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IvyPBear:
“That’s not correct. While Wharton does attract more of these types of recruiters than probably any other school except maybe Harvard, once they get to Penn’s campus, they don’t just interview Wharton students. In fact, a review of any of the Career Plan Survey Reports for Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences will reveal that College students do very well in this regard, and benefit greatly from Wharton’s presence on campus”</p>
<p>Yes, CAS students have done internships at Blackstone, Goldman, etc., but there’s no indication that they were in private equity, ibd, or s&t. They could well have been in operations, human resources, and other back offices. If you go to Penn CAS, you will also face a big problem during recruiting for finance positions. Recruiters like students who are very interested in finance; therefore, you pretty much have to say you are really set on finance (at least for a few years). However, you will then immediately face the question, why not Wharton? There’s no way to answer that satisfactorily without detracting from your interest in finance. That may explain why CAS students are not getting into pure finance firms (Bain Capital, Citadel, etc.).</p>
<p>The upside of attending Penn would be that you could try to transfer to Wharton after a year. If you are set on finance, attend Wharton. If you don’t think that is possible, then go to Columbia.
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<p>You’re speculating about what happens at Penn CAS interviews. The same question could be asked of Columbia College students purporting to be interested in finance (“Why not Wharton?”). There’s simply no reason to believe that interviewers would favor, e.g., Columbia College students over comparable Penn CAS students (i.e., same majors, GPAs, interviewing skills, etc.). As I said, it’s pure speculation on your part (unless you have data to the contrary).</p>