NYU Stern Clubs 101

Figured this might be helpful for incoming freshmen, since I was kinda lost back then navigating the clubs. (All clubs are cool — just my .02)

Clubs at NYU can be categorized into a few types:

Your typical finance clubs:
- Finance Society (for banking)
- Investment Analysis Group and Quantitative Finance Society (for investing)
- Private Equity Group (as the name suggests)

Consulting clubs:
- Management Consulting Group (as the name suggests, place a few MBBs, mostly "Tier 2s" — OW, EY, LEK, etc.)
- 180 Degrees Consulting (non-ICC/stern club, recruits mostly MCG people)
- Net Impact (they have this NICE — Net Impact Consulting Experience, basically a workshop).

Other niches:
- Strategic Venture Society (cool club to learn Figma/graphic design, mostly VC stuff)
- Luxury and Retail Association (if you're into fashion)
- Marketing Society (as the name suggests)
- Business Analytics Club (data analytics; does have quant, but training is less intense)
- Blockchain & Fintech Club (as the name suggests)
- Entrepreneurial Exchange Group (start-ups)
- Stern Business and Law Association (law)
- Stern Political Economy Exchange (politics)
- Economic Development Group (public policy/macro econ)
- Stern Tisch Entertainment Business Association (as the name suggests)
- Scholars of Finance (cool community)
- Stern Accounting Society (as the name suggests)
- Actuarial Society (as the name suggests)
- International Business Association (most international students, runs a few workshops)
- Stren Real Estate Group (as the name suggests)
- and more...

Affinity groups:
- Pride corp
- ULABA (LatAm)
- USWIB (Women)
- SJB (Jewish)
- BlackGen Capital
- MEBA (Middle East)

Business frats:
- AKPsi 
- PCT

Honor society:
- BAP (originally an accounting frat?)

All of these organizations are under the management of Inter-Club Council (ICC). For these clubs, there are two types of programs they can run — mentorship and team. 

Mentorship programs provide leadership training for underclassmen, focusing on skills like public speaking, professionalism, and club responsibilities. Activities include shadowing e-board members, community-building workshops, and attending e-board meetings.

Team programs prepare students for post-college experiences, covering skills such as recruiting and software proficiency. They often require resume submissions, over 10 hours a week commitment, prior industry knowledge, and collaborative projects.

As you see, there are a million clubs, and to each of their own. BUT, IMHO, if you want to excel and thrive in a competitive environment, joining a club is very helpful for TWO reasons: the mentorship and the community, period. Mentorship implies workshops, training, networking with club alumni, and more.

IF you want to do finance, joining the finance clubs (any of the four) will be a HUGE leg up. Obviously, you don't need clubs to succeed, but trust me, from the experience of everyone around me, including myself, these four clubs distinguish themselves from the rest due to the quality of their curriculum and mentorship (other clubs also do finance-related stuff, but I can confidently say the finance clubs are much, much better in all aspects). IAG and QFS welcome members in freshman fall, while FS opens in the spring (the main program, there also started a discovery program, "FSD"), and PEG opens in Soph fall (their main program). 

IF you want to do consulting, likewise. 

Programs within these clubs and how to get into these clubs:

I will be focusing on IAG, QFS, and FS. 

The application for mentorship starts first and lasts for a week, then the team application opens up and lasts for a week. All first-round applications are written apps.

IAG and QFS only have TEAM programs. FS have a mentorship program (FSD) and their ecomm (opens in freshman spring, team program).

All of these have multiple rounds of interviews, a mix of behavioral and technical. IAG and QFS aim to hire "the best," and this subjective best is based on a few things: coachability, curiosity, strong logic, business acumen, and obviously standing out among the other candidates. I personally think that these characters carry much more weight than your internship experience and prior knowledge. 

For the written app, show that you've done the research, show that you have passion, and hope for the best. Don't be discouraged when facing rejections — there are limited spots, and you will ultimately face some disappointments. The process is pretty intense. Oftentimes, the people making it into the next round of these clubs are the same batch of people. The "stern culture" is created by the curve and these clubs. 

Do chat people. Not for the sake of increasing your chances, but genuinely try to understand what sets these clubs apart from each other, whether you like the people in the club, and whether you are even interested in the space. Many people blindly follow the crowd, and you will feel that when somehow everyone that you know wants to do banking.

Do go to all the club kickoffs and general meetings.

All three clubs take less than ten people per semester. 

To end this off, the majority of the people are not in these clubs, and look, you are at NYU/Stern, you will be fine. Being in a club doesn't make or break you. Trying your best makes you. Stay humble and curious.

PS You can find all the clubs and their websites if you search for Stern ICC (the governing body of all stern clubs) on Google. To my knowledge, there are a few other non-stern clubs (GEM, VQ, PGI, VSG, etc.). Personally, I would not recommend these, except for VQ. Your time is probably better spent elsewhere. 
Happy to answer any questions.