Hello and thank you!
I am currently very torn between attending USC’s Marshall School of Business, NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Tulane University’s Altman Program in international business.
About me: I want to be far from home (a wealthy suburb of Alabama). I’m very gay, and it is important that I have a strong gay scene wherever I go to college. I am very professionally oriented - I want to work on Wall Street as an equity analyst and eventually run my own asset management fund. Ideal employers would be Goldman Sachs or Blackstone or Advent. I want an interesting urban environment with great food. I want to have an abroad experience and I speak French. I want to have career experience and networking before I graduate. I plan on getting an MBA. I want to be challenged by my classmates and pushed out of my box. Also I love to party! AND I’m really curious - I want to be able to take all manner of classes to find my passion, though professionally I am virtually decided on finance or consulting.
Stats: GPA 4.4 , SAT 2280, ACT 33, multiple awards and leadership positions and an internship with a hedge fund.
USC - I like it because it’s very different - California is a little alien to me. Interesting city, though I hate the traffic, and solid food and club scene. I got a half tuition scholarship, which is nice but not critical for me. I really enjoyed my experience with the fraternity scene at USC, which was surprising to me as I hate the southern Greek scene. The business school seems great and I’m in their honors business program called the Global Leadership Program that entails an international internship and trips and resources, etc. I love the campus, I love the weather, I love the Greek life, I love the business school, and I LOVE the academic flexibility - being able to take classes between schools.
NYU - I don’t know as much about NYU as I do about Tulane and USC, but I’ll be going to their accepted student weekend soon to remedy this. Obviously the big pro here is that it’s NYC - you just can’t beat it. I love the city and everything it entails (culture, food, hot gay boys). Stern seems like my best career move. However, I am worried that NYU is so large and unfriendly that I may struggle to find friends and get the resources I need and would get at USC and Tulane. I’m a bit intimidated by NYU and I don’t want to get swallowed alive by it. Also I’m worried that I won’t be able to explore different classes at NYU beyond Stern. And I feel like it might not supply enough of a “college experience.” Can anyone comment on the vibe at Stern and the availability of professors and resources?
Tulane/Altman - I got into this fantastic program at Tulane called the Altman program that’s basically a 20 student cohort of international business students. The program is only 5 years old and is backed by a successful Wall Street hedge fund manager. We double major in business and a liberal art, take focused classes as a group, and spend a year abroad in our target language (mine is french). The program seems like a fantastic mix of everything I am most passionate about. It’s exactly what I want from my college experience. I also think Tulane is really fun and beautiful and an interesting cultural experience, and obviously there’s a lot of great food. Tulane gave me the most money but again it doesn’t matter to me. My concern is that Tulane is not as top-tier as USC and NYU and that therefore attending may hurt my career. I also worry that Tulane will not PUSH me as much as NYU and USC would, because I would be very much in the top level of the student body in terms of my stats and presumably my ambition. I don’t want to miss out on the opportunities of NYU or USC. But also, the Altman program seems to at least somewhat negate these concerns? Can anyone comment on the prestige factor?
Basically I need to figure out where I would be comfortable but also where I will be challenged and therefore flourish. Please let me know what you think!