Hi All. My D is accepted for undergraduate business economics at UCLA. Her other option is Vassar in NY. She wants to pursue a career in finance, may be investment banking. I am trying to see where she has a better chance to find internships as well a job in some of the top firms in the country. I know her options are limited as both schools are kind of non target, but I would appreciate any feedback. We need to decide in next few days and make a deposit. Again, I am really struggling with the decision and help me please.
Since you are well aware that neither are IB target schools, you need to select one of these schools based on personal preference. Should be easy as these two schools are about as different as different gets.
Nevertheless, UCLA does have a presence in IB boutiques. It is in the same category of “IB target” as the University of Western Ontario, Indiana, Vanderbilt, Illinois, USC, University of Waterloo, UNC, & one other that I cannot ID because I cannot read my own handwriting.
@Publisher is right: those schools are near opposites on many fronts. Neither is an IB target, but both are academically rigorous.
The geographic location of a college is not determinative. In some cases (GW for politics & IR, for example), being in situ makes in-term internships possible. But for IB, most internships are during the summer, not during term, so being ‘near’ NY or LA is going to be less of a factor then going to recruiting events, hustling the internship application process, etc. And you get a job in top firms the usual way- internships and contacts.
In practical terms, Vassar does not have a course equivalent to ‘business economics’- just plain ol’ econ.
What will matter most, no matter what, is that your D is happy with her choice. Can we guess that she has a preference and you have a preference, and they don’t match? Parent to parent, neither choice is a ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ choice- and the amount of ‘right’ will be determined by what she brings to it.
Yeah, you should take personal preference into the decision. With both colleges close to large cities, internships should be easy at either one. Vassar’s campus is more than double the size of UCLA’s, but it isn’t as close to a city.(Although Vassar has a very beautiful campus) Just make sure that she’s happy about her choice.
Thank you so much for your thoughts. We visited both places and there are pros and cons to each. No financial aid at either place. We are on the west coast and if LA offers same or better resources and opportunities, then we would go that route. Both me and my daughter are on the same page on this issue.
My feeling at Vassar was that it was geared towards medical, law and humanities, not so much towards finance, but this is very subjective, kind of gut feeling so to speak. So I was trying to get some hard core numbers on how these schools place kids in top financial firms, like what percentage of applying candidates get accepted. Is it relatively easier to land internship in one or the other school. That will also indirectly tell how the school prepares the student for such career.
LA offers proximity and lots of resources, but also large number of very smart kids competing for the same, and virtually no help from the career development office. Vassar on the other hand have less kids competing, great CDO, but relative distance and limited alumni presence (unlike Williams which has unusual high alumni in finance, but she only made to the waitlist) . So kind of torn between both.