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Easy/moderate Universities in to get into in the US

Hey guys,

GCSE student here, just wanna ask what are some good USA Universities to study Finance at undergrad, that aren't too hard to get into (but are still pretty decent) . In the end I wanna work in GS or JP (ideally GS) but obviously straight after grad I just want a decent job with a decent salary and work my way up to GS one day. I live in the UK and want to study in the US. Im planning to do National Extended Diploma in Business and Finance Level 3 in college, then likely take the SAT and move on to a US uni, what are some decent unis that offer finance but aren't too hard to get into.

Reply 1

Original post by shn fler flwe
Hey guys,
GCSE student here, just wanna ask what are some good USA Universities to study Finance at undergrad, that aren't too hard to get into (but are still pretty decent) . In the end I wanna work in GS or JP (ideally GS) but obviously straight after grad I just want a decent job with a decent salary and work my way up to GS one day. I live in the UK and want to study in the US. Im planning to do National Extended Diploma in Business and Finance Level 3 in college, then likely take the SAT and move on to a US uni, what are some decent unis that offer finance but aren't too hard to get into.

Two notes, btw
by college I meant college in the UK so 16-18 / year 12-13
and i wanna work in Investment Banking
for my Gcse im predicted a 4/5 in maths (but that's because I'm doing foundation, though I would say im closer to a lower 5 than a higher 4 so that's good ) for english like 5/6 for lang and lit or 7 if i revise english but im lazy for science trilogy Combined HIgher around 66 or 67 for Business either a very high 6 (6a) or low 7 for comp sci a 6 for history a 7 and for french a 3 ;( but idrc abt french and never pay attention in french anyway so idrc.
Generally the universities that are easy to get into in the US aren't likely to do much more than an equivalent uni in the UK to get you into investment banking.

Also bear in mind generally easy to get into universities in the US have very little if any financial aid for international students, and you won't qualify for any US federal aid as an international student, and you won't be able to get Student Finance England funding to study in the US. So I'm not too sure how you're planning to pay for that, as studying in the US as an international student is very expensive.

You're probably better off aiming at unis in the UK and ideally aiming for target unis for investment banks if that's your goal. You don't need to do finance or even a related degree to go into investment banking, and could just as well do a degree in e.g. viking and old norse studies at UCL or international social and public policy at LSE and still have good odds provided you also get relevant internships etc. However A-levels would be a better route into that than a BTEC diploma.

I think you're basically picking an end point and then a route, even if the two don't necessarily connect - you should work backwards from your goal and figure out what you need to do to achieve that.
(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 3

Original post by artful_lounger
Generally the universities that are easy to get into in the US aren't likely to do much more than an equivalent uni in the UK to get you into investment banking.
Also bear in mind generally easy to get into universities in the US have very little if any financial aid for international students, and you won't qualify for any US federal aid as an international student, and you won't be able to get Student Finance England funding to study in the US. So I'm not too sure how you're planning to pay for that, as studying in the US as an international student is very expensive.
You're probably better off aiming at unis in the UK and ideally aiming for target unis for investment banks if that's your goal. You don't need to do finance or even a related degree to go into investment banking, and could just as well do a degree in e.g. viking and old norse studies at UCL or international social and public policy at LSE and still have good odds provided you also get relevant internships etc. However A-levels would be a better route into that than a BTEC diploma.
I think you're basically picking an end point and then a route, even if the two don't necessarily connect - you should work backwards from your goal and figure out what you need to do to achieve that.

TBF, I meant like not the WORST unis, like ones that aren't insanely hard to get into like insanely hard for me would be less than 20-30% acceptance rate
Original post by shn fler flwe
TBF, I meant like not the WORST unis, like ones that aren't insanely hard to get into like insanely hard for me would be less than 20-30% acceptance rate


The thing is though that outside of the very top unis in the US, there is no guarantee of funding and it's very likely you won't be offered full funding (or any). It costs about $50k+ per year to study in the US, and an undergraduate degree in the US is 4 years. That's minimum $200k, frequently that will just be tuition and not cover living costs. While the "elite" colleges which are committed to meeting full financial need and have need blind admissions will accept you if you are good enough and pay your financial need (which even that doesn't cover the full cost always - as they expect your family to pay some amount depending on their income), beyond that as I said, unless you're a high level athlete or something you're probably going to get at best partial funding.

