<p>I’d go to Duke, but that is just my personal preference.</p>
<p>**Washington University (St. Louis)…VERY little financial aid
Duke (College of Arts and Sciences)…almost 1/4 covered by financial aid
New York University (Stern)…basically 1/4 covered
UPenn (College of Arts and Sciences)…mostly loans
Harvard…no financial aid whatsoever
**</p>
<p>Based on that, I’d go to Harvard</p>
<p>Asking where she should go based on money alone is senseless. It depends on what her goals/interests are. But, I am shocked by the poor advice on this board. Going to Harvard makes a huge difference in a lot of ways like it doesn’t even for some of its contenders like Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, etc. Internationally, a Harvard degree is incredibly valuable. The alumni network is a very powerful group of people in law, medicine, business, entertainment, politics, publishing, the arts -> everything essentially. If you can’t afford the price, CONTACT ADMISSIONS and NEGOTIATE. Tell them your other offers. Harvard has tons of money and they should be flexible. If not, get loans. If she is interested in business, getting a high-paying job in Investment Banking/Management Consulting after graduation is easiest coming out of Harvard (the runner-up being Wharton), and you can pay them off in a couple of years (bonuses at top firms were from 100-200k for first year analysts this year in addition to the base salary). Harvard has an incredible student body. It is all about the people. Sure, Princeton and Yale may have better academics, smaller classes, more contact with professors, and a greater focus on undergraduates, but the people at Harvard are AMAZING. The professors are the best in their fields, though they are very busy and probably don’t focus a lot of their time on undergraduates. She should pick Harvard WITHOUT A QUESTION.</p>
<p>Some posters most be drunk or something. A harvard diploma is great, but I think you’ll find that:</p>
<p>A. People aren’t that impressed that you went to harvard. trust me. They might seem impressed, but in the next 5 minutes most people will have forgotten. Don’t think your going to suddenly get out of college, walk into a major business and go, “I went to harvard!” and they run up to you and offer a 7 figure salary.</p>
<p>B. Did you not read that her sister will probably be paying half, she (and her parents) will have to take out massive loans, and the OP hasnt even entered college yet. She doesn’t even seem particularly interested in Harvard, she’s just taking people’s opinion into consideration. It seems like family or friends may be pushing her to go to harvard because its Harvard. Why would she not only want to be in debt, but go to a place that really doesn’t even fit her tastes (urban, northeast, city life, etc.). The only thing it fits is her location.</p>
<p>Tell your sister to:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Choose a location, setting, and personality type for her schools. Whether she wants to party all night, study all night, watch movies on Broadway or hang out in some locally owned restaurent in NC, she needs to decide what she wants.</p></li>
<li><p>Then she needs to decide out of the remaining choices (which I believe will probably be void of Harvard and WUSTL), she needs to choose whats financially viable afterwards. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>I truly foresee your sister at NYU seeing as how they offer GREAT programs in her field, its NYC (great internships, etc), they are giving her fin aid, and she wants to be in the city. This doesn’t really seem like a competition, it seems like everyone else is trying to convince her to do something other than what she wants. From an objective standpoint, all the other schools have significant drawbacks (Duke really isn’t in the heart of a city, neither is Harvard plus no fin aid, very little from WUSTL, and UPenn she’s not in wharton so there’s no real point if she wants business). Tell her that and see the light go on in her head.</p>
<p>Harvard does not have an undergraduate business program. In addition, although Harvard is more prestigious than all the schools mentioned, students should select schools based on the field that they plan to study and in which they plan to have a career. Your sister would like to study international business, so NYU should be the choice. Plus, NYU is known in the global business community, so name recognition should not be a problem.</p>
<p>As far as money goes, I would go with</p>
<p>Duke
NYU
WUSTL
UPenn
Harvard</p>
<p>Now, academically, Harvard and UPenn would be near the top, but for the $, this is how I would rank the schools.</p>
<p>Duke
Harvard
NYU
Penn
WashU</p>
<p>Duke doesn’t have a business school…</p>
<p>I would say</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Duke
1.5 Harvard/Penn</p></li>
<li><p>NYU</p></li>
<li><p>Wash U</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I put Duke first because of the money and although Harvard is Harvard and Penn is an Ivy, Duke has equal name recognition, the other two may be considered better by some but she will not be losing anything in pure recognition by choosing Duke. NYU is not as well rounded of a school as the others and Wash U business is not nearly as good at placing its graduates into top firms as the other 4 are.</p>
<p>Hegira, did your sister make a choice, May 1 is fast approaching.</p>
<p>nyJeff06, I don’t think the overall academics of the schools should matter. Her sister is interested in international business, so the school(s) that best prepares her for her chosen career should be foremost in her mind.</p>
<p>Your sister has a lot of great choices and will get a fine education at any one of them. However, the Harvard name does open doors in the business world. Here’s my anectdote:</p>
<p>My roommate (MIT) applied and got an investment banking position straight out of college with a major Wall Street firm. This was not an analyst job. He was handling billion dollar accounts (he did say it was quite stressful). He found out that 8 of the other 10 people being interviewed were from Harvard. Wait, I guess this is actually a plug for MIT. Go MIT!!!</p>
<p>“UPenn she’s not in wharton so there’s no real point if she wants business”
“In addition, although Harvard is more prestigious than all the schools mentioned, students should select schools based on the field that they plan to study and in which they plan to have a career.”</p>
<p>Just wanted to add that one doesn’t need to “study” business in order to “practice” it. The majority of top schools do not even offer business as an undergraduate major and all place excellently into business fields. Here is the career/salary survey data for graduates from Penn’s COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES , and as you can see you are at no disadvantage attending the institution if you want to pursue business.
<a href=“http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/2006cpsurvey.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/college/2006cpsurvey.pdf</a>
In fact, you are probably in a better position than most other places:
- You can take as many classes at Wharton as you like and even pursue inter-school minors (such as Consumer Psychology, Urban Studies and Real Estate). This opportunity is available at very few schools and having such classes on your resume is looked upon favorably by top business firms.
- Since the #1 undergrad business school is on campus you have access to all the top firms that come on campus (and students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Engineering school place extremely well into these as you can see from the data I have provided the link for). Also, a lot of business really comes down to networking and the contacts you’ll make at Penn go a long way in helping you.</p>
<p>She should go to Harvard no question. The extra $50K over 4 years is worth it.</p>
<p>harvard
duke
upenn
wustl
nyu</p>
<p>i would also say harvard is a no-brainer here</p>
<p>Harvard is a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. If a student likes to atmosphere (Harvard isn’t for everybody), Harvard cannot be beaten.</p>