<p>Harvard has only a slight name brand advantage over Columbia or Princeton, certainly not enough to make you select it on the basis of that alone. If you really prefer Princeton or Columbia, go to one of those!</p>
<p>Princeton is pretty close to New York - you can get to the city in 1.5 hours using NJ transit trains, and it’s pretty easy. So if you wanted to visit the city on the weekends, you can do so. I go to Columbia (grad student) and have been to Princeton and the campus is absolutely gorgeous, in a nice quiet suburban area. Philadelphia is also easily accessible by public transit.</p>
<p>Columbia is great, too. It doesn’t seem very undergrad-focused, but I didn’t attend here as an undergrad so I can’t really speak to that at all. The campus is very pretty but small. However, there’s a pretty strong tech focus here in especially the last few years, and especially with SEAS. A few professors and wealthy alumni have recently begun an institute for big data here, and there are all kinds of initiatives to encourage students to start or join tech start-ups.</p>
<p>Any of these places would be a good launchpad for finance.</p>