<p>Hi, so I was recently admitted to Dartmouth, UChicago, Wharton, MIT, and Columbia. After doing some general research I've narrowed it down to the final 3 but now I'm struggling to decide. As someone who wants to definitely pursue a BS in Econ, Wharton (socially as well) seems like the obvious answer but I'm afraid to give up the prestige of MIT given its cutting edge standing. At MIT I would double major in Econ and Management Science but I'm nervous about the department secondary sitting to engineering and the sciences. The Columbia Econ department is also attractive but I'm shying away from the core, similar to how I feel about the MIT science general requirement. Thanks for the help, there have got to be some other people facing similar decisions haha I'd love to hear what people have to say.</p>
<p>If I were you, I would go with Wharton. </p>
<p>It really depends on what you want out of the school. Wharton is probably the most prestigious, and it is a tremendous opportunity to go there. That being said, I am certain that Columbia and MIT have great Economics undergrad programs. It really is not up to anyone but you to decide!</p>
<p>What are looking for doing as a career. I think Wharton excels at the practical application of knowledge and theories over the others. The others may be more suited to the pursuit of a PhD or future MBA program.</p>
<p>The lines blur and nothing is absolute but that iS my humble opinion.</p>
<p>You Have an embarrassment of riches in having many great options.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help. At this point its Wharton v. MIT and I’m leading hard towards MIT. It seems to be the center for all that is cutting edge. Honestly I’m sort of looking to do Econ as an undergrad and really nail down a quantitative base at MIT. Id double major in econ and management, and I’d get an MBA later on. Im just not so sure I want to do business as an undergrad as an undergrad at Wharton. Any opinions?</p>
<p>Oh and Mdaboutx while to this point ive really been interested in Finance and the Wall Street path, Venture Capital is also a real possibility. After getting a feel for both schools MIT was definitely the more prestigious and I was certainly impressed. Im beginning to lead towards the undergrad prestige of MIT that sort of trumps Penns. Im beginning to feel like getting an education at MIT is a huge opportunity and title I shouldnt pass up on. Wharton’s education, while great and renowned, can be achieved at any other top MBAs. Then again I might just be stoked after my four day Campus Preview of MIT. I visit Wharton this Sunday-Monday.</p>
<p>So my opinion may be a bit biased because I applied ED to Wharton and will be attending next year. But I just wanted to get my opinion out there because I was considering applying EA to MIT but dropped the idea. I think in terms of prestige in the business world (espicially finance) Wharton blows MIT out of the water. Look at the job placements; 36 people were hired to goldman from Wharton more than ANY OTHER UNDERGRAD COLLEGE IN THE WORLD. Mckinsey took nearly 10% of the graduating class. Wharton has connections far beyond MIT in pure business. If prestige is your concern, Wharton is definetely the school to go. In fact certain private equity and hedge funds like silverlake and citadel only hire from Wharton because its so prestigous. Yes, MIT produces some great quants and impressive traders but that is a very niche role and unless you are dead set on becoming a quant, I would go with Wharton. However, I must say that MIT certainly does have a lot of prestige and if you do well there, you could also come across the same opportunites as a Wharton undergrad. Wharton has the one of the most cited and published business faculty in the world, was the world’s first business school and has some of the most famous alumni from Warren Buffet to Donald Trump to Mukesh Ambani to Elon Musk to Steve Job’s wife to the founder of Cisco, CFO of Oracle, Jon Huntsman and so many more. Now I’m not going to say that MIT is a bad school, its definetly up there with Wharton but, I would put it at #2 in the rankings of undergrad b-schools. The program is small not very well known and simply does not have the same connections as the Wharton program. I’m probably going to come off as very biased but everything that I have said up there is true.</p>