You make a good argument that Stern’s undergraduate enrollment is quite a bit bigger than NU’s economics program - and should be considered when evaluating IB placement.
However, you include NYU’s economic majors in the same pool of competition for IB jobs as Stern students. The majority of economic students probably aren’t pursuing IB, or they would have applied to Stern at some point during their four-years. Even if they were trying to compete for an IB job, from the perspective of a bank, economics is a less desirable major for students that attended schools offering finance-related programs - as is the case for NYU. So, economic students aren’t nearly on the same competitive level as Stern students for high-finance jobs, especially IB.
With that aside, NYU comprises 3.9% of all hiring for IB in the US, while NU makes up 0.9%. If only looking at NYC/East-Cost specific posts -which appears to be OP’s desired destination - NYU’s edge would likely be even bigger. While NU’s economics program may only be 1/3 the size of Stern’s, its IB placement is at most just a 1/4 of Stern’s - probably closer to a 1/5. So, even on a per-capita basis, there is evidence that Stern places students better into the IB field.
“I thought that Stern was the better name brand in the business world.”
I’d be a little careful in that comparison, because you’re comparing the business school at NYU to the econ program at their Arts and Science not the b-school at Northwestern. Put another way, having Kellogg on your resume even for a certificate would be more prestigious than anything at NYU, at the undergrad level anyway.
You should also take into account that at a school like Stern you can intern during the year and networking is much easier being in NYC over any other place. Considering you plan on working in a city like NY.
No point in commenting anymore guys, I already chose Stern over Northwestern in another post earlier on this thread. Tbh I think that there’s a marginal prestige difference between Stern and NU, so I chose Stern and its NYC because I liked it a lot more. Thanks for all your guys’ help!
I know you already made your decision but let me offer my two cents on one thought you had per your post earlier. You thought that Stern was the better name brand in the “business world”. That would probably be correct if “business world” to you means Wall Street. But the world is much bigger than investment banking and moving money around is typically not the core “business” of just about any company. In management consulting, a field many people associate with “business”, Northwetern has the edge.