<h2>Hi Everyone I sent this note to someone that asked me about AEM and thought it might be useful to everyone else as well.</h2>
<p>Hey, Whats up? </p>
<p>The job placement from AEM is pretty good. I do not know why BusinessWeek said that Cornell has a hard time attracting recruiters. Maybe there arent as many as NYU due to the location and that many smaller companies cannot afford to send a dozen people up to Cornell to do interviews. But we get a lot of big companies here. Many invest a great deal of time and money in information sessions. Most companies that recruit on campus have an info session with food and about a dozen employees that they have flown in from their offices (usually NYC). Considering that each ticket costs about $450 from NYC to Ithaca, they are investing a great deal of time and money on Cornell students. The average AEM starting salary for 2003 was roughly $43,000 which is much higher than the national average for business schools. I have know people that make under 30K and others that make around 90K after their first year at work
it really depends on what you want to do. The most popular field in AEM is banking (investment banking, equity research, fixed income research, sales and trading). A considerable amount of people also do food marketing, sales, or other areas of finance. Here is a website of AEM career stats: <a href="http://business.aem.cornell.edu/careers/stats.htm%5B/url%5D">http://business.aem.cornell.edu/careers/stats.htm</a> . Here is a link for recent employers of AEM grads <a href="http://business.aem.cornell.edu/careers/employers.htm%5B/url%5D">http://business.aem.cornell.edu/careers/employers.htm</a> . You will find a long list of diverse companies (not all of these recruit on campus). This page has a lot of the info you are seeking <a href="http://aem.cornell.edu/undergrad/careers.htm%5B/url%5D">http://aem.cornell.edu/undergrad/careers.htm</a>. Just for your info, here is a list of some of the companies that recruited on campus for either summer or full time job: Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Nomura Securities, Wachovia, NVR Ryan, Accenture, Merrill Lynch
Morgan Stanley, UBS Investment Bank, Banc of America, HSBC, JP Morgan
Bain & Company, Capital One, Ford Motors, Prudential, Novantas, Barclays Capital, Bloomingdales, Ernst & Young, Gap, S.C. Johnson, General Electric, Bloomberg, Starbucks, NY Life, American Eagle, Microsoft, American Express, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte & Touche
the list goes on and on. Most of these jobs are open to the entire Cornell community, not just AEM. There are other jobs listings but they do not necessarily recruit on campus. Keep in mind it is really important to keep a high GPA and hold leadership roles (not just a member) in many clubs and organizations
These jobs are very competitive and you will be competing with your fellow classmates for these jobs, so take your work seriously right from the beginning. </p>
<p>First off, I absolutely love Cornell. I am glad that I have not gone anywhere else. Some joke about AEM being very easy since it has a lot of athletes, but it really is not a walk in the park. Yes there are easy classes but you will find that in any major. If you are interested in business (finance, marketing, etc.) then the work will not be that bad, but it will be time consuming, especially if you want to get an A. Bs are not that hard to get but it is the As that take a lot of time and work. Twice this past week I was up in the library until 5:00am doing work, partly because I procrastinate, and partly because I just have a ton of work. But all in all it is manageable. If you look at the AEM requirements (<a href="http://business.aem.cornell.edu/academics/index.htm%5B/url%5D">http://business.aem.cornell.edu/academics/index.htm</a>) you will see that it is very diverse in terms of general education requirements. The gen ed classes will be taken with other Cornell students. There a so many great classes that it is nice that we have the opportunity to choose out humanities and general ed electives. I will agree that the offerings in AEM are small compared to NYU or Wharton, but the classes they do have are very valuable. Each year they are adding more and more diverse classes to the AEM roster. The AEM program has just began to blossom and is in the making to be something very big and successful. It is already the most popular major at Cornell. BTW You can also take business classes in the Hotel School and the Johnson Business School (the grad school). The Hotel School has other finance and marketing classes, not just hotel related. I really like the professors here. They hold many office hours and are always willing to help out, but you need to be the one to make the first move. They will not just come to you.</p>
<p>One of the only downfalls I see with AEM is that the actual building that the department is located in is nothing like what Stern or Wharton has. Most AEM classes are in Warren Hall, which was built in the 1930s. It has nice detail and has a classic feeling but the classrooms are in need of renovation. I know that updating of the building is in the works though. You still will have access to the rest of the facilities at Cornell, which are very nice. Mann Library, which is the Ag school library is connected to Warren Hall and is undergoing a thorough renovation, which should be complete by 2006. It will have great facilities. </p>
<p>I would say that Cornell does not inflate grades, but it is something you just deal with. You do your work to the best of your ability and what happens happens. Like I said, it takes work (in most classes anyway) to get an A, but the Bs arent too hard to get but still require quite a bit of time. I do not really know the average GPA of AEM graduates.</p>
<p>I was attracted to Cornell because of the great reputation it had. When I applied AEM was not actually accredited like it is today. But I knew I wanted to do business and I loved Cornell. The campus is beautiful (but cold in the winter), it offers a large variety of classes throughout the undergrad colleges, and I wanted to get out of the NYC area because I have lived in the suburbs of NYC all my life. </p>
<p>If you have any other questions feel free to email me.
Good Luck
-Derek</p>