madmatt

Which is better?
Columbia (financial engineering) vs. Stern

House of London

I'd say Columbia University. Both are pretty good in terms of prestige, rankings and job placements. They are both similar in many respects so you really cannot go wrong with either one. It all depends on your personality and whether you fit NYU's atmosphere or Columbia's atmosphere.

Take a look at this link. Notice where Columbia & NYU falls and how close they both are to each other in rankings.
Search - Business - Best Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report

truazn8948532

... In New York City, Columbia reigns supreme.

nesh1080

Stern >>>> Financial Engineering at Columbia FU

truazn8948532

... ^ LoL. Keep lying to yourself buddy.

confidentialcoll

"Stern >>>> Financial Engineering at Columbia FU"

um...no.

I've spoken to a bunch of analysts and associates on wall street, in management consulting, investment management and I-banking, and they all say columbia engineering as a whole is comparable to stern if not slightly better. They are close to me, and have no reason to lie, they said that wharton and harvard places better so they weren't trying to flatter or anything.

If we're looking at FE at stern (don't know if NYU has an FE program) vs. FE at columbia, this too would be comparable, columbia's grad FE program is among the best in the country if not the best, and the undergrad too would reap these benefits. If we're talking about columbia FE vs. stern general- Then FE > stern, because the level of mathematical, cs and statistical rigor in columbia's FE program is unmatchable at an undergrad business program, at the same time all classes are geared to wall street.

Poupoupidou

Uhhmm why is this even a question? Columbia is to New York as Harvard is to Boston and NYU is to New York as... I dunno... Tufts or BC is to Boston.

House of London

"Columbia is to New York as Harvard is to Boston and NYU is to New York as... I dunno... Tufts or BC is to Boston."


Can you please explains to me what this proves or your point for writing this?

quag_mire

to acquire similar of mathematical knowledge in Stern as one would acquire in FE at Columbia, one should major in math/statistics from NYU's Courant institute (which i think is ranked #1 for its graduate math program), along with the Stern major....i think that should put you on par with the Columbia FE people, atleast in terms of landing a wall street job or getting into graduate programs in quant finance

pearfire

Obivously Columbia... As someone who works closely with bankers, I can tell you that Columbia is one of the top 3 feeders to WS firms. You can get a job coming out of Stern, but ceteris paribus, definitely Columbia.

ivyleaves

^ What are the other 2 WS feeders?

Also, what are the top 5 universities that WS like to tap on? What Degrees?

pearfire

That should be pretty clear, but in any case: Wharton and Harvard. Wharton will most often get more spots than Columbia or Harvard. For GS's summer analyst class 2008, we beat Harvard by a few spots. Wharton on the other hand will have 20 more interns than us.

Just because Wharton, Harvard and Columbia send the most kids to WS firms, it doesn't have to mean that they are WS's favorites. Most likely, a lot more people from Columbia apply to banks than, say, Princeton. I don't have any relative numbers, so it's hard to guess what colleges banks like the most. It's pretty save to say that HYPWC will be in that group. There are definitely others in that group, too, but things get a little vaguer. Personally, I don't think that someone who would get into a BB from Princeton wouldn't be able to get into a BB from, say, Brown. I honestly think the difference is negligible and it depends a lot more on how good you are, because you college can only open doors for you, not walk you through. Since all the top schools will the door for you, it really is up to yourself what you make of it.

Just for the record: I only know for some BBs that the 3 most represented schools are WHC, I don't know it for all of them. But BBs should be pretty similar and from talking to other interviewees form other school, I've generally been told that they noticed a lot of people from WHC, more than from other schools. Also note that this is for the NYC offices only! I have no idea what the distribution for, say, San Francisco is. I imagine they have more Stanford and Berkeley people though.