Why is Stern so overrated?

College Majors Business Majors
1

<p>Seriously! There are so many stern threads popping up. Stern vs. Duke? Stern vs. Columbia? Stern vs X school…</p>

<p>Here are my thoughts about Stern:
It’s a good school… BUT</p>

<p>1) No Real Campus,so you miss out on a part of the “college experience”</p>

<p>2) Its a Finance Degree- Finance degree is overrated- it is extremely narrow and not very applicable outside of finance; a liberal arts degree is more than sufficient…you study FINANCE; what happens if you don’t make it in the industry? It looks terrible… people will ask what you majored in, and if you say finance, they will ask you why you aren’t in finance…An Economics Degree, Math Degree, Engineering Degree, is just as good if not better than a finance degree. Besides, do you really know what you’re getting yourselves into? Finance is not exactly the most intellectually stimulating subject. Have fun finding present values, bond durations, markowitz frontiers, option values, and expected returns all day… the stuff gets boring real quickly and it is extremely repetitive… just know what you’re getting yourself into</p>

<p>3) Extremely preprofessional - Your entire college experience is geared towards getting that internship… no time to explore other subjects? Want to try some art classes? learn about islamic civilization, economic development? Sorry… you need that spot for corporate finance… since EVERYONE else at Stern is taking corporate finance, you will feel the need to go along with everyone else</p>

<p>4) Ultra-competitive- Again, banks recruit at Stern, but there are so many sternies, and so few slots. Have you heard of stories of stern students trying to get ahead of other students by wrecking each other’s grades?</p>

<p>5) Elitist attitudes/ Tight knit group- A lot of them have elitist attitudes, and most hang out with other stern kids. Seriously, go ask a CAS student how they feel about a stern student…</p>

<p>There are so many good public target schools available, can someone please explain to me why everyone obsesses over Stern? True, it may be the 2nd best finance school in the country, but there is a tremendous gap between #1 and #2…</p>

2

<p>Your five points could apply to many business schools. Stern isn’t an exception to most undergrad business schools in the slightest. This is especially true in that its extremely competitive (with many students competing for few slots…try every top 20 business school), there are Elitist attitudes (ever hear of Wharton?), its very pre-professional (what business major isn’t?), and tight knit groups…there are tight knit groups everywhere.</p>

<p>But what do I know?</p>

3

<p>no. rence. that is obviously not true. people at most business schools actually learn the facets of business, not how to beat your friend to that internship. wharton kids have elitist attitudes because they have the right to. they are intrinsically better than stern kids. you cant really argue with that.</p>

<p>stern will give you an interview to an ibanking job, but you could get that at many other colleges while having a true college experience.</p>

<p>the end</p>

4

<p>honestly depends on what you mean by “true college experience”. Do you guys have something against Stern?.. Do either of you go there? Is it REALLY that competitive? I just got into Stern for transfer, and I’m the kind of guy that sees everyone as equals…(CAS and Stern, etc etc), but I am very aware of who my friends are, and who the people that would backstab me for personal gain are. Also, how are they suppose to mess me up if I’m studying alone? (I cannot study with people) I’m not saying you’re right or wrong, I’d just like to hear more about Stern before I discount Gtown MSB, UCLA for NYU…</p>

5

<p>the only thing i like about stern is how their building looks from the outside :P</p>

6

<p>a few tidbits i heard from a girl who graduated recently. she said that she once was sent a computer virus right before finals. she also said that she always kept dupes of her projects lying around in case anyone wanted to steal/destroy anything. but other than that, she said the experience was awesome and that she loved it.</p>

<p>i think that the competetiveness would probably be helpful. it would probably prepare you better and make you grow up faster. of course do you really need this environment in order to mature or need to be totally prepared and grown up straight out of undergrad? no. but would it help some people? yes. in addition, it’s not like EVERYONE at Stern is evil. just make friends with the ones that are not.</p>

<p>and it’s not like the only classes one can take is business. 51% of the classes are supposed to be electives. there’s not as much freedom as in other schools, but you have some freedom in choosing what you want to do. the programs of the rest of the school, except for drama/art, probably aren’t comparable to stern, but classes in those programs can be gpa boosters and opportunities to take it easy. in addition, you can always get into graduate school if you really likes a subject.</p>

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<p>I am personally majoring in finance and economics. So I have a liberal arts background too.</p>

8

<p>wow a virus?..Since I’m transferring, I basically have almost all my electives completed…so all that’s left is biz classes. You think this will hurt my GPA?</p>

9

<p>looking at all of hardvardman’s post…it looks like he’s ■■■■■■■■ against stern. his arguments are always so extreme and negative. maybe he didnt get in stern and is still stuck up abt it and cant reconcile with the fact that stern is an excellent institution for business. and so he makes up for it by saying stern is really overrated and cornell (which is like 10 levels below stern’s league) is actually better.</p>

