UCLA pre-econ vs. NYU (CAS) econ

<p>Hey guys,</p>

<p>I'm a new member on CC (but have been following this forum for a while now:)) and I'm stuck in this situation where I'm undecided with my schools. I was accepted to UCLA, NYU and CMU (hss) with an econ major. Unfortunately none of my reach schools worked out for me so i'm left with the tough choice of choosing between these schools of fairly equal caliber, imo (they are great but just harder to choose between).</p>

<p>I'm considering a career in the econ field and most likely would look into finance or IB in the future; so which schools do you guys think would have the most advantage for this? UCLA is a great school in a great location however compared to NYU i feel it lacks in intern/work opportunities as opposed to Wall st etc. That being said I also realize there are all the other students in Stern + ivy league etc who are competing for the same spots in companies. So, I'm really stuck...</p>

<p>UCLA is higher in ranking than NYU overall but NYU econ+business is extremely good, but then again I'm not even in Stern - only CAS. So i dont really know how my chances look. I also considered transferring after first year but then that's just another possibility.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated =) thanks so much!</p>

<p>Meh… I’d probably go either way. NYU looks a tad bit more appealing because its a private school with smaller class sizes.</p>

<p>At NYU, econ program takes a back seat to NYU Stern. I am not in any way implying that the quality of the econ program or of the econ students at NYU is worse than that of NYU Stern, but many recruiters tend to filter out econ students from the school that has business program.</p>

<p>From their perspectives, NYU Stern students are more qualified students coming from a more prestigious program. </p>

<p>Of course, this perception is not fair at all, I must say.</p>

<p>After all, some students choose econ program over business program for both personal and academic preferances, but many recruiters tend to assume that a majority of econ students are LESS qualified than NYU Stern students. This perception is quite common at many of the universities that have both econ and business programs.</p>

<p>Granted, you can always find a way to have your personal profile and resume shine brightly enough for recruiters to invite you for a job interview, but the unfortunate perception of the recruiting scene is that econ students do take a backseat to business program students.</p>

<p>Check out a list of job qualification posts at both UCLA and NYU, and you will see the phrase “Business Econ Students Only” or “NYU Stern Students” written explicitly on the top of the job description.</p>

<p>Just for your information, it is exceedingly difficult to transfer from CAS to NYU Stern. Even the internal transfer rate is less than 10% at NYU, although one of my students did transfer to NYU Stern from CAS with 3.8 GPA in his second year at NYU.</p>

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<p>BruinLifer, where are these “job qualification posts” for UCLA? Could you link me?</p>

<p>I have personal experience with this. New York University Bachelors in Economics on a resume has tremendous power in getting interviews. In fact, they may ask if you’re in Stern (as I was by a Stern alumni at a big bank). When I told him no, he didn’t even care.</p>

<p>If you’re in econ at CAS and want to make yourself competitive, take econometrics courses and shoot for honors econ. Use your free electives to take advanced courses in Mandarin or Portuguese, and you’ll be an extremely valuable commodity.</p>