Well, I attended both the NYU Stern admit weekend and the Yale SOM admit weekend (seemed like there were a few others who did the same from the people I met). The schools are very different, but I had a good time at both and honestly feel I can't go wrong with either; I'm finding myself quite torn and still second guessing myself somewhat. For the benefit of others in the same bind, I wrote out a list of what I felt were the pros and cons for each school:
NYU Stern Pros:
- Manhattan location means lots to do and more importantly easy access to the big banks (I'm going to try for a banking internship)
- strong reputation in finance means solid recruiting opportunities
- larger class size (about 420 to 450) means greater networking potential among classmates
- large alumni network, many of whom are in the financial services industry
- ability to take some very cool finance courses through the Courant Institute
NYU Stern Cons:
- lots of students are from New York so there's less incentive for them to mix and mingle with the class; admit weekend already felt a bit cliquy with many of the NYC folks hanging together
- many people coming from finance background; not as diverse a student body and might be nice to mix with different "types" of people (particularly given that I've been in finance for the last 6 years)
- a large chunk of the class will likely be looking to get into finance/banking which could mean stiff competition if the banks reserve just a certain number of slots for Stern interns; I'm picturing recruiting teams of 6 to 10 from the bulge brackets giving corporate presentations with 150 to 200 students lining up to try to make an impression on the bank reps
Yale SOM Pros:
- Yale is in a university town which leads to a very tight-knit student body and great community feel (originally I didn't think this was that important but it's something that struck me immediately as a positive aspect of the school when attending admit weekend); there's a great bar on campus just for Yale grad students where the law, med, and business school students mix and hang out -- if I'm going to live in NYC for a couple years after school anyway it might be nice to enjoy that kind of environment
- small class size (about 200 students per year) means you get to know literally everyone in your class quite well and everyone seems to be very supportive of one another; I got a really great vibe from the student body
- great faculty to student ratio (about 1 to 4) means excellent access to profs and intimate class sizes
- the school has taken a progressive approach to management education and redesigned the curriculum in 2006 to quite a bit of fanfare from students and recruiters (Stanford remodeled its curriculum the following year using a similar approach); given that I have a pretty strong finance background this would be an interesting way to round myself out
- the school has been on a hiring binge picking up great profs (e.g. Andrew Metrick) and a new Career Development Office manager from Wharton; the school has a massive endowment and seems committed to raising the stature of the business school
- Yale's brand and potential networking opportunities that go along with it (access to places like the Yale Club in Manhattan)
Yale SOM Cons:
- New Haven is a 1.5 to 2 hour train ride from NYC and so is somewhat removed from the action
- Yale is not considered to be a "core" finance school like Stern so some of the boutique firms that might go to Stern to recruit may not come to Yale and would therefore require more legwork to pursue and I'm also concerned that if a bulge bracket firm were to trim recruiting efforts I could see there being perhaps a proportionately larger effect at Yale relative to NYU
- Yale's MBA program is relatively new (about 30 or 35 years old) and the class size is small which means a small alumni network; that being said, we do get access to the whole Yale University alumni database (with the exception of the law school)
I think the important questions that need to be asked when making the Yale SOM / NYU Stern decision are:
1) Does NYU Stern grant a definitive recruiting advantage? A significant reason that many of us are pursuing an MBA is to land our dream job (or a job that can lead us to our dream job) coming out of school. I was originally concerned that the recruiting opportunities for banking would be significantly better at NYU. After speaking with numerous students at Yale who went through the banking recruitment process as well as alumni and the Career Development Office, it seems like the school actually does reasonably well. This year about 40 students were pursuing banking internships and about half of them converted. Not sure how that compares with the NYU IB success ratio but, from speaking with Yale students, it sounded like those who really put in the time and did the information interviews, jumped through all the hoops, etc. were successful. Some even argued that they were able to distinguish themselves more effectively than had they been in a larger class with a larger percentage of students vying for a job in IB.
2) Do I want to live in NYC and reap the benefits of a big city or do I want to live in a college town and enjoy the vibe that goes along with that? That's a personal choice that will be different for everyone. Of course there are benefits to both.
At the moment, weighing all factors, I'm leaning slightly Yale primarily due to the tight-knit feel and community vibe (silly though that may sound). I certainly wouldn't say I got the feel that Yale SOM is a "better" program than NYU Stern, just different.
Comments, especially from those making a similar decision, are most welcome.
SternFinance2011: Just curious, given your screen name, should we assume that you wound up choosing Stern for the reasons you cited?
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16 Mar 2009, 15:11
. It's weird both Columbia and NYU interview invites came a couple of mins appart! I can now say today has been a good day!