Whereas in the UK you'd be fully funded by SFE, and likely can get into similar or possibly even stronger unis. Honestly I think your plan doesn't make much sense.

Reply 5

Do undergrad in UK and masters in US . It will cost you an extra year but financially that’s the best route to the states.

Reply 6

Original post by artful_lounger
The thing is though that outside of the very top unis in the US, there is no guarantee of funding and it's very likely you won't be offered full funding (or any). It costs about $50k+ per year to study in the US, and an undergraduate degree in the US is 4 years. That's minimum $200k, frequently that will just be tuition and not cover living costs. While the "elite" colleges which are committed to meeting full financial need and have need blind admissions will accept you if you are good enough and pay your financial need (which even that doesn't cover the full cost always - as they expect your family to pay some amount depending on their income), beyond that as I said, unless you're a high level athlete or something you're probably going to get at best partial funding.
Whereas in the UK you'd be fully funded by SFE, and likely can get into similar or possibly even stronger unis. Honestly I think your plan doesn't make much sense.

my family dont earn like 100k dollars or smth lol prolly even less than like 80k or 70k dollars tbh, plus Im ethnically asian and a first gen immigrant, so my parents came here from pakistan. If i have a decent gpa (around 3.4 or above) I should be able to get Partial funding / embursement. the rest will be covered via a bank loan from a trusted uk bank which i will agree the terms of payment are appropriate before signing. Hopefully on Fixed interest to be safe from inflation. (Unless its set to go down still 2 yeas b4 i go uni so too early to say).

As for the uni itself i think one good example of some unis one can get into are:

NDSU - 96% rate of acceptance minimum gpa 2.5 , i should easily be able to get here by god's will

UND - 83% rate, 2.75 gpa around 1100 or 1200 sat score will guarantee u a place in either of these two. both are in dakota they are pretty mid but ez to get into minimal effort

University of minnesota - 73% rate, okay so the dip in acceptance is a lot here but it ain't bad at all gpa 3.78 which is prolly gnna be the hardest part gonna need DDD or DDM atleast in Btecs. but not too bad. 1300-1350 sat score will get u in here. Medium effort school basically

UMass amherst 66% acceptance, 3.9 gpa (i think thats weighted tho) so basically DDD at btec and sat around 1300 or 1330 will get u in here - High effort

uni of michigan - 20% acceptance 3.9 gpa weighted so again DDD or D*DD. plus 1400 sat, - VERY high effort

the next one is my dream school i have this as something i can get into if im HIGHLY lucky, dont count on it tho.

NYU - acceptance rate 15%, gpa 3.8 1400+ SAT, - EXTREME EFFORT + LUCK Dream school not highly likely but with luck _+ God + effort it is feasable tho not at my forefront of course.

Many others too exist. most of my other ones that i wanna get into are prolly above NDSU/ UND but below michigan and Much below NYU i think around that level ( so again, above NDSU/UND but below michigan is the best balance between realistic but prestigious)? But why are you so obssessed with your school being PRESTIGIOUS in the first place i hear u ask? well... cuz i wanna be an investment banker and tho its not evrything. the prestigeousness of your school matters a lot.

PS ik my spelling is ****, its cuz im typing fast and cba to correct it rn icl.

also a couple questions I HAVE:
1) i wanna live/work in the us when older especially in IB / finance but i heard if u have a degree from the UK it is impossible to find work in the us? is this true? how true ?
2) how important is the prestigeousnes of ur school in this field?
3) why do UK unis not use bloomberg terminals to train undergrads in finance. whereas many schools in the US DO?
Original post by shn fler flwe
my family dont earn like 100k dollars or smth lol prolly even less than like 80k or 70k dollars tbh, plus Im ethnically asian and a first gen immigrant, so my parents came here from pakistan. If i have a decent gpa (around 3.4 or above) I should be able to get Partial funding / embursement. the rest will be covered via a bank loan from a trusted uk bank which i will agree the terms of payment are appropriate before signing. Hopefully on Fixed interest to be safe from inflation. (Unless its set to go down still 2 yeas b4 i go uni so too early to say).

