<p>The average starting salary for a Whartonite is roughly $66k while McCombs is $56.
Wharton kids mostly head off to NYC while McCombs go to Dallas/Houston.</p>
<p>In terms of climate, Texas could be considered arguably better by most people since there is rarely ever snow. While winters in NYC are quite cold. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Texas can get uncomfortably hot. But let's be honest, most would rather stroll around in the Texas hot extremes casually in shorts/tank-tops than NYC's cold extremes bundled up in scarves and coats. Of course there's always air-conditioning when you're working in the office.</p>
<p>Note:I've only ever been to NYC, never to Texas.</p>
<p>If you’re implying that NYC holds more prestige than Texas, that’s certainly true. But when it comes down to it, $$$ is really all that matters within the IB, consulting/hedge funds/PE realm. You will rarely ever hear someone in finance discuss their career as passionate as an artist, musician, engineer, or researcher describe their craft.</p>
<p>Why stop there? Why not live in Albuquerque or Charlotte, if it’s just about weather and money? Why do people choose to move to San Francisco, LA, and Miami after they graduate?</p>
<p>Salary, job opportunities, network, prestige, nightlife, etc. are all better in New York. It’s not just about salary minus cost of living. Unless you’re sure you want to do energy for the rest of your life, Texas doesn’t really make sense for 95% of the population.</p>
Those could be valid cities to live in too. Perhaps I should’ve named this thread simply “Why NYC?”. Since the vast majority of people here do not give other places a thought.</p>
<p>However, Houston is still much larger than those two, so many can still experience thl “big city life”.</p>
Like I said, many people who go into finance do not see their work in the same way as a musician writes music, an artist paints, or an engineer builds. Money is money. It’s not like they’re expecting business graduates to be Petroleum Engineers anyways.</p>
<p>1) Exit opps. NYC will open more doors.
2) You pretty much stuck doing energy if you stay in Texas. Your 10% stat is not correct. Those 10% are those who are going to work at an energy company not IB. Everyone going into IB from McCombs who stays in Texas will be doing energy. I just looked at the FT list for class of 2013. Plus all the banks in Texas will be focused on doing energy deals.
3) Money is not money. At the analyst stage, no one cares how much you make in salary. Gotta look ahead to what is next after your analyst stint. If you are in Houston doing energy IB, you pretty much stuck with energy PE if you go that route. Pigeonholed in energy.</p>
<p>Texas seems to make sense for 8.04% of the population. Based on 2010 population figures, TX makes sense to more people than NY does. TX is also one of the fastest growing states. I would argue that NY doesn’t make much sense (and I am from NJ - another state that doesn’t make much sense in a similar way). In NY you have: high unemployment, high taxes, and high cost of living.</p>
<p>2.</p>
<p>The OP seems like he may not even be set on finance. If you’re after quality of life and work life balance, look at sectors other than finance.</p>
<p>In NYC, the cost of living is so high that the possibility to live in anything other than a closet, finance may be your only option. But since the OP is not restricting himself to high cost of living areas, he can be more flexible with his career path.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for other sectors, but I will speak for my own experience. I was hired within a month of graduation from a state school with a BS Computer Science as a software engineer at a major defense contractor in the MD area (Baltimore). Fortunately, I was serving as a second lieutenant at that time and have a secret level security clearance.</p>
<p>They offered me the following starting (Baltimore, MD area):</p>
<ul>
<li>$80,000 per year annual income</li>
<li>$10,000 per year tuition assistance for grad school</li>
<li>35 hour work week schedule with the option to flex your schedule for consistent long weekends</li>
<li>4 weeks of vacation per year (can carry over 2x that as your cap) </li>
<li>military differential pay (can double dip during training or mobilization)</li>
</ul>
<p>Now I consider myself a pretty big into the nightlife scene when I was in NJ, but with DC less than an hour away, it’s not an issue. But being able to get a very nice dinner on the water/harbor for yourself and your date for $60 at most is fantastic. Also, being able to own a 3BR 1400 sq. ft. luxury condo (and not need roommates/significant other to afford it) no more than four blocks from the Inner Harbor is something you definitely can’t do in NYC easily.</p>
<p>When it came down to it, in order to match my standard of living and quality of life in MD, I would have needed to earn at least $160,000 guaranteed in NYC and there is simply no entry level position in any sector in NYC that could guarantee that for a fresh undergrad. So if you’re looking for quality of life or work life balance, my experience is that you won’t find it in NYC.</p>
<p>NYC has plenty of opportunities … if you’re already wealthy. The barriers to entry are so high that you won’t be able to make large asset purchases easily for quite some time. This isn’t true for many other places in the country.</p>
<p>It’s not NYC hate, oldmom. (I am from there myself.) It’s just as Polo pointed out. It’s a very tough place to make a living, particularly for someone just starting out. “Quality of life” means different things to different people, of course, but not everyone wants the pace of life and challenges that come with living in the city.</p>
<p>Money is something, but not everything. I’d much rather live in Houston making 20k a year than live in Dirtville, Wyoming making 50K. Even though it is a substantial 2.5x more money than I would be making.</p>
<p>NYC is a great city if you are a young adult, not saying Houston/Dallas isn’t, but NYC is better for most people.</p>
<p>Somehow, I would doubt that you would like to live homeless when you could live comfortably somewhere else.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>NYC isn’t better for “most” people. Places with a reasonable cost of living are better for “most” people (if by “most” you mean for the average American). Quality of life matters.</p>
<p>My quality of life comes from theater, arts, fashion, nightlife, diverse and high-quality dining, a highly educated population, people from all walks of life, low crime, etc. just some examples that many people would consider in their determination of QoL</p>
<p>To each his/her own for sure. I was raised in NYC in an ideal environment. I left in my 20’s. Now I am in my 50’s and would love to move back.</p>
<p>My 25 year old D1, working in IB as a trader, has a great life. She has a great apartment in Manhatten and has access to and attends wonderful restaurants, shows, sporting events and museums. She can also afford to leave and go hiking in Peru (last summer) or Yosemite (in April). She can also walk across the street and be in Central Park. </p>
<p>And being in NYC gives her much better growth opportunities in the finance field.</p>
This would make the most sense to me. If someone starts talking about cost of living, work life balance, etc., then it’s a slippery slope. I would think that they aren’t absolutely committed to finance in that case.
This rationale is the same reason I moved to the Baltimore area. If you want to develop your career in the defense sector and as a member of service, there’s no better area to do that than being somewhere between Aberdeen Proving Ground and NoVA.
I’ve resided in (albeit temporarily) many “boondocks” of the US while serving (and continuing to serve) in the US Army. One thing I’ve realized is that I learn to enjoy whatever environment I may find myself.</p>