USC vs. UC Berkeley vs. CMU vs. NYU

Considering you’re not direct admit to Haas, I would leave out UCB. USC is a great place to spend 4 years but for finance, it’s hard to pick it over CMU or NYU. NYU is great for finance/business and you’re right in NYC, but CMU has strong NYC finance connections too (check their career placement page) and is very strong in math. I can’t see NYU giving you a $90K advantage over CMU. I’d go with CMU.