Calling Stern/NYU Applicants

NYU - just some mental notes

1pm - I arrived at the admissions office, where all of the prospectives were waiting around. There were at least 20 of us.

130p - Class starts. Class started with some discussion about current business news. Then it moved on to game theory. I thought the material was pretty fun. Nothing flew over my head. One student fell asleep, woke up then began eating lunch, which appeared to be two burritos. The two students beside me both had iphones. Maybe it was the lull of the lunchtime hour, but many students appeared lethargic. There was one student who could not understand the concept of a zero sum game. I'm going to use a poker analogy here: He kept wanting to go to the next step to try to calculate pot odds, when all we're talking about is winning or losing.

3pm - Class ends and we meet at the first floor cafe (free large coffee for visitors; no lunch? argh, good thing I ate before thanks to djhouse81's advice) for some chatting with first years. Rather than crowding around for a first year's attention, I received one on one attention from johnnyx9 himself. I know I'm short, but damnnnn johnnyx9 is tall. Johnnyx9, if your consulting plans fall through, try out for the Knicks. They can certainly use you. Also, thanks for your tips on the application strategy. I'll be sure to use some of it.

4pm - We went around the group with a short introduction. Some people sounded really, for lack of a better word, douchey. We then went on a tour of the various rooms (clubs, career development, meeting rooms, reading rooms etc). I can't say I loved the building. Everything is vertical, giving it an office feel rather than a school feel. But what else can you expect from an NYC school?

430p - We were shown a powerpoint presentation. It was pretty useless material if you've been on their website. The meat of the presentation is when the second years fielded questions. One of the second years turned down Kellogg to go to Stern (questionable?), but she wanted to be in NYC. She secured a full time marketing position with AMEX. Another had a position at Goldman. Another one had 5 internship offers, the most by anyone in her class.

Overall impression:
I'm a cynic, so I'll preface this by saying that Stern may have placed their most successful students as tour guides. But all of the second years I spoke with not only did their summer internship at some major firms, but also secured a full time offer. It was beaten into my head that if finance is what you want, Stern is second to none. The placement record of the function that I want to get into was amazing.

I spoke with the president of the S&T club. I busted on him about losing to Columbia in the first round of the Fast Money Challenge and he laughed it off. He was pretty helpful about specific steps I can take now to be in a more advantageous position for recruiting.

Some discussion was had about the third essay. The second years mentioned that over 50% of the applicants wrote plain essays, so don't be too compelled to do something artistic. One second year mentioned she created a passport with her experiences in it.

When I left Cornell, I wasn't disappointed but I wasn't thrilled. It was pretty much what I expected. After my Stern visit, I wasn't blown away but I left with a stronger desire to attend Stern than before.

Hope this helps.