<p>Until reading all the posts on CC, I had always planned on majoring in finance from a university that had a business school. However after reading into ibanking, I've learned that this isn't the best approach. When i graduate, i want to work with either ibanking or hedge funds. Would any of the following schools give me an opportunity at those types of jobs?</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
Michigan
Indiana
Cornell
Villanova (I'm pretty sure this school would not)
Notre Dame
NYU</p>
<p>Subgroups not ordered…</p>
<p>Best Opportunity:
NYU
Michigan
Cornell</p>
<p>Just a Notch Below:
Notre Dame</p>
<p>Less Banking Recruitment:
Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Would be Tough:
Indiana
Villanova (there are a bunch of Alums on WS though, so maybe with networking… might need to do a BO/MO role first)</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon would be great though if you are interested in more quantitatively focused hedge funds or if you are interested in trading in addition to banking.</p>
<p>It’s still not as widely recruited for trading at Banks, though I can’t comment on the HF part (it would make sense for quanty funds).</p>
<p>So would I be better off going to University of Chicago and majoring in economics? I for some reason always had the misunderstanding that if i wanted to do investment stuff that I would be better off going to a business school.</p>
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<p>You are making it sound like U Chicago is your fall back. U Chicago would be a higher ranked school with tougher admission stats than all the above you listed. Assuming that your list contains reaches, matches, and safeties, the primary question is not whether you would be better off going to Chicago. Rather, the question is, will they consider you good enough to admit you. What are your stats?</p>
<p>BTW: don’t confuse the acceptance rate with the difficulty of getting in. U Chicago does not have many “what the heck” applicants, so historically their acceptance rate was higher than that of the academic peers, but their stats for enrolled students are right up there with Columbia, Penn, Duke and Stanford, and higher than any of the schools you listed. </p>
<p>Try Berkeley Haas and UVA Darden. Both are very well ranked business schools. If you think you can make it to Cornell, NYU, CMU, and Notre Dame, you can make it to Haas and Darden.</p>
<p>I wasn’t trying to make it sound like UC was my fall back schools by any means and I would say that if i add it to my list, that it would be at the top (in regards to prestige and difficulty). I just wasn’t sure about not going to a “business school” since that’s pretty much what I was set on until reading about the ibankers only being recruited from these very upper tier schools. Would there be any disadvantages of getting an economics degree from UC as opposed to a finance degree from one of the business schools I’ve listed??</p>
<p>And for my stats…
UW GPA 3.7 with hardest possible schedule offered at my high school
SAT: 1330 (hoping for somewhere between 1350 and 1400 on the test i took earlier this month)
And the thing that is going to kill me is that i am right outside the top 10%. Hopefully my mid term grades (assuming that i get all A’s) might bring me within the top 10%</p>
<p>I don’t believe it matters much whether you major in economics or business.</p>
<p>More pressing issue is the fact that based on your stats, any top 20 schools (CMU, Cornell, Notre Dame in your list) are all high reach for you (unless you are a URM, athlete, legacy, celebrity, etc). As an unhooked candidate, your stats should be in the vicinity of the 75% range of their published stats for enrolled freshmen to consider that school a comfortable match. Both your GPA and SAT are below where they should be. As an OOS, your stats may not be enough for Michigan, Cal Berkeley or UVA. </p>
<p>If you can make it to NYU, that would be the best since it’s easier to get in and still provides access to Wall Street. However, even NYU is not a comfortable match for you unless you are hooked. </p>
<p>To be honest, I can’t think of a single school that is considered a good Wall Street target school that is also a match for you based on your stats. Your best bet may be to get in as good a school your stats will allow you and then start right from the beginning doing all the right things to let you transfer into one of the feeder schools as early as possible.</p>
<p>Of course, I may be wrong. If you do get into a feeder school right from the beginning, more power to you, but I think you really don’t have a good fall back strategy currently.</p>
<p>(BTW: many Wall Street firms request SAT score when they hire a new employee. Your score is going to disadvantage you. Even after the admission season is over, you might want to retake the SAT to see if you can improve the score for later use).</p>