Which is better for Veeky Forums: Ivy League or Oxbridge?

Are you really as good as people say or is it all hogus bogus fueled by economics not being a real science?

What sort of hoops did you jump through to get in? What did you take out of it that you couldn't have taken from a state college?

LSE

>LSE
New money

damn dude

Without overtly hijacking this thread. As a Canadian with a 680gmat (10/10 profile)....

Should I go to a 10-20 American MBA or a 2-4 British MBA?

Basically the same question, but for grad

Am I really as good as people say?

I frankly have a lot of complaints about the school and think it's overhyped. A lot of professors there have incredible backgrounds but hate teaching and arrogantly put down students. A lot of them are just terrible teachers, and I was surprised to see that a bunch of them canceled and postponed tests and had "weeks of grievance", one actually claiming to be too depressed to teach, and other crap when Trump won the election. The school never funds its mathematics and science department. The math building is a joke and is funded horribly, so badly they removed half of its library for new "active learning" bullshit classrooms that students and professors both hate. The school tries to attract new people with shiny new buildings and blowing money on dumb things when it should be supporting its core studies. Lastly, the facilities for students are atrocious. The staff is rude, the food is garbage as soon as the parents leave every year, and half the students seem depressed. I believe it was 13 suicides from students while I attended for 3.5 years alone, and 1 was my dorm neighbor freshman year. They have a great name and that's extremely, immensely valuable to employers when it's time to get a job, but the reality is that they don't treat their students very well.

I went to a public high school in California. Honestly nothing special. I'm white, by the way, if that comes up again.. But I was "smart" I guess, took all the AP classes I possibly could and got all As, loved my studies in high school, got 2300 SAT, lots of volunteering. I know how to write and make my accomplishments seem pretty great even if they're not that special I guess. I started a foundation at my school that connects the special education students with the music students and this tied my Down syndrome brother to me playing in jazz band, marching, etc. whole life. So embellishing that was a good idea.

What did I take out of the school I couldn't get from state college?
Realistically, probably just name recognition and this job. But it's nice to be connected to an Ivy League network, I guess. People there have so much stress it's unbelievable though, so I got more used to dealing with that and the cutthroat, nasty nature of the a lot of students there, especially in Wharton. I learned a lot about what it's like to live in a city I guess though, how to travel around New York, Washington DC, etc. on my own. The actual education itself could be learned with enough dedication at any college.

Now there were some students there who helped fix my resume and showed me things about interviewing and business I didn't realize. Both of them became investment bankers, 1 had interned at Goldman Sachs. A lot of people there know the ins and outs of trading firms and all that, so exposure to that in general is somewhat valuable.

So basically the connections and the prestige are the primary payout, but you're accepting a high stress environment in exchange for it.

Look into Fisher college of Business. Were ranked 14 and have been climbing every year. Our finance and logistics are in the top 5 I think.

Maybe I just got more resentful as I got older there because my freshman year I loved it.

I go tin trouble with the school once after being accused of copying a proof for a math homework question from the internet and they handled it horribly in my opinion. It's not just the stress, it's like everyone in Wharton sees other Whartonites as potential business connections, not friends, and the school staff tends to be exceptionally rude to the school and bad at their jobs while the school throws money at new projects to keep itself relevant instead of funding its current programs.

I think you summed it up pretty well though. The environment is literally suicidal for kids but getting to meet all your time in Philadelphia might be worth it.

I'm just glad to be out of that shithole but still have the degree to say I went.

You ever known anyone drawn into the various social clubs there?

Well my freshman year at least I did every club on campus I possibly could. Everything, from choirs to horse riding to activist to traveling, drama, set-building, math clubs, etc. and I joined a fraternity, which was shut down my third year. I loved my freshman year but after that it kind of went downhill.

I meant stuff like the Pitt Club.

I don't know much about the Pitt Club, sorry.

Stanford if you can stomach working with the Silicon Valley Numales

>comparing new worlder spin-off schools to 800 year old institutions like Oxford and Cambridge
Just don't bother lads

LSE but it's harder to get in

Hass school of business

It's okay.

Is Cambridge as good as I'd hope? I might be stationed about 30 minutes away and I meet the admissions requirements.

It's great if you actually study there, within the bubble, but if you just live in the town you'll get sick of how small it is

And full of faggot tourists like yourself

Technically I was born in the UK. At a military base. Not the one I might be stationed at though.

That was always the case. Books have existed for quite some time. The network effects are the draw.

