Wesleyan vs. Stern??

I’m currently having some trouble deciding between NYU Stern or Wesleyan. They are such different schools: liberal arts vs. business, suburbs vs. big city, small school vs. big school, etc. I’m not decided on a major yet but I’m thinking psych/sociology if I attend Wesleyan and marketing/social entrepreneurship at Stern. I know Stern is well know for finance and ibanking, but I haven’t had any in depth exposure to those subjects in HS, so I’m not sure if I will end up choosing those majors if I go.

At this point, my main concern with going to Stern is if going to business undergrad is worth it. I know a lot of people say it isn’t since people end up doing MBA’s anyways. However, Stern is in such an opportune location and has such a good rep that it’s hard to pass up. Also, another thing I’m passionate about is fashion and it would be awesome doing business+fashion in NYC.

My main concern with Wesleyan is what I would do with a liberal arts degree like psych/sociology after grad.There isn’t exactly a specific job associated with the majors I’m interested in, unlike how it is with majors like engineering—>future engineer. If any of you know what jobs can come from liberal arts degrees please let me know! Also, after living in Shanghai for six years, it would be nice getting away from the city life and living on a college campus like Wesleyan’s.

If any of you have any insights or opinions on anything I’ve mentioned or anything on those two schools in general please share!!

The beauty of a liberal arts degree is that you can go into whichever field you want. If you take a look at http://www.wesleyan.edu/careercenter/career-outcomes.html you’ll see that there is a pretty even spread. You could easily position yourself for business + fashion with an econ/psych double or even just one of those. And if you decide business or fashion isn’t for you, there are plenty of other fields you can enter, or get an MBA. Most people at Wes major in something they are passionate about, and then get into the field they’re interested in, regardless of how directly related their major was. Yes, most at Wes get a graduate degree, but you really can major in anything and you haven’t eliminated any fields going forward. There are plenty of religion majors going to med school and plenty of sociology or history majors getting MBAs.

I think the bigger question is whether you want a small suburban school or a large urban one. There are numerous transfers from NYU to Wesleyan every year who decided the lack of a traditional campus wasn’t for them (and I imagine a few going the other way as well who wanted the Big Apple in their backyard).

It’s a little hard to advise you due to the different natures of your potential majors – Stern vs. Wesleyan social sciences are very different indeed. That said, I would personally choose Wesleyan, mainly for the excellent academics, but also the campus experience.

I also agree: if you perform well at Wesleyan in most any humanities field, the door would certainly be open for a solid MBA program later, if that’s the route you choose. And an MBA path might not be what you pursue at all.

@smartalic34 @anhydrite thanks so much! I’ve pretty much decided to go to Wes now! I still have a waitlist offer from Cornell though so if I do get off the Cornell waitlist I will have another hard decision to make.