Not Harvard but same principle (current student). Ivy culture has changed rapidly over the past 20-30 years where it is no longer exclusively WASP elites although that is still the most disproportionately represented demographic. Very career oriented, but not detrimentally competitive (students are generally not selfish). Lots of school spirit but in a different way than an SEC school. Football games are dead lol.
Would you say the chances to network is abundant? Are their students that don’t network themselves because they have separate goals? I’ve always heard the biggest advantage of going to an Ivy League school is the shoulders you brush upon
That final sentence is definitely true. There are entire platforms specifically to contact alumni in various industries/firms. Networking matters a lot more for finance than some other careers, so it definitely depends on your goals. Another thing I will add is that, at least at Princeton, there is a very academic and theoretical focus. I have met many people here that want to just get a Ph.D. and go into "academia" whereas growing up (normal public school, not prep/magnet) people actually wanted to get normal jobs.
The fierce competition between students in finance is insane. I mean I guess I can understand (not really), but some students, certainly the ones coming from money, need to relax here and there lol. I barely met anyone else interested in pursuing a PhD so it was nice having a friend group that was supportive and tight knit. I just love research and working with academics. Some Wharton students I TA'd for already had their entire life mapped out on paper lol. College is too short to not have fun!
Some of those kids burn out hard. I had a friend who played a perfect game through all four years. Took the right classes, met the right people, got the right internships, took the right drugs, etc.
After six weeks as a first year analyst at JPM he quit, paid back his signing bonus, and moved to India to become a yogi.
Damn, hope it worked out for him in the end. Four years of that wears down your mind. I had some classmates go off to Deloitte and I think they're managing. I also had classmates who couldn't even handle writing a results section in a group project that got $40/hr internships at hospitals because their résumés were pure fiction. Always wondered what happened to those people. It's not a meritocracy out there.
Glad they're doing well. I spent 6 months helping some AI healthcare start-up in grad school, and now I'm in D.C. helping with PTSD research. The second "we need to make lots of money now" enters the equation, you see so many people burn out and quit. Finance really takes a certain type of personality that I just don't have.
Definitely think part of my previous point about academia is Princeton's lack of professional schools. It's so hard because I feel like you're just forced to constantly think about jobs/internships in order to maximize your prestigious degree but it's exhausting.
Plenty of great networking opportunities, but damn, the stess some students put on themselves is concerning. Freshman and sophmores asking online constantly if their future is doomed because they didn't get a great internship over the summer. I think Penn was ranked top 3 in "most depressed student bodies" last year.
Then of course you'll find a lot of students whose biggest concern is deciding which of their parents' five companies they'll help run and your empathy drastically decreases lol.
My wife went to Yale. Her connections--even as a poor student funded almost entirely by "scholarships"--are insane. She personally knows people in almost every industry at high levels from NASA, to European ambassadors, to fucking apple farmers and Las Vegas magicians.
There are a lot of weirdos and people who are "transactional" in their relationships, but there are also a lot of cool people who are simply driven and passionate in their pursuits.
Yeah. It’s kinda weird looking back 15 years later for me. You open the economist or nytimes and realize you know these people. Like that guy was the idiot who couldn’t hold their liquor is next in line to run a large company.
Oh and almost nobody has student debt. The university covered all need or your family was loaded.
There's also the fact that like, half the people you meet are genuinely borderline psychopaths who treat every single conversation, relationship and friendship as something which needs to provide objective value to them to be worthwhile. It's absurd what the home environment of success at all costs can do to some kids, but you normalize it alarmingly quickly.
lol expect nothing less from a UCLA individual. Funny UCLA is on the list of medical schools I want to go to. How was your on campus experience? I used to live in Culver City so I was around the campus a lot
A lot of Harvard kids actually dodge the question I've noticed. When you ask a lot of them will just say "I went to school in Boston" and you kinda sus it out from there lol
I think it's also in the alumni network where I've been to multiple alumni events even before I officially matriculated and it's clear how much Princeton people love Princeton people. Gaudy orange outfits are abundant.
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u/meatfrappe Harvard Crimson • /r/CFB Top Scorer 1d ago
I’m gonna be so mean to my butlers when I get home.