Just transferred to Gallatin from Stern.

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
#1

<p>After one year at Stern, I'm moving into Gallatin.</p>

<p>Are there any other people who were internal transfers on here? I'm not sure if I still have to take the writing seminar, as I placed out of Writing the Essay earlier. Is it easy to fit in?</p>

<p>And what kind of opportunities can I get involved with in the school? </p>

<p>If any prospective students have questions, I'd be happy to answer them as well.</p>

<p>Stern's a pretty good school -I just got an internship at an investment bank during the year, and decided I didn't want to stay in the industry. I dropped out of school second semester to start my own company.</p>

<p>Gallatin would allow me to get academic credit for that. Basically, I'd be able to work as much as I need to without sacrificing school, and wouldn't have to drop out.</p>

#2

<p>Hey I'm heading into stern this fall and have a few questions: can you please elaborate I. Your internship? (ie where, commitment, how you got it, what you did, how much you got paid, likes/dislikes, etc.). Sorry, but I really want an internship in ibanking, so I want to get a heads up. Also, can you give the pros and cons of stern, please? I feel like you would know alot of the pros and cons, since your transferring. THANKS A KAJILLION!!</p>

#3

<p>I'd like to know about your internship too. I've heard it's harder to get internships your first year, but then again I've never had an internship period so I don't really know how any of that works.</p>

#4

<p>Sure thing.</p>

<p>Do keep in mind that early ibanking internships are extremely rare. I started networking/emailing at the beginning of the year, and set up meetings with over 300 separate people. I was completely set on banking/private equity until I actually got the job.</p>

<p>So keep your options open.</p>

<p>Given that I was the only part-time (or freshman, period) at the firm, I'd like to keep where I worked confidential. I got it through networking extensively, as well as having previous experience with excel. I offered unpaid, but did a good job -they ended up giving me a salary of $20 an hour. This ended up being 30 hours a week. Deals weren't really happening (economy was tanking), so I didn't have to stay in the office overnight or work too much.</p>

<p>It was a boutique firm, but fairly reputable. Well known on the street, and competed with bulge-bracket firms/GS/MS in one specific industry sector. Our MDs came from GS, CS, and top-tier banks.</p>

<p>For most people, the huge internship is a summer analyst position junior summer. Many banks offer sophomore programs you should apply for. Freshman positions generally do not occur without networking (or having family connections. but my parents were janitors). Houlihan Lokey, another reputable middle-market bank, maintains some part-time positions for Stern sophomores and juniors.</p>

<p>Stern's advantage is its proximity to wall street and all the banks. You can set up meetings/eat lunch with managing directors or whoever you want, if you're smart enough. Even if they're not alumni, although there are hundreds of bankers/people in finance who've been through Stern.</p>

<p>The downside is, no college student knows exactly what they want to do, but there's a lot of pressure to start on finance early because it's so competitive. As a result, over 90% of Stern is studying finance or would be if they could.</p>

<p>I mean, it's not like people will try to sabotage you, it's not competitive like that at all. But everyone's the same.</p>

<p>There are clubs for entrepreneurship, but almost none of them have really started anything significant. The school needs more engineers.</p>

#5

<p>ohgod - What kind of internships would you be interested in?</p>

<p>It depends on the industry. Freshman year, it will often depend on your own initiative (and previous experience). For example, if you want to work at a tech startup, they won't mind that you're young if you have programming experience, have contributed to open source projects, or have projects of your own.</p>

<p>If you're interested in marketing, you can offer to do free marketing for companies you like, and just do a good job. They'll hire you if you're good, and if not, you now have marketable experience.</p>

<p>For finance, it's a bit harder. I'd contact whoever you know. I was offering to work for free, had a 3.9 GPA, and was the youngest officer on the school investment club. I had a lot of experience investing, and had previous professional experience with Microsoft Excel. Also had pretty good high school stats.</p>

<p>I was an irregular case, and was lucky to secure a position at a reputable firm. On your end, I'd contact alumni, but offer to work at boutique banks. Some may not have a brand name, but any front-office finance experience looks good for later on. It'll be extremely relevant, there are tons of them in New York.</p>

<p>If you're a minority, I would apply for SEO and MLT sophomore year, as well as INROADS freshman year. This wasn't part of my own application though, I'm just half asian/white. They're really good programs though.</p>

#6

<p>can u give me an approximation of what stern is looking for in terns of gpa and act scores?</p>

#7

<p>Just do as well as you can and apply, chances don't really matter. Application fees might, but I was able to get all of mine waived.</p>

<p>I will say that Stern had a higher average SAT than almost any other school (don't want to say top, can't remember). But the school as a whole is making the test optional.</p>

<p>So it's not a huge factor at all, they're trying to recruit diversity. Focus more on extracurriculars and personal projects. I would really, really encourage you to start a company.</p>

<p>The point is to show that you can contribute to the university, and grades only show part of that.</p>

<p>If it helps, I was barely in the top 50% of my class. I had a 3.6 weighted, and we had some grade inflation. I had perfect scores on tests, although that doesn't matter as much. What got me in was starting a nonprofit that had a huge impact on my local community, doing software consulting projects for Fortune 500 companies, and assisting teaching for one class a day at a local middle school.</p>

<p>edit:: If you're really just stuck on numbers, focus on the passion. Intern at a small accounting firm, most of those even pay high school interns pretty good salaries. Do FBLA if it's good at your school. Start a business. Trade a personal account -it'd be good to familiarize yourself with the market as soon as possible. Might not be a factor at all in college admissions, but will go a long way in helping impress/find a finance job once you're there.</p>

