Stern School of Business
Around the turn of the century, New York City was first beginning to take on some of the features that would make it known as The City That Never Sleeps. Already an industrial center, it was becoming the world capital of commerce and attracting immigrants from around the world who dreamed of striking it rich. In 1900, New York University opened the metropolis's first business school, which would provide children of immigrants the education to surpass the wealth of their parents.
Now the Stern School of Business has a top-15 undergraduate program and highly ranked full-time, part-time, and executive MBA programs. Relatively few applicants are accepted, but the old Sinatra adage applies: If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere. Most students travel just two miles upon graduation for careers on Wall Street. Renowned for its size, fast pace, and competitiveness, the Stern School of Business continues to mirror the city's business community that it has educated for more than 100 years.
Photos provided by New York University. Caption information provided by the school and Bloomberg BusinessWeek research.
Class Profile
About 2,300 students are business majors at Stern and more than 800 are full-time MBAs, and the students are diverse across the board. Both the undergraduate and MBA classes maintain an uncommonly high percentage of women as recent classes have hovered around 40%. International students make up 31% of the graduate students and 17% of business majors; 21% of MBAs are underrepresented minorities. No matter the gender or background of the student, gaining acceptance to Stern is difficult: Just a quarter of undergraduate applicants and 15% of graduate applicants are admitted, yielding an army of overachievers aspiring to future success.
Starting Off
Undergrads and MBAs both benefit from orientation activities. The university wide Welcome Week programming familiarizes undergraduate students with the NYU campus and Manhattan at large, while offering discounted tickets to museums and theater productions in the city. Business majors might take interest in the chance to get a leg up on the career process with visits to Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg headquarters. Stern MBAs get a similar introduction to the city during the preterm orientation. For them