<p>sorry for another comparision thread. but, as someone interested in a finance-related field, which school do you think would be better? I'm leaning towards northwestern atm solely because of stern's curving system</p>
<p>also waitlisted at uchicago and waiting for princeton and columbia, so this is assuming I don't get into those 3</p>
<p>If you’re interested in purely finance, go with Stern, but NW isn’t a bad decision either. Hellodocks may give better advice than me on this, but from what I’ve researched, Stern is a better for a finance career in New York, and NW is better for a finance career in Chicago. And the Stern Curve is apparently more bark than bite.</p>
<p>Northwestern is a good school, but it depends on what you want to do within finance and where you want to be. If you’re interested in Chicago, it’s a solid school. If you want NY, Stern tops all schools except Harvard and Wharton in raw placement figures (and more subjectively, offers the location benefit, you have year-round 24/7 access to the world of finance simply by living there).</p>
<p>Stern will give you opportunities across the nation, make no mistake, but most kids here just recruit for NY or London positions since they’re their respective nations financial capitals.</p>
<p>As for the curve, it is not at all just bark, don’t make that mistake or it’ll bite you straight in the ass. The only variation is between classes, in some the curve will hurt you less than in others. My friend (and roommate abroad right now) got a 97 on the micro final last semester and wound up with a B+. I know a kid who got a 99 on his marketing final and got an A-. It’s brutal. If you’re a legend and put in work early in the semester and pull away, you’ll do well in your classes and can coast a bit and score closer to the average on the final. In FA I outperformed the average by 20 points and 12 points on the midterms and barely broke average on the final but I was setting the curve for the first exams so I wound up with one of the few As.</p>