<p>Other things you can do are economic research, covering business news, or writing a finance blog.</p>

#8

<p>Thanks for the response, nbknight! :) I'm planning on majoring in econ/finance (originally I thought I'd just do econ, but I hear that it's not too hard to double-major and stern is known for finance after all, so I figured I'd go after that too). Of course there's the caveat -- I don't know all that much about either so for all I know I'll end up majoring in something completely unrelated a few years from now.</p>

<p>So that's one of my major worries -- the competition and the fact that if I don't get started now I may as well just quit because I won't be able to get anything done later, since everyone and their mother will be trying to do the same thing. I also don't have much work experience at all (though I could figure out excel I'm sure, lol) so that's a strike against me. I'm no special snowflake and have no connections, and I'm not a minority. I'm not sure I could network successfully with 300+ people to get that head start.</p>

<p>Phew, that was a pretty emo-y post, sorry for sperging out like that.</p>

#9

<p>No worries. I think I'm posting too much, but if anyone has other questions on student life in general I can take those as well.</p>

<p>You'll be fine. Econ/finance wouldn't be hard. Nobody knows much about either originally, NYU is perfect outside of the part about Stern pigeonholing people into finance.</p>

<p>The upside is, the exposure to wall street and business in general are so high you can learn a lot quickly.</p>

<p>If you did economic research early or freshman year, it'd be looked upon pretty favorably for finance jobs later anyway. Almost nobody has relevant experience coming into Stern as is.</p>

<p>On Excel, it's harder than it sounds. I don't mean just entering data, but creating financial models, projections, and creating macros with Visual Basic. So it does qualify as a skill.</p>

<p>Don't worry about contacting 300 people. I wasn't exaggerating, but it wasn't really necessary. Basically, if you see someone that's interesting, email them. You can ask questions about their job and how they got there, and most will help you out down the road for recruiting as well.</p>

<p>You can prove yourself with research, leadership positions in relevant clubs on campus, and financial knowledge. If you don't work at all freshman year, it's not looked down on anyway. I'd make sure you have work experience sophomore summer if you're aiming for banking, but most of my friends just ended up drinking the entire year and summer, and they have good jobs now. It was probably a lot more fun than my job.</p>

#10

<p>how do u start a business I have no idea, i would appreciate the help, and in terms of FBLA, im in that and very active, Im the new York STATE FBLA SECRETARY</p>

#11

<p>That would require a lot more information than a CC post or PM. Don't worry about that, most people don't.</p>

<p>For admissions or anything at all, just show initiative. Find the opportunities you want, and apply or get involved with them. If it doesn't exist, create it.</p>

<p>Nice job on FBLA secretary. Grades are the largest factor in showing student potential, but if you can show it through other means, it takes the load off. Keep doing that, and try to boost GPA. I don't know what yours is, and I realize mine was low, but I haven't met anyone else at Stern with a similar background to me.</p>

#12

<p>I'm a minority, Hispanic. Can you elaborate on inroads and the other aforementioned groups that help out urm's? I'm sorry, but we are low income, and the biggest draw at stern for me was the possibility of making money while attending school. I really need something since I won't be getting much money in college. Thank you.</p>

#13

<p>That's fine. While I'm generally conservative/libertarian, I do believe in affirmative action. Plus, given how competitive banking is in general, it would be hard not to pass it up. Most people will be happy to help.</p>

<p>I was extreme low-income as well, so it was a large issue.</p>

<p>SEO and MLT are programs you apply to sophomore year, that cover extensive training, networking, and placement into top-tier firms. I need to find out more on MLT, but SEO is guaranteed placement. While limited to minorities, it's pretty selective. They have an "SEO-U" program for freshmen, that has some basic training and acts as a feeder program for the real thing next year.</p>

<p>INROADS helps set up interviews at firms for URMs, and supports you throughout school provided you have over a 3.0 GPA. For banks, keep in mind you want a 3.5 and above. As high as possible. I know people who went through INROADS to secure internships at Moody's freshman summer (it's pretty good -they do credit ratings on securities, mostly bonds/fixed-income), and went to bulge-bracket banks sophomore and junior year through the same program.</p>

<p>Getting the interview is the hardest part, so it helps. You will have to be qualified either way. I'd recommend reading the Wall Street Journal daily, or just going through finance blogs/dealbook whenever you can.</p>

<p>Look into the Investment Analysis Group on campus, as well as the Quantitative Finance Society if you're interested. The top people left, so I'm not sure if it'll be as good this year. But I learned a lot.</p>

<p>ALPFA is a club for latinos in finance on campus. They have a lot of recruiting events with Big 4 accounting firms. The actual club doesn't do much, but they're heavily recruited.</p>

#14

<p>nbknight- Could someone in CAS get a job in investment banking? How much harder is it?</p>

#15

<p>Pretty hard.</p>

<p>They have a business studies program in CAS, but it's not really the same. I don't recommend it. There are so many people in Stern competing for spots that you won't be noticed. If you get an interview, the first question will likely be "why aren't you in Stern?" They're looking for a lot of dedicated interest.</p>

<p>It would be possible to break in through networking or connections, as well as minority programs.</p>

<p>Possible otherwise, but it'd be much more difficult. Basically, it's harder to take advantage of the school's name and on campus recruiting -it's similar to applying from a non-target school banks don't recruit at.</p>

<p>I can think of a couple people who work at smaller banks from CAS, but I can think of hundreds of Stern people everywhere.</p>

<p>Why are you interested in banking though? There are a lot of cooler careers, in my opinion.</p>

#16