As for the uni itself i think one good example of some unis one can get into are:

NDSU - 96% rate of acceptance minimum gpa 2.5 , i should easily be able to get here by god's will

UND - 83% rate, 2.75 gpa around 1100 or 1200 sat score will guarantee u a place in either of these two. both are in dakota they are pretty mid but ez to get into minimal effort

University of minnesota - 73% rate, okay so the dip in acceptance is a lot here but it ain't bad at all gpa 3.78 which is prolly gnna be the hardest part gonna need DDD or DDM atleast in Btecs. but not too bad. 1300-1350 sat score will get u in here. Medium effort school basically

UMass amherst 66% acceptance, 3.9 gpa (i think thats weighted tho) so basically DDD at btec and sat around 1300 or 1330 will get u in here - High effort

uni of michigan - 20% acceptance 3.9 gpa weighted so again DDD or D*DD. plus 1400 sat, - VERY high effort

the next one is my dream school i have this as something i can get into if im HIGHLY lucky, dont count on it tho.

NYU - acceptance rate 15%, gpa 3.8 1400+ SAT, - EXTREME EFFORT + LUCK Dream school not highly likely but with luck _+ God + effort it is feasable tho not at my forefront of course.

Many others too exist. most of my other ones that i wanna get into are prolly above NDSU/ UND but below michigan and Much below NYU i think around that level ( so again, above NDSU/UND but below michigan is the best balance between realistic but prestigious)? But why are you so obssessed with your school being PRESTIGIOUS in the first place i hear u ask? well... cuz i wanna be an investment banker and tho its not evrything. the prestigeousness of your school matters a lot.

PS ik my spelling is ****, its cuz im typing fast and cba to correct it rn icl.

also a couple questions I HAVE:
1) i wanna live/work in the us when older especially in IB / finance but i heard if u have a degree from the UK it is impossible to find work in the us? is this true? how true ?
2) how important is the prestigeousnes of ur school in this field?
3) why do UK unis not use bloomberg terminals to train undergrads in finance. whereas many schools in the US DO?

Honestly anything there outside of UMich and NYU (the latter of which is pretty much among the elite level of colleges in the US) I don't really think you're going to get value for money relative to going to a university in the UK. And frankly UMich I think you may not even get that at undergrad level (more so at graduate level).

I'm skeptical that a 3.4GPA is going to get you significant amounts of funding in the US as an international student.

1) The issue with getting a job in the US after graduating is not related to graduating from a non-US uni I believe, but due to the work visa requirements in the US. If you don't have a green card it's very difficult, as companies in the US are legally only able to sponsor workers for a work visa if there are no other suitably qualified American applicants for the job. So they tend to only go to a small number of people with truly outstanding CVs/backgrounds that are well beyond the bell curve. This would likely be the case whether they went to uni in the US or not.

2) For investment banking and management consulting you do need to be aiming to go to a target uni realistically I believe. In the UK these are Oxbridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial, and Warwick conventionally. I don't know which US colleges are targets.

3) I've no idea but quite possibly because a degree in finance in the UK isn't a "investment bankers training school" generally? I don't even know how common that necessarily is in the US. Also I'm sure there's some wannabe investment bankers society at most universities that will try and cobble together the relevant knowledge anyway.

Frankly I would suggest just aiming for a target uni in the UK. UCL has a number of courses with ABB entry requirements (plus some with lower for those eligible for a contextual offer), LSE has a number with ABB entry requirements for those eligible for contextual offers, I think there are quite a few courses at Warwick which would also fit that bill. The challenge would be the fact you're doing a BTEC rather than A-levels in this plan so...you should just do A-levels.

