Senior in high school who is deciding between attending Fordham University Gabelli School of Business or Boston University Questrom School of Business. Got into both schools for Finance.
Looking to work in Investment Banking in the future. Which school and program will be better for me for Wall Street placement.
@Catcherinthetoast would be a good person to answer your question.
But I’ll give you my opinion…I think Fordham is the better choice. It’s in NYC. It’s a feeder for certain finance jobs, like IB.
BU is a great school. I’d check to see what sorts of internships their business school students get, and also check where their grads work.
Here is a BU report and Gabelli link. Neither gives specific detailed info to the B school. I’d tend to agree Fordham but I’d call each school and ask for a detailed career report - firm, role area, and salaries. Given the interest, both should be prepared with hard data. You’re not the only with these desires.
Congratulations on these acceptances!
Are both schools affordable? Have you visited both? Do you have a preference for either location or school vibe?
Both schools place students into IB jobs, as well as other types of jobs on Wall Street. There are many different types of finance and banking jobs than just IB. IB jobs are highly competitive and neither school is going to do any of the legwork for you. It will be up to you to network to get opportunities (and get good grades and have relevant ECs). I would also probably lean towards Fordham, assuming affordability. But…I defer to @catcherinthetoast.
Congratulations to your student on excellent options! I notice that @Catcherinthetoast has been tagged by a few people… as the CC IB expert, I will defer to him. I’ve linked his AMA below in case that is of interest.
Congratulations on these acceptances.
You have gotten some good advice from @Mwfan1921 and @thumper1.
I think the devil is in the details in terms of the students understanding of IB. If they mean traditional CIB analyst programs I do think Fordham has an advantage. They place very well.
If however money management, investment services or some PE/VC opportunities are of interest Boston Universities proximity to firms like Wellington, Statestreet, Loomis, Fidelity or Bain Capital (to name a few) may tip the scale to BU.
Many of CIB’s largest institutional customers are in Boston and those opportunities should not be ignored. Most students aren’t aware of the distinctions between these career paths and tend to conflate or confuse them. I am not trying to be condescending by assuming that to be the case here but highlight it for future readers.
Sorry I am typing while on the run but happy to get more specific if I can help and thanks @DramaMama2021
Lastly, a cautionary note about using school supplied career data. They often don’t break out the financial roles I described and tend to combine them. This often results in under or overstatement of results in the sub sectors of the industry. I know it is very hard for a student to have a career path defined at this point but better to start considering some of the subtleties if possible.
Thanks for your insight @Catcherinthetoast, as well as your wise cautionary tale about salaries and career outcome. That holds true for other schools as well, especially when one is trying to look at/compare schools that generate a lot of engineer/high Income graduates versus those that generate more humanities graduates. Those are apples and oranges. And it may be dependent on self report from these graduates as well which further tips the scales.
Great advice above. Also consider if the student has a preference. And be sure the student is OK with the extensive core curriculum at Fordham.
Also, living in NYC during college is different than living in Boston. One of our kids is a BU grad, and still says it is a great place for an undergrad to be. Boston is like one big college town during the academic year.
While NYC seems to be the center of finance, @Catcherinthetoast noted some areas that fare well in Boston.
Where do you want to be for the next four years.
Two great choices.