I am currently a junior at a very selective high school in Chicago. I have good grades and solid test scores and am looking for a competitive college on either the east coast or in the southwest (California). I’m very social as well and want to have fun in college. California seems pretty incredible, but I worry about the education. I want to go into business/finance and figure that the East coast seems to be the hotbed of students going into that field. Will I be able to find a top job from a job like UCLA, Berkeley, or the Claremont colleges? Also, does the East Coast present a comparable laid-back, but active social scene?
I’m gonna grab some popcorn for this one.
OK, I’ll bite.
It would depend on the school. There are excellent business/finance programs on both coasts, just as there are excellent programs in the south and in the Midwest.
If you want to ask about specific schools or programs, you might get more useful information. Claremont McKenna would probably provide a straighter pipeline to business/finance world than Bard might, just as UPenn’s Wharton would probably make more sense than Pitzer would. It’s all relative.
Ya those people at Stanford and Berkeley, what were they thinking?
I think a change to either coast (or south or anywhere else actually) would be really good for you, so you don’t live in a world of stereotypes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iey7_N_mEx4
But seriously, you can get any education that can get you any job anywhere - what criteria do you like? Large/small, conservative, liberal, spirit or not, etc.
It is not exactly a piece of cake getting into those schools which you are putting down rather implicitly…
I suggest you first try to get admitted to one, and then worry whether any is worthy of your attendance … and future job prospect?
Be aware that there is essentially no need-based or merit-based aid for OOS students at Berkeley or UCLA.
I graduated from high school & college in the Northeast. I don’t recall anything laid-back there. In-your-face, yes. Laid-back, no.
Also lived in San Francisco and other places in the area. LOTS of laid-back stuff everywhere.
Grew up on the east coast, attended college and grad school in the midwest, now live in San Francisco.
I promise you that the education available on the West Coast will be just fine. The fact that people are more likely to wear jeans to work or say “hella” does not mean that they are not intelligent and well-educated. That is superficial stuff.
Business Finance isn’t necessarily about being in the NE near wallstreet, but it’s hard to argue with the geographic proximity of all of those financial hubs (NYC, Boston, Philly, DC). But there are other financial areas in the US. San Francisco/Silicon Valley, or LA, or even Atlanta or Houston would all be good places to go (or Chicago for that matter).
Being in/near NYC would matter more for trying to get recruited into FO positions at investment banks. But they do have branches in places like SF.
EDIT: There’s some great threads on wallstreetoasis about the different types of finance in different places. But there seems to be a general consensus. Northeast (specifically NYC) for banking, Houston is good for energy finance, Bay Area is good for tech.