Depends on the Ivy.

Columbia Princeton Harvard Wharton in no particular order tend to be excellent for getting the connections to east coast businesses

I'm basically at a juncture where I'm straddling the possibility of Columbia and the possibility of Cambridge and aside from what top ten clickbait sites say I have little info to compare them on.

Yanks not welcome

But I'm just as British as your entire upper class. I might also be a dual citizen but I'm not sure, I'm definitely registered in the British healthcare system.

I go to columbia and I don't have a good reference point for Cambridge but this school's networking is literal insanity

Is it concentrated in any particular sectors? Weak in any others?

See my first post

feel like sharing some of those interview or resume tips?

I'm actually the person you're replying to. I'm but I'm at home now instead of work so the ID is different.

I've gone off with multi-post instructions about interviewing on Veeky Forums before but I'll try to remember the main points. It'll probably sound very cliche though, and I'm only really familiar with the finance-related interviews.

The most important way to stand out from the rest of interviewers is to have an opinion on things related to the market and finance, one that is backed up by things you have read in the WSJ or Bloomberg or something, which you should be reading all the time if you're going to interview. Have an opinion on everything you read there and be able to CONNECT it all together. Did something happen in the Chinese markets? Do you think the Fed will raise interest rates? How will that affect the company you're interviewing for? What kinds of RISKS and OPPORTUNITIES will that event create within the sector you are applying? Everything needs to be thought of in terms of risks and opportunities and everything needs to be connected together so that no matter what you read you can form an intelligent opinion on it. For example, Trump might repeal obamacare. Maybe that means less people can get health coverage, so less people are eligible for life insurance. Now my clients, life insurance companies, have less people they can insure and are forced to raise premiums. This could mean all kinds of new data an analysis as a life insurance actuary, the position I interviewed for. Show this off in the interview if you can because these interviewers want people who have strong opinions about their sectors and can see abstract connections and how they will affect the company.

Also, of course, know everything about the markets. The current Dow, etc., hell be prepared to give a stock recommendation and why, be able to walk through a DCF (this is crucial) and make sure you can talk for up to 10 minutes or so about every single

thing on your resume.

All you really need for interviews besides that, and of course in depth knowledge of the company, is a few good stories. Now you can use these stories to answer almost any question. Use the fucking STAR interview technique, as cliche as it is, but make it natural. It has to be so natural but it's so amazingly effective when it's done right.

You need a story where you handled data. You need a story when you solved problems without having all the information. You need to have stories of conflict in the workplace that you dealt with. You need stories of leadership. You NEED to have stories where you built or was a part of something you feel or can pretend to feel extremely passionate about. The more related it is to the company, the better, but it's not necessary and even less so if you are fresh out of college.

For the resume:
There are templates. Good templates for finance and investment banking jobs. Use them. Do not try to reinvent the wheel. If there's a template, it doesn't matter how fucking easy you think your resume is to read. A hiring manager wants to see the template he is familiar with, so look it up and use it. If you don't know what it is roughly, ask someone in the industry who does.

Consider reading the Vault guides online.

Bullet points: Every single bullet point must have 3 things: WHAT YOU DID, HOW YOU DID IT, WHAT THE RESULT WAS.
Fuck tiny bullet points that leave the interviewer guessing the details of what you meant to say because you wanted to save space. Make your bullet points as long as they need to be to get those 3 things across for EVERY bullet point. It's extremely powerful when you see a good resume that clearly says all that in every bullet point so the interviewer knows exactly who he's fucking talking to.

Obviously no more than 1 page, fill up the whole page with solid content, no fluff ever, go to your career advisors if you're in college

and then have successful people (or people who were interns) in the company you're interested in review it too because career advisors can be fucking idiots.

Pretty obvious, but try to start each bullet point with a verb that grabs the attention. This is the basic stuff you can find online in any guide.

Know everything there is to know about the markets and be ready for case study questions if it's that type of interview. Also be ready for a math test on the spot. I messed that up once and I regret it cause it was for a super high paying investment banking job. Be ready for anything and let nothing surprise you.

I had to go through an exceptionally large amount of interviews before anyone would hire me. Start early if you're in college and know which companies you want years in advance and you'll be miles and miles ahead of where I was.

I think that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Yeah Khan Academy is pretty comprehensive in teaching, but you can't prove to employers that you have those skills. Degrees aren't about teaching, they're about testing.

If you self teach, you have to be able to run your own business at some point.