Current high school senior aiming to pursue investment banking as a career. Recently got into all three of these colleges, having a hard time deciding.
Berkeley would be in-state tuition and Haas is expanding to a 4-year program (which I got into) this year.
Which school would be the best choice?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: Also waitlisted Duke and Dartmouth, Any thoughts on those?
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Go where you’ll fit in and have fun. If you don’t get into IB from one of those three schools, it’s not the schools - it’s you
do you want to end up on the West coast or East coast? If the former, Haas is a no brainer. If the latter, I would recommend choosing between Brown or Georgetown based on where you envision yourself enjoying more. You'll get plenty of OCR opportunities for IB at all three places.
When deciding between Berkeley Haas, Brown, and Georgetown for a career in investment banking, it's crucial to consider several factors, including the school's reputation in finance, alumni network, and geographical preferences for your future career. Based on the WSO Dataset, here's a breakdown that might help you make an informed decision:
Berkeley Haas:
Georgetown:
Brown:
Waitlisted at Duke and Dartmouth: - Both are excellent schools with strong finance recruitment. Dartmouth, in particular, has a strong alumni network in finance. If you get off the waitlist for either, they are worth considering, especially Dartmouth for its close-knit community and strong Wall Street connections.
Conclusion: - If your primary goal is to work in investment banking on the West Coast, particularly in tech or startups, Berkeley Haas is a strong choice, especially with the direct admit into the 4-year program and the financial advantage of in-state tuition. - For a focus on Wall Street and finance in New York, Georgetown offers compelling advantages in terms of placement and networking. - Brown provides a unique educational experience with its open curriculum and Ivy League network, which can be beneficial in various ways, though it may not have the same direct pipeline to investment banking as the others.
Ultimately, consider where you see yourself geographically, the type of campus and academic experience you prefer, and the financial implications of your choice.
Sources: Georgetown MSB vs Michigan Ross vs UC Berkeley, Georgetown MSB vs UC Berkeley Haas Undergrad, The Allure of Investment Banking, Which school should I attend to get into Investment Banking: UVA Mcintire or Brown?, What's the best school for investment banking?
Absolute no brainer Georgetown
Any specific reason?
I grew up in Rhode Island and Providence isn't that great. The East Side where Brown is located is okay, but I think you'd be bored. Narragansett and Newport are awesome though, especially in the summer.
When I lived in San Francisco for 2 years, I hung out in Berkeley a few times and it was pretty fun. I actually really liked the Bay Area and being able to go to Napa and Tahoe.
Georgetown is obviously in a nice part of DC and I think DC is a pretty fun city too.
You could argue that Brown is the best choice just because it's an Ivy, but you don't have any bad choices here. If tuition is a big consideration, then Haas could be the smart choice. Also consider where you want to end up after undergrad or how important it is to be close to family. When I lived in San Francisco and my family was still in Rhode Island I only saw them for 2 weeks out of the whole year and it kinda sucked.
Mostly accurate.
The comment that “ you could argue that Brown is the best choice just because it's an Ivy” is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard in my entire life.
As a Columbia alum myself — I can assure you that Brown is the shit stain of the Ivy League, hence why they’re called Brown.
Brown students= I was too dumb to go to a real Ivy yet had too much pride and my mom wanted an Ivy League bumper sticker so I chose Brown.
Thx pls fix.
lol
Bro when was the last time you actually stepped foot in Providence? It's pretty cool. Granted its no NYC but all things considered, anyone bored doing undergrad in Providence is a boring person. There's a bunch of stuff for a 19 year old college kid to do, especially near Brown.
Have never met an investing person from Brown lol
A lot of these comments are bad advice....
They're all good schools, but blunt advice:
Don't pick Georgetown. Clearly the least prestigious of the three, full of try-hard politico types, full of annoying pre-laws, mid geographic location, facilities / food are v bad, it's a school that strongly dilutes its own brand by offering a million BS masters degrees (postgraduates materially outnumber undegraduate students here) etc. It's a good school but just no reason to pick compared to the other two. I have no idea why that comment above pointed you towards Georgetown....terrible advice.