10

<p>so, guys do this business forum a favour and stop feeding the ■■■■■</p>

11

<p>I’m just stating my opinion. Why don’t we have as many Wharton threads? Or Ross? Or Haas? There is no great difference between, Ross, or Haas, and I would imagine that the education received at a place such as UC Berkeley would be better than one at Stern. </p>

<p>People seem to have this perception that going to Stern means going to Wall Street. This is definitely NOT the case.</p>

12

<p>Harvardman, you didn’t even say what you were disagreeing with. However, thank you for that endlessly invaluable comment that students in business school actually learn about business, “who woulda’ ‘thunk’ it?!”</p>

13

<p>“go ask a CAS student how they feel about a stern student…”</p>

<p>I’m a CAS guy with a ton of Stern friends and one of my roommates is a Sternie. Granted I’m a math major whose worked in an I-bank and hedge fund, so I share interests with them, but my group of friends is basically a mix of CAS and Stern. Not all Stern students hang out exclusively with other Stern students, though of course some stick with their own, but then again same goes pre-meds, history majors, artists etc. In fact, I’d say that Tisch (artists) is by far the most cliquiest/elitiest/homogenous school at NYU…they really tend to stick to their own and not mingle with students from other NYU schools.</p>

14

<p>I wonder if the perception of Stern is somehow related to New York/New Jersey people in general. New York/New Jersey people are known for being somewhat pushy and not giving up easily in any kind of competition.</p>

<p>Of course this is all relative to what one is used to.</p>

15

<p>i got into stern and turned it down. i did not get into wharton. i got into cornell and chose to attend. it is funny how that canadian chooses to ignore the fact that Cornell AEM is much harder to get into than Stern. if you do choose to go to stern, be my guest. competition is definitely a good thing, but there are moral boundaries to competition. if you bring someone else down to get on top, that’s not what competition is all about.</p>

<p>rence, wat is your definition of extremely competitive? studying harder or cheating on a micro test? fyi, some professors at stern give the same set of questions for morning class as afternoon classes. According to my NYU friend, 30 percent of the stern kids in those classes go to the morning class, get the questions, dont hand the test in, and take the test again in the afternoon. Cold hard facts there.</p>

16

<p>“According to my NYU friend, 30 percent of the stern kids in those classes go to the morning class, get the questions, dont hand the test in, and take the test again in the afternoon. Cold hard facts there.”</p>

<p>Some hearsay from one friend qualifies as a cold hard fact to you?!?!?!? You should be a little bit more scrutinizing of what you consider fact if you want to get anywhere in the business world.</p>

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<p>Cornell AEM I’m sure is looked at just as favorably if not more so than Stern. If you want to get a great finance education I’m sure Stern is second to none(actually Wharton but…) unfortunately the way most people see it, including Ibanking recruiters, is that college isn’t a pre professional school. That’s probably why there’s at least 10 other schools without finance programs that get recruited over Stern.</p>

<p>I’m not saying that only Stern kids go to college solely to get a certain job, that’s going to be anywhere but the fact that someone would devote most of their 4 years to finance, is pretty funny to me. I guarantee you Sternies are going to have no advantage after training and will probably curse the thousands and years they spent learning finance when others got paid to learn it in a matter of months. </p>

<p>If you can possibly get into any target without a business program I would say go for it. You’ll have much more flexibility with a liberal arts degree and you will come out much more “learned” than most Stern kids and most recruiters would see that.</p>

18

<p>just drove past it on monday morning even at three in the morning its pretty chill…maybe i just enjoyed the city but its prime location to get in the financial district for internships and alumni. though i need a football team to root for</p>

19

<p>damn so much hate from people who have never even been to Stern…</p>

<p>yes there is a curve, yes there is about 10% of Sternies who’d do anything to get ahead (like any other competitive school in the U.S), yes we are known for finance, but everything written here is a gross exaggeration of what is actually going on in Stern.</p>

<p>on the positive note, we get so many group projects which require cooperation, people help out each other to get internships, interviews etc. and we get to travel a foreign country at least once (3 times if you’re a scholar) for no extra cost, and well-known consulting/marketing firms do recruit here although not as much as banking firms.</p>

<p>Stern vs. Duke vs. Cornell AEM vs. UMich… etc etc. is pointless because everyone’s looking for different educational, social and personal experiences. There is no one absolutely superior school to attend. each is known for certain things and infamous for others.</p>

20

<p>i agree with hupkorea.</p>

<p>on a seperate note, how hard is it to pledge AKPsi at Stern?</p>