year is 98%. also, location contributes to the rate. it seems that I could find a job easily from Stern. but NYU does not have the "real" campus. I have heard that the undergrad business is kinda same with that of MBA.</p>

<p>Thanks for your insights, and please point out anything that is wrong.</p>

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<p>hi wojiaokaiwen!</p>

<p>These two schools are very common for people to decide between. There was an Olin v. Stern thread as recently as last week on this forum. You should research these forums to get some more insight and read the other threads. </p>

<p>Wash U’s business strength is definitely in the undergrad area. The MBA program isn’t bad by any means, but you definitely will get more attention as an undergrad at Wash U. </p>

<p>The biggest difference between Olin and Stern is the campus, and size of student body. Class sizes, attention from faculty, availability to do research, having a “campus”, and size of student body are key differentiating factors. I believe at Wash U, you’ll get more individualized attention, more freedom to double major, a “campus” feeling, and more opportunities to do reserach.</p>

<p>I can’t remember the exact statistic that a friend told me, but I believe it was that Olin undergrads have a 94% job placement rate at graduation, and 98% placement within 3 months of graduation. I think you’ll find the same statistic at most top undergrad business schools in this tier. A couple percentage points difference isn’t going to matter either way. </p>

<p>Here is a job placement report directly from the Olin school’s website, that should help you out: <a href=“http://www.olin.wustl.edu/Documents/AnnualReportBSBA.pdf[/url]”>http://www.olin.wustl.edu/Documents/AnnualReportBSBA.pdf&lt;/a&gt; . Most people end up in the Northeast and Midwest (primarily Chicago), and doing Finance or Consulting, with a very high average starting salary. </p>

<p>You mentioned possibly getting an MBA later in life. Per Forbes magazine (which isn’t the most respected rankings guide, but is somewhat useful as a starting point), Wash U’s Olin undergrad program is ranked #1 for MBA feeder school — meaning that it is the #1 most likely undergrad business program for people to get an MBA later on in life.</p>

<p>Stern is a great school, and you’ll get a solid quality of eduation there (as with any top tier business program). I think their main selling point is the “New York City Experience.” I think Olin’s main selling points would be the campus, attention from faculty, and ease of double majoring.</p>

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<p>TC, I have similar goals, but why EE and Finance? I plan on majoring in EE, but finance, sounds like an interesting double major. Thought process? Also, vbball90, is this major combination suicide?</p>

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<p>Hi Kaiwen!
I totally agree with Vbball90. Will you come for the Spotlight Weekend? That’s a very good oppurtunity for you to know more about the school.</p>

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<p>mike-</p>

<p>I don’t know anyone who’s specifically doing EE and Finance. Although I’m sure there has been someone in Wash U’s 150+ years who has done it :slight_smile: . I know people who are doing other combinations within Business/Engineering. </p>

<p>I think all of the people I know who do both Business/Engineering are primarily enrolled in the Engineering school and are picking up a 2nd major in the Business School. That is generally preferred, because Engineering needs so many foundational core classes… where it would be suicide to meet those requirements if you weren’t primarily in the Engineering School. Because: If you were primarily in the Business school and wanted a second major in Engineering… you would still need to take like all of the Calculus classes, some physics classes, and probably some chemistry/bio before you can even begin taking EE classes (this is in addition to meeting the core business program courses and other requirements). Where as if you are primarily in Art Sci or Engineering, picking up a Finance major really just entails taking the Finance major classes. I’m not 100% positive if you need any pre-reqs to begin taking Finance classes to get that major, but I don’t imagine that you would need any. </p>

<p>Finance actually is a popular second major for Engineers, because it inherently involves lots of quantitative skills. They probably mesh very well, and the Finance field requires a lot of math, modeling, and problem solving. </p>

<p>I don’t believe that any of the Business majors need more than 7 courses to complete the major… so it’s very easy to pick up like Finance or Marketing as a 2nd major if you are another division.</p>

<p>There’s also a 3+2 program, where you get your Bachelor’s in Engineering and your MBA in a total of 5 years. Your first 3 years are all undergrad, your 4th year is a combination of undergrad and starting the MBA program, and your 5th year is all MBA. You don’t have to apply for that until you are a student here, though. That can be an option for some people, although I think it’s <em>generally</em> looked down upon to get your MBA immediately after undergrad.</p>

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<p>If you’re really interested in EE, NYU’s sort of a non-option anyway…</p>

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<p>vbball90, thanks for the response. I’m not sure I would pick finance as my second major/minor, but I may do something in the business field… Would you recommend double majoring or major/minor? Do either of these, involved with an engineering major and buisness, have enough empty slots to allow you to take one or two courses on the side such as music?</p>

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<p>If you are interested in financial services after graduation (particularly on Wall Street) Stern offers far better job placement opportunities than WUSTL. Go to any site that actually covers where analyst (full-time or summer) are coming from and there are rarely more than one student (and usually NONE) from WUSTL at major bulge bracket firms in analyst classes. WUSTL is great at marketing themselves but when you look at who is actually getting hired by objective sources, Stern offers better post-graduate opportunities in banking. For consulting, I think Stern has a slight edge. For marketing Stern is better; for general Fortune 500 corporate opportunities WUSTL is probably a better option. In engineering, WUSTL clearly wins hands down. But overall, Stern offers far better post-graduate opportunities in business. In terms of the actual academic program, WUSTL is better in engineering (NYU is only starting up engineering opportunities) and for business education I’d give the edge to NYU in finance but overall I would only give a slight edge to NYU.</p>