Where Should I Go?

<p>Basically I have been accepted at UNC with a full scholarship (Carolina Scholars), Notre Dame (Reilly Program), Northwestern, and Duke and have been waitlisted at Columbia and Cornell. </p>

<p>I need help deciding where to go next year. </p>

<p>I am interested in business/finance and am looking to get internships on wallstreet during my 4 years of college and a job on wallstreet after college (preferably at the bigger banks such as GS and JPM). I would especially like to get into private equity and hedge funds straight out of undergrad which I know is very difficult. Would these schools give me the opportunities to do so? Will UNC (considering i work my ass off) give me these opportunities? </p>

<p>I really need help deciding where to go, especially since the deadline is in 11 days. Thank you and I appreciate all feedback both possitive and negative.</p>

<p>UNC is free. It has a top business program and is top notch in other areas as well. You should go there</p>

<p>Duke doesn’t even have an undergraduate business major, although that doesn’t mean that you can’t do extremely well coming from that school. If costs were equal, I’d say that Duke would be the best choice as it holds a slight prestige advantage over UNC. However, UNC’'s b-school is still top 10 and a full ride to one of the best business schools in the nation would be very difficult to pass up.</p>

<p>Have you visited the schools that you are considering? Which one makes you feel the most at home?</p>

<p>I guess it depends on how much financial aid Duke is offering you. It seems you want to go into IB, an industry obsessed with pedigree. So, if you are only going to be going a few thousand in debt, I say choose Duke. However, in regards to quality education, all your choices are about equal.</p>

<p>FWIW, UNC is one of the few publics (UVA also) that are regularly recruited by the top IB firms and a UNC grad and former Morehead Scholar heads up one of the largest in the world.</p>

<p>As others have said, Kenan Flagler is a top ten undergrad business program and lastly, graduating DEBT FREE is huge…save your money for grad school since many IB firms will want you to do that after your first two year contract expires.</p>

<p>The other schools besides UNC are not giving me any aid since my family is pretty well off and I did not apply for aid. </p>

<p>I am also in the honors program at UNC and have received assured enrollment in their business school. The social life and sports there are also fantastic. I am therefore leaning towards UNC.</p>

<p>Will UNC provide me the opportunities to get on wallstreet with a solid job out of undergrad?</p>

<p>^ Yes, but probably not as much as some of your other schools.</p>

<p>why didn’t you apply for aid at those other schools? if UNC gave you aid those others would have given you aid too, and probably a lot more. UNC was the school that gave me the least, other schools incl ones like those private ones on your list are quite generous for most families.</p>

<p>based on what you want to do, i would go for columbia and campaign to get off that waitlist. their endowment in huge and you WOULD get plenty of aid if UNC saw you as eligible for aid.</p>

<p>i wouldn’t make a decision until you called those other schools and see what was possible for aid. as long as your family doesn’t own a beach house or lake home, or sitting on huge amounts of cash, you will probably get aid. even if your family makes over 100K.</p>

<p>I believe the OP got merit aid at UNC</p>

<p>Ya I got a full merit scholarship not financial aid. And trust me I already checked and I wouldn’t qualify for any aid.</p>

<p>Duke all the way! I have friends graduating and already got jobs and into some amazing grad schools. Many jobs were in IB. UNC, I’m here, and everyone is struggling to get jobs. Recruiters go to Duke more</p>

<p>??? Are you serious? How many Kenan Flagler kids go to wallstreet after graduation ? Any to big banks?</p>

<p>To the OP, you have a lot of great opportunities at UNC. You are not the average UNC student. You are in the honors college and have a full ride. You are also in a top 5 business program. Just because some people may not have jobs does not mean that you will not. I believe that you will do excellent. Duke is an amazing school, but so is UNC (especially when it is free). If it were between Duke and say a free ride at a school like UMD, I may suggest differently. </p>

<p>Do you have to take out loans for Duke?</p>

<p>Thanks ya I think UNC would be a lot more fun too. No I dont think I have to take out any loans. My dad said that I can use half the money I got from the 150k scholarship to save up and invest so I can use later to start any ventures I would want to pursue.</p>

<p>^ Then it’s a no brainer…that’s an amazing deal your dad has offered…you’d be foolish not to accept it.</p>

<p>I did not realize that you had a full-ride, I skipped that part. In that case, Kenan-Flagler does have a really good reputation and you seem like one of the applicants at KF who is very ambitious and who will take every opportunity/ network with professors and join Business Symposium, so go for UNC! KF is a different environment than the Arts and Science programs at UNC, I’m just biased because I’m a social science major and not too impressed with the academics for the amount I pay as an out of state applicant. </p>

<p>Though KF does have great professors and programs and you can actually pursue great relationships with your professor. Needless to say it is not hard to thrive academically there since the average grade in every class is marked at a “B+”, extremely inflated compared to the rest of the programs at UNC, because it is a separate program/ school. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Did you look into Robertson Scholars? That way you can get the best of both worlds, be a Duke and Carolina student at the same time. Definitely look into it! You sound like an ideal candidate.</p>

<p>If you are serious about banking, I wouldn’t let the $120k difference worry you too much.</p>

<p>If going to Duke gets you the job you want, and it pays $10k a year more (which is nothing in banking terms), then the extra education will pay for itself in a decade. (Not taking into account future-value discounting, but it would work out roughly the same).</p>

<p>If you really are set on private equity/hedge funds, then prestige is really important isn’t it?</p>

<p>You can get the job you want at either school, just depends how much work you put into it. Personally, I think a difference in cost of $120,000 is huge.</p>

<p>^ huge to us plebs, but to many bankers it’s a small annual bonus.</p>

<p>Do any UNC kids get jobs at Goldman Sachs in NYC?</p>