Any schools you guys recommend for Finance on the East Coast. I am a resident of PA. Open to public/private, I have a 4.3 weighted GPA, and a 4.0 unweighted GPA. I took the SAT once and got a 1320. My course load included 8 honors, 4 APS, and 2 dual enrollment. My extra curriculars are club and varsity volleyball, along with founder of mental health club and treasurer, and treasurer of FBLA. Along with work as a head lifeguard, NHS, etc… Open to any recommendations! Thank you guys!
What do you seek in finance?
Define affordable.
Corporate finance, investments, something else.
Penn State is the obvious as is Pitt and even Temple.
Either corporate finance or financial advising.
<$40k per year
Penn State, Pitt, SUNYs like Bing or Buffalo or Albany.
W Carolina is $20K all in - if E Coast enough.
Millersville
CNU
Salisbury
URI
UMaine
FAU
You can try a U Del, UGA as possibilities. St. Joe and Seton Hall for private - both religious. Bryant in RI too.
The where won’t matter - you need affordability.
Good luck.
Thanks
Haven’t looked at them in a few years but Fordham can be generous with merit, and Gabelli is a solid school. Might be worth a look with your stats, but you’d probably want to go test optional.
To help give you options, it would be good to know:
(1) What is your approximate class rank?
(2) What does it look like when you run the Net Price Calculators at private colleges? Maybe try Fordham and Bucknell.
(3) Any other preferences for colleges beside available Finance and East Coast? Small, medium, large? Rural, suburban, urban? Greek life, yes, no, or indifferent? And so on.
- My school doesn’t calculate class rank.
- The calculators typically come back anywhere from $35k-$50k. But some do not calculate merit.
- Urban is definitely a preference of mine but I am open to suburban as well. As far as size goes I think small-medium would be best for me. I am definitely open to looking at schools that don’t align with that if the program and cost are a good fit.
LeMoyne would give solid merit. Their business school is moving up in rankings. My D25 toured and the business school dean was just walking by and stopped to talk to our tour group and seemed very nice. My D25 is not interested in finance but she was quite impressed that he did an impromptu chat with potential students. It made her feel like she would be supported there.
I am a Finance student here at the University of Florida. It’s around 40k OOS and we are a semi-target school, which is helpful if you want high finance (IB, Consulting) roles.
Check out Rider and Widener.
Check College of Charleston. I don’t think you’ll get to the # but you will get close. And with Honors - maybe.
It’s 10k kids and urban. Lots of Northeasterners.
Below are some small to medium schools that you may want to consider, sorted by my guesses as to your chances for admission. Many of these schools have high sticker prices, so you want to make sure and run the Net Price Calculators at them. The likelier the school for an admission the likelier the odds for some good merit aid.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
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Bryant (RI): About 3200 undergrads, a very business-focused school
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Emmanuel (MA): About 1900 undergrads and part of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium which allows students to cross-register at the other schools, participate in clubs together and sports.
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Loyola Maryland: About 4k undergrads and part of the Baltimore Collegetown network which allows students to cross-register at other schools like Johns Hopkins and Goucher.
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Penn State – Behrend College (Erie): About 3200 undergrads
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Penn State – Harrisburg: About 4k undergrads
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Saint Joseph’s (PA ): About 5100 undergrads
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Seton Hall (NJ): About 6k undergrads
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Stonehill (MA): About 2500 undergrads
Likely (60-79%)
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Bentley (MA): About 4100 undergrads, a very business-focused school
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Fairfield (CT): About 4800 undergrads
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Muhlenberg (PA ): About 1900 undergrads
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Providence (RI): About 4k undergrads
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Wofford (SC): About 1800 undergrads
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
- Lehigh (PA ): About 5600 undergrads
Low Probability (less than 20%)
The University of Scranton is worth a look at, too.
OK, so this is going to be complicated, but not necessarily in a bad way. If a private college is already at $35K with estimate need, that is on your budget. If it is just a bit over $40K, and has a decent need+merit program, you might qualify for enough, I just can’t say too much without knowing how your grades will actually be seen in context.
I note sometimes there is automatic merit tied to GPA, although that is pretty uncommon on the East Coast specifically. But sometimes discretionary merit is available Test Optional, or in other cases your SAT would be competitive anyway.
With that in mind, I previously mentioned Fordham and Bucknell just because they are colleges that swing well above their weight when it comes to being connected to the East Coast finance industry and I think are realistic application options for you. Sounds like Fordham might be a bit more to your tastes, although it doesn’t have much merit so hopefully their NPC is on the generous side.
I agree with Lehigh also being worth checking out, although again they do not have much merit. Villanova is yet another I would put in that category.
Providence is yet another I would think you could check out, and I believe they actually have a bit more merit available.
Fairfield is not often discussed here, but I think it is fair to say this is an area of strength for them, and I believe they have a pretty robust merit program. Quinnipiac would be another option.
That’s just a few ideas to consider.
For target schools St. Joes in Philly or Duquesne in Pittsburgh came to mind. Wofford in SC could work.
Was going to post Duquesne and St Joes , so… seconding ^ - both safeties and well-connected to the Business community.
Susquehanna would be a likely. Solid business school, good honors college that’d likely yield scholarships.
At Penn State apply DUS to University Park (very few students are admitted to Business straight from HS) but you can apply to Finance if you apply straight to PSU Behrend or Altoona for 2+2 - it would guarantee a more supportive environment, a less difficult path to Finance (you basically need straight As in weedout courses) and a potential scholarship, especially if you apply for the branch campus’ Schreyer college.
I don’t think Fordham would be quite within budget.
Lehigh and Bucknell would be reaches but you can try.
My youngest daughter applied to 20 schools, Saint Joe’s came in the cheapest ($20,000 all in). Her goal was/is actuary science. Unfortunately she’s not a Philadelphia fan (we are 1 1/2 hours away, she loves NYC which is very close, she just doesn’t feel safe, she feels the homeless are more aggressive in Philadelphia compared to NYC, Boston, Chicago and DC (has spent a holiday weekend there every year for 10 years for dance).
This is a concern for my d25 who loved Saint Joe’s otherwise. She did feel safe around campus but recognized there wasn’t a ton to do around the school. I totally understand why she loved it (I think Jesuit schools in general work really well for her goals and who she is as a person), but I moved it to the middle of her list!
Drexel has a really good business school and could potentially come in budget. It’s definitely urban. My cousin graduated from it and has done very well for himself in the finance industry. He did paid co-ops in NYC, Delaware and San Francisco with job offers from each.