<p>I have to decide by next Friday!! I haven't visited either and there is no possible way for me to get out to the East Coast before decision day! Please help describe each atmosphere, campus, competition, difficulty, opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>Any way you can help me decide would be greatly appreciated! :)</p>
<p>princeton degree is more versatile imo. it’s also a lot less intense than wharton so you’d have a more easygoing college experience. i would choose princeton without hesitation, personally.</p>
<p>wow darn hard choice there. Congratz on acceptances!</p>
<p>Depends on what you want to do and what your approach to studying is. If you like a bit of everything, go for princeton. If you like single-minded devotion, come to the alter of finance in Wharton.</p>
<p>I would make my final decision based on financial aid packages though.</p>
<p>In my opinion, financial engineering is better left for the Ph.Ds (and even they can’t seem to get it right). However, Princeton ORFE is still a very strong program and you can’t go wrong either way</p>
<p>It depends on what you really want to do.</p>
<p>If you’re set on becoming a professor or doing research, then the choice is Princeton. Princeton is in a sheltered suburban area and the feel is very stereotypically ivy league. You can spend four years there ignoring the rest of the world if you wanted to, focusing only on your studies.</p>
<p>If you want a fast-cash job, job training, and awesome recruitment, then the answer is Wharton. But don’t forget you can always transfer out of you change your mind. Penn is in the middle of a huge city, and as a result it just isn’t as sheltered. For better or for worse, you are really in the real world.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s responses so far! I want to be an investment banker and get an MBA but I might still want to get a PhD. Will ORFE or Wharton get me better jobs in ibanking? Do ibanks like to see strong math/engineering backgrounds like I would get at Princeton more than strictly business like at Wharton?</p>
<p>You seem like a smart person, so I’m pretty sure you will be able to get an analyst job at a bulge bracket from either school. Wharton sends about 40% of their class into ibanking. </p>
<p>If you decide to go to Wharton, I would recommend a dual degree with engineering (or math, physics, etc.). Some popular choices to go with finance are computer science and systems engineering. This is significantly more challenging than a single degree, but I think graduating with two degrees (B.S. from Wharton and another B.A or BS in engineering) would put you ahead of ORFE students and definitely most Wharton students.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with Aston Martin’s second post. A Dual-Degree between Wharton and Engineering might be good for you.</p>
<p>you don’t need a math degree to be an investment bank analyst…</p>
<p>That’s very true. You need to have decent quantitative skills, but you definitely don’t need a math background if you just want to work in IBD. </p>
<p>However, an engineering degree opens doors to S&T, hedge funds, and VC</p>
<p>I think the ORFE program is more versatile IMO.</p>
<p>Yes, maybe, but Penn is a more versatile school. There are waaay more directions you can go with study at Penn, then at Princeton. So it depends on what you want.</p>
<p>Princeton ORFE is much more rigorous and mathematical than anything in Wharton, except for the actuarial science major that no one actually does. </p>
<p>You don’t go to Wharton for the academics. You go there to get a Wall Street job (conventional wisdom, in good years). M&T students are strong because of their engineering background. Wharton basically gives them access to top recruiters.</p>
<p>I know there is really bad grade deflation at Princeton…if I get a much lower GPA at Princeton than at Wharton, will that hurt me in the long run? Also, does Princeton ORFE pass Wharton in terms of time spent studying/homework/projects?</p>
<p>Wharton!!! Nothing can compare. You can also submatriculate into the mba program. If you do well there, prepare to be seriously recruited.</p>
<p>^ HYP can definitely compare to Wharton. Especially Princeton and Yale at the undergrad level.</p>
<p>Yeah but Wharton doesn’t only care about at the undergraduate level. You do Wharton, thinking of the graduate level, thinking of beyond. This is the foremost business school out there, you will go far. Maybe at Princeton you’ll have a nice 4 years but after? Think about the future? If your interested in your career, do Wharton, it will prepare you for beyond those 4 years. </p>
<p>I rejected Princeton because I asked myself: “What after those 4 years”. At Penn, I’ve got the grad schools right there and can begin any of them while I’m an undergraduate, depending on how much dedication you put in.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s so clear-cut between Wharton and Princeton. Princeton isn’t going to shut any doors that Wharton might open. The only difference is that Princeton might be a harder curriculum and gives you more open-ended career options whereas if you finish Wharton, you are headed into financial services no matter what.</p>
<p>I had originally thought Princeton’s program equally competitive with Wharton’s, but after looking through their academic guide and placement survey ([Program</a> Guides | Operations Research and Financial Engineering](<a href=“http://orfe.princeton.edu/undergraduate/guides]Program”>Undergraduate Academic Guide | Operations Research & Financial Engineering)), I’m not so sure.</p>
<p>I might not be reading this incorrectly, but I only counted about 30 senior thesis topics, suggesting there are only about 30 students in ORFE per year? If so few students are in ORFE (compared to 500 in Wharton and about 400 that concentrate in finance), I would question how much importance the school places on the program.</p>
<p>Also, their most recent 2006 career survey is not very impressive either. Out of the approximately 30 students, I counted 3 Merrill (although one is not in ibanking), 1 in Citigroup doing equity research or something, 1 UBS, 1 Goldman, 1 JP Morgan, 1 Credit Suisse, 1 Deutsche Bank, 1 Lehman, and 1 Morgan Stanley = 11 bulge brackets. If this is the case, I doubt Princeton is nearly has heavily recruited by the top ibanks</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I don’t think you can go wrong with Princeton. However, if your goal is to do M&A/CorpFin at a BB, I think you should go to Wharton. On the other hand, if you’re more interested in buy side (hedge funds, S&T), you should consider ORFE.</p>
<p>One last note: I’ve heard that Wharton’s curve and Princeton’s grade deflation are pretty similar (although keep in mind that Wharton has a higher percentage of URMs, athletes, etc.), but my friend said the senior thesis that Princeton students have to do is a real pain</p>
<p>AstonMartin</p>
<p>For the year 2005, I counted 52 senior theses in ORFE, which sounds about right. The university website says that ORFE students comprise 30% of all engineering students. There are approximately 750 engineering students, so there should be approximately 225 ORFE students, or about 56 a year. ORFE is a relatively new major, which would explain why in 2000 and 2001, the number of students per year was less, and it has obviously been growing each year. I also believe that the job placement information either did not include all students or that firms with multiple Princeton ORFE graduates were only listed once.</p>