Plus if you did do very well and get AAA or higher predictions in your A-levels you could well consider Oxbridge, Imperial, or other courses at LSE with non-contextual offers (and other courses in general at Warwick and UCL). This would then enable you to get started in the sector from the UK and make you much better placed to be able to move to the US as your career progresses (and potentially if you really had a star studded CV, get into a position directly there after graduating from one such uni).

It really just seems like you're going out of your way to make your path to your goal more difficult and more expensive by doing a BTEC and trying to go to what is likely to be an at best middling or just "good" US uni (outside of NYU really in the list above).
(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 8

Original post by artful_lounger
Honestly anything there outside of UMich and NYU (the latter of which is pretty much among the elite level of colleges in the US) I don't really think you're going to get value for money relative to going to a university in the UK. And frankly UMich I think you may not even get that at undergrad level (more so at graduate level).
I'm skeptical that a 3.4GPA is going to get you significant amounts of funding in the US as an international student.
1) The issue with getting a job in the US after graduating is not related to graduating from a non-US uni I believe, but due to the work visa requirements in the US. If you don't have a green card it's very difficult, as companies in the US are legally only able to sponsor workers for a work visa if there are no other suitably qualified American applicants for the job. So they tend to only go to a small number of people with truly outstanding CVs/backgrounds that are well beyond the bell curve. This would likely be the case whether they went to uni in the US or not.
2) For investment banking and management consulting you do need to be aiming to go to a target uni realistically I believe. In the UK these are Oxbridge, UCL, LSE, Imperial, and Warwick conventionally. I don't know which US colleges are targets.
3) I've no idea but quite possibly because a degree in finance in the UK isn't a "investment bankers training school" generally? I don't even know how common that necessarily is in the US. Also I'm sure there's some wannabe investment bankers society at most universities that will try and cobble together the relevant knowledge anyway.
Frankly I would suggest just aiming for a target uni in the UK. UCL has a number of courses with ABB entry requirements (plus some with lower for those eligible for a contextual offer), LSE has a number with ABB entry requirements for those eligible for contextual offers, I think there are quite a few courses at Warwick which would also fit that bill. The challenge would be the fact you're doing a BTEC rather than A-levels in this plan so...you should just do A-levels.
Plus if you did do very well and get AAA or higher predictions in your A-levels you could well consider Oxbridge, Imperial, or other courses at LSE with non-contextual offers (and other courses in general at Warwick and UCL). This would then enable you to get started in the sector from the UK and make you much better placed to be able to move to the US as your career progresses (and potentially if you really had a star studded CV, get into a position directly there after graduating from one such uni).
It really just seems like you're going out of your way to make your path to your goal more difficult and more expensive by doing a BTEC and trying to go to what is likely to be an at best middling or just "good" US uni (outside of NYU really in the list above).

I was also thinking of one of the CSU schools especially fullerton? They are slightly more prestigious than NDSU, UND, Minnesota etc. not as much as NYU but still pretty good. their acceptance rate is 67% so its okay not too bad their gpa is like 3.6 so not low by any means but not high either. so a DDM - DDD would be needed at btec with only an 1190 SAT being at the top of the average bar. So it wouldn't be INSANELY hard to get into tbh. And its like semi- presitigous . Not like NYU or michigan but still seen as a good school.
Original post by shn fler flwe
I was also thinking of one of the CSU schools especially fullerton? They are slightly more prestigious than NDSU, UND, Minnesota etc. not as much as NYU but still pretty good. their acceptance rate is 67% so its okay not too bad their gpa is like 3.6 so not low by any means but not high either. so a DDM - DDD would be needed at btec with only an 1190 SAT being at the top of the average bar. So it wouldn't be INSANELY hard to get into tbh. And its like semi- presitigous . Not like NYU or michigan but still seen as a good school.

I really don't think the US colleges you are looking at are going to get you into investment banking, or at least if you did get into IBanking after them, it wouldn't be due to studying at that uni. You'd most likely need to be looking at Harvard/Princeton/Yale, UPenn Wharton, UChicago, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, Berkeley, maybe UCLA, maybe other Ivies, etc.

Like I said, I really think your best bet is going to be going to uni in the UK as your odds of getting into a target uni after doing A-levels are much higher.

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