<p>Hey! I'm currently undecided between these three schools. I would be an econ major at UC or Dart and banking/finance major if I decide to attend UGA biz school. I'm looking to go into ibanking and later into private equity after a couple years in ibanking and maybe also earning an MBA. For the purposes of this post, I will concentrate primarily on UofC and Dartmouth. </p>
<p>My thoughts:
I would prefer to be in a major city for school all else equal, so UChicago gets the edge here. I feel like it would be helpful for internships in the academic year and maybe for Chicago-specific firms and networking. At the same time, though, Dartmouth is known for sending many students to the big ibanks on wall street every year. Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I feel that even though there is a little more recruiting at Dartmouth, proportionally more students will be applying to the ibanking internships/jobs, meaning the supply meets the demand. Even if I apply to other finance jobs outside of on-campus recruiting, my guess is that UofC and Dart have roughly the same prestige factor in applying/interviewing. </p>
<p>Questions:
-Which banks recruit heavily from UC?
I've heard JPM, Goldman, Credit Suisse, UBS, BoAML, and a variety of middle market banks recruit actively there. </p>
<p>-How is grade deflation at UChicago?
My junior friend at UChicago says it's not that bad, but there's just more of a tendency among the students there compared with other schools to take harder classes (even if it results in lower GPAs). He said his GPA is ~3.6 with mostly A's in the core classes, but mostly B/B+'s in the econ major classes. I don't know anybody going to Dart, so could somebody please help me on this front? </p>
<p>-How happy are the students at each place?
I've heard that the "where fun comes to die thing" for UChicago is outdated, but compared to say, Dartmouth, how is it?</p>
<p>Yeah, my family is too Asian and we lived the American dream too well for any top school to give financial aid, but my parents are willing to pay for it and (as far as I know) wouldn’t be too big of a burden on them.</p>
<p>Do not choose UGA no matter what. UGA is only for people that got rejected from Georgia Tech. You on the other hand, got accepted to other elite colleges. University of Georgia is not known for anything. Good education costs money, don’t fall for the honors or full ride gimmick. </p>
<p>For Finance I agree with above ^, Dartmouth, but if you like Chicago its fine too…</p>
<p>I just like city atmospheres better than rural atmospheres, though. I also visited UChicago back in March after being accepted early and really liked it. I guess I just have to visit Dartmouth soon and see what I think. </p>
<p>Regarding finance recruiting,
I get that there’s more recruiting at Dart than UC, but I’ve heard that proportionally more students apply for ibanking gigs at Dartmouth than at UChicago. Does that mean it evens out? </p>
<p>How about for applying to ibanking positions not part of either school’s OCR? My feeling is that Dart and UChicago are about the same in prestige/name recognition in the eyes of a neutral recruiter. </p>
<p>Also, in the off-chance that I get off the waitlist at Columbia, how does their ibanking recruitment fare in comparison to both UChicago and Dart? My instincts tell me that Columbia gets a huge benefit by being just a short train ride from Wall Street. What do you think?</p>
<p>Sit down with your parents and run the numbers here. Find out just exactly how painless paying for each institution would be for them. Ask specifically if they will need to raid their retirement accounts in order to buy you an Ivy or Ivy-peer education. Ask how safe your college fund is, and what would happen if they were to suffer a surprise lay-off or other economic crisis. Maybe they do have a quarter of a million dollars sitting in a safe place for your education, maybe they don’t. It would be a kindness to verify the precise situation. And even if they do, there are a lot of things that you could think of that you might prefer to spend that kind of money on - such as the very expensive top of the line MBA you are planning to earn some day.</p>
<p>I smile at your “too asian” part…
Go to Dartmouth for an intended career in finance. Consider Columbia if you get off the wait list, because it fits your preference of being in a major city (and it offers serious opportunities for doing in-semester internships).</p>