On Brown vs. Berkeley: Brown is clearly a more prestigious brand name, but also much less geared towards finance. From my networking chats with kids from Brown, I get the sense that they don't have any "home base" of alumni etc. so people are able to get roles, but you have to kinda make it happen yourself. Berkeley on the other hand is much more NYU-like in that there's a good number of spots effectively "allotted" to Haas kids (particularly in SF tech banks) but there's a ton of kids fighting for them. So the general recruiting path is gonna be very very different between the two schools - Berkeley will be a rat race, but rather deterministic (all you have to do is be better than your peers essentially), and Brown will be more self-guided / non-deterministic (but a lot less directly competitive).
On Berkeley - until you go to a UC you don't realize how many shut-in grinders there are lol....so you might think to yourself "well I can be better than my peers, most people aren't that smart and I'm a smart guy etc." but there's soooo many kids who will grind like crazy to get into the stupid clubs on campus, interview questions etc. It's a bad vibe tbh, and rather unique to the big competitive state schools like Berkeley.
On Brown - it's more of a consulting school so you'll kinda be the odd man out trying to get into finance, but on the other hand I can't imagine their finance clubs etc. are that competitive to get into, and I doubt their alumni are getting 100+ kids hitting them up (which I imagine the berkeley alumni do, so they only have coffee chats with kids from their business frat etc.)
All in all - I would take into consideration how you value:
1. Recruiting vibe - as discussed above
2. Student body - Berkeley and all the UC's have SO MANY INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS (idk the current statistics but it's probably in the region of 30%+)....but Brown is a bunch of lib-types.
3. Geography - If you go to Berkeley you will in all likelihood end up in the bay area for at least a portion of your career, and if you go to Brown you will likely go to NYC. That's a pretty huge consideration that a lot of people don't really consider when picking schools (until they're trying to recruit cross-country and it's an uphill battle). Personally I really like the bay area but not everyone does and your Berkeley degree will carry much less weight on the east coast (and even on the west coast you're clearly second fiddle to Stanford.... and even USC in SoCal).
4. Enjoyment - From speaking to people that went to Berkeley, I don't really think they love the school all that much - depressing, full of shut-ins, enormous classes, competitive student body, etc. Not so sure about Brown, but I've always got the sense that people generally like the school / it's one of the more fun elite schools (in the quirky nerdy kid way, not so much Alabama frat-type fun).
5. Prestige - Brown is clearly more prestigious, and I would say that school rankings are often understood as relative prestige but that's just not the case. Big state schools like Berkeley, Umich, UCLA are prestigious but in a very different way from an ivy. If you care about prestige, the name of Berkeley carries a lot less weight than an ivy even if they ostensibly are similarly ranked or whatever.
You are giving the worst advice to some kid who’s making a serious life decision based on your simp-type love for Brown/Ivy. You are pathetic.
As an Ivy grad, I know for a fact that — given OP wants to go to IB — Georgetown is hands down the best decision out of the 3. By a long shot. I met/know tons of Georgetown grads on the street in IB/PE roles. I know like 1 or 2 from Brown who are doing IB/PE. On the east coast, I know 0 from Berkeley.
But if OP wants to go to the west coast, go to Berkeley. Have friends in the Bay Area and met a decent number of Berkeley grads doing high finance over there. Berkeley is also very strong in tech. If OP is tangentially interested.
Brown is best if you want to do something more artsy/prestigious non profits/have a chill time. People at Brown tend to pursue more interesting/unique type of opportunities, which I do respect. So Brown can put you anywhere, but is by far the worst choice out of the 3 for finance.
So Georgetown is the best for finance generally but if you really want the west coast, go to Berkeley.
Found the Cornell grad lmfao.
Disagree with your points, but hopefully the OP is able to find both perspectives helpful.
Georgetown without a doubt. Great program and opportunities, and the most normal well-adjusted student body. Will pay dividends. Don’t bother with Cal, the area around campus is a total shithole.
They’re all good, Georgetown recruits very well, probably more alum in IB than the others, likely by a lot
Brown because it’s an ivy leave school and insane grade inflation will help you recruit for more job opportunities
Ivy "leave" school? Ok Pizz go home, you're drunk.
The ppl saying Georgetown are crazy 😭😭 in state at Berkeley haas? Definitely take that — it’s free and a world class school with incredible placements. Just because not everyone at Berkeley wants to do IB, doesn’t mean the school rep is any worse or students are any less capable (in fact, rep wise I’d argue it’s better than Georgetown)
Agree with this wholeheartedly. Every major IB recruits at Cal. Eminently doable to recruit for IB from Cal, and the school will open up many non-IB options as well.
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