<p>Friend's son is asking which is the best amongst the choices. Can you rank them? Thanks.</p>
<p>anyone has an opinion on this?</p>
<p>is money not a problem? Penn as in Upenn or penn state?</p>
<p>Well, it's kind of hard to compare math and econ departments. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Also, rank it terms of what: prestige, number of courses offered, individual attention...?</p>
<p>b@rium: strength of the program, prestige of the school, opportunities after graduation, caliber of faculty, etc... He wants to go into investment banking and he doesn't care if its' the US or UK. But he really likes to stay in the UK for a while and thought that the 3-4 college years would be a wonderful time to do that. He got rejected at Cambridge but made it to Imperial maths, LSE management and St Andrews economics and something. He thought only Cambridge and Warwick would rival those elite US schools for maths, so he's dropping off those other UK unis. He has not received any news from any US school where he applied to, but assuming he got into all those US schools, which do you think would be the best choice?</p>
<p>Flibb: money isn't a problem actually. his father owns a huge mall and a chain of department stores, if you know what I mean. And it's UPenn as in the University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>LSE management is highly regarded. Perhaps not for the investment banking path though.</p>
<p>Berkeley i'd say
Economics</a> at Cal</p>
<p>can you guys rank them?</p>
<p>Since you are specifically interested in how much these programs would help him get into investment banking, maybe the Investment Banking forum would have better advice for you than we do: </p>
<p>I would go to either Rice or Berkeley.
btw, you should also check the flexibility of changing majors. I mean, if it's easy to change major from math/econ to business...then I think berkeley is the best. It's good in almost every area, except medicine. =)</p>
<p>I am curious why you picked Rice over Penn?</p>
<p>First of all, Rice has lower faculty to student ration which is 1:5. I also know that it's hard for Penn students to change major across different schools, especially to Wharton. In term of prestige, IMO schools like Rice has worked its way up to the ranking. But Penn, it's in ivy league...so, I'm not sure if it became good simply because it's in that conference or it has actually done something really great like HYP. Next, Rice is in the Texas...it has nicer weather compared to Philly. Also, why do you want to go to east coast and make it difficult for you to find internship as you'll have to compete with those students from east coast schools (including all the ivies, MIT, georgetown, JHU, top LACs, and etc). You will have easier time in texas as you'll probably be only competing with ppl from Duke, Vandy, Emory, and few others. I'm not saying the public schools are worse than the privates...but I'm just comparing privates to privates.
Finally, I'm not saying Penn is a bad school. I just see more pros in Rice.</p>
<p>Rice has a major in Mathematical Economic Analysis - you can blend the two! It's also easy to double major at Rice because their distribution requirements are not that excessive. It's easy to pick up a minor in Computational Finance.</p>
<p>So, can you guys rank them?</p>
<p>Bragging right:
1) UPenn
2) Rice/Berkeley/Warwick</p>
<p>Weather:
1) Berkeley/Rice
2) UPenn/Warwick</p>
<p>For prestige, they're pretty much equal. Everyone will be able to argue that Rice>UPenn or UPenn>Rice or Berkeley>UPenn...etc. It'll come to personal preference.</p>
<p>BearCub, I thought Berkeley would win in the "bragging right" category as most Cal grads and students that I know are so proud of their school or alma mater school. hehe...</p>
<p>The dad was more interested on career prospects of his son. They are French/Chinese, btw, and the dad is currently one of the chief economists of Asian Development Bank and owns several businesses too. So, I guess funding is not really a problem here. Of course, he'd also want his son to have a relatively better college experience where the environment is nurturing and supportive to the students. </p>
<p>How would Warwick compare to UPenn, Berkeley and Rice for undergrad math/economics/finance and for IB placement opportunities?</p>
<p>"BearCub, I thought Berkeley would win in the "bragging right" category as most Cal grads and students that I know are so proud of their school or alma mater school."</p>
<p>Haha..that's not bragging right. That's more like sense of belonging. UPenn would win the bragging right category simply because it is in the Ivy League and almost everyone knows Ivy League, even though some may not know that UPenn is in it. </p>
<p>Anyway, I see that his dad wants him to have all rounded kinda education. Berkeley is the most well rounded among those schools you listed. But the problem with Berkeley is that...it's a big school. So, it's gonna be up to him to find the professors and get to know them. It would be nice if he can go to Stanford. That one will solve the problem. haha.. Cos Berkeley and Stanford are good in almost every area. They also have many asian students. Plus Stanford is smaller school. And in general, it's harder to get into Stanford as it's a private schools.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about Warwick. but I know it's one of the top 5 schools in England.</p>
<p>With admissions decisions not out, this is a totally academic question. He's likely not to get into some of these schools, not because of his weakness as a candidate, but because these are tough schools.</p>
<p>Berkeley, Penn, and Rice are great schools. If he wants to do investment banking, if he applied/could get into Wharton, he'd have the best opportunities there. But he could do well out of Berkeley or Rice particularly if he demonstrated quantitative abilities by taking a rigorous load.</p>
<p>Beyond these factors:</p>
<p>Penn: urban, East Coast, cold in the winter, more uptight
Rice: don't know it but know that it has a very solid academic rep
Berkeley: urban, West Coast, less uptight, heavily Asian, Haas business school (if he chooses that route) is quite solid though most would agree Wharton is a better b-school undergrad. Berkeley econ is one of the top.</p>
<p>Of the three, though, my impression is that Rice would provide the most nurturing and supportive environment.</p>
<p>I know nothing about Warwick.</p>
<p>The kid actually looks and talks like a French-American than a Chinese-American. It's the dad who's French and probably has the stronger blood. hehe..</p>
<p>The kid spent 6 years at Eton in England but has moved to International School Manila where his dad is working and has established businesses. In the past, 10 to 15 graduates are admitted at HYPSM from his high school every year. The kid will graduate this year number 2 or 3 in a class of 140+ students. He applied to several schools in the US but he's ONLY interested to go to Berkeley, UPenn, Rice (in the US) and Warwick (in the UK). </p>
<p>The kid does not want business, but math (which is his favorite subject), economics and MORSE at Warwick. In short, he's only choosing among these 4 schools and the corresponding courses at those schools.</p>
<p>Well, Berkeley has the best math department of the choices listed, by far. Pure economics, too. He could do the mathematically intensive track of economics at Berkeley and get a taste of both -- and that department will prepare people who do well there to go to pretty much any Econ. program in the US or the world, if that's what he wants. US tops in econ: MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, etc, not necessarily in that order.</p>
<p>What I don't get is why he wouldn't consider math at Berkeley which is widely considered a tip-top department -- if that's what he really likes?</p>
<p>The other thing is: again, my perception is among these choices Rice is the most nurturing.</p>