I Am Bought

It's official, I have accepted Anderson's offer. I paid the $1000 deposit last night, and now ready to embrace the Californian sunshine~

Update: UCLA vs NYU: My Discovering:

- Both are reputable finance schools, but if you wanna work for IB/on wall street, go to NYU! NYU has the unshakable advantage regarding jobs on wall street, proved by that 60% of the students go into financial services sector after graduation. On the other hand, ppl say UCLA has an advantage in PE/VC in Silicon Valley, but you need to compete with Stanford and Haas guys for this handful of job openings... But really nothing is impossible!

- NYU seems to offer a good career service to students, especially international students. But a lot of companies out of financial service/consulting/tech area DO NOT recruit international students becoz of visa issues. Then I guess there's nothing the career service can do about that... The problem with UCLA recruitment is school starts at Oct 1 here, which is one month after most other schools. But the companies don't treat Anderson differently than other schools, so students at Anderson need to really work hard to catch up on the schedule, especially for those wanting a summer internship at financial service/consulting... Plus, some companies don't fly to west coast to recruit, therefore Anderson ppl might need to fly out for interviews.

- I saw somebody asked about entertainment program on another blog, and the answer was that NYU's program focus more on TV networks, while UCLA's program focus more on film companies.

- Since I am also considering consulting as a possible career choice after MBA, I consulted an alumni who worked for AT Kearney after Anderson. He said that there might not be as much big firm opportunities as in east coast, but there are a lot of boutique consulting firms focusing on particular industry or functions. It's not hard to land a consulting job in those firms. Plus, BCG, AT Kearney are among the big recruiters at Anderson.

- People from both schools are nice, with no attitude. I was especially surprised by the NYU ppl, coz I thought NYC ppl are snorbish (most of ppl there still are... but Stern ppl are different somehow). Anderson ppl are quite laid-back, and cool, seem to enjoy life a bit better than New Yorkers :P

- Living wise, I might have to say I would love living in LA better, coz I'm really really afraid of cold weather :S Plus, apartments around NYU are much more expensive than around UCLA (of coz one is downtown, and the other is just a suburb). At NYU ppl don't drive, they take subways all the time (driving would be expensive in NY and cabs would be hard to find when you need them.. kinda like Shanghai). While at LA, you have to drive, or you won't get to anywhere by yourself. I prefer owning a car, it's like owning your freedom!

That's it from me I guess... Pls feel free to add more if you know anything about the two schools. I'm sorry I'm gonna miss NY fashion week, but then I can join LA fashion week. Or maybe I should fly over to see it anyway, if anybody can give me access :P

Update: Thanks anonymous Anderson student for posting the comment to supplement my discovering about Anderson. I'm attaching it here for reader's convenience.

First: UCLA is not in surburb :)) LA is a different city to NYC. NYC has large downtown while LA has just a small downtown. The location of UCLA is not surburb either.

Second: recruiting

Finance: UCLA has pretty good placement on the street. All top banks come to recruit and this year they recruit almost 70 students here considering the class size and very diversified interest, this is very good ratio.

Consulting: I agree that UCLA is not strong in this area. McK didnt come to campus this year but AT BCG Deloitte came. However, I would say that the chance for consulting guys still can not be compared to finance guys here.

Living and food: You will fall in love with LA for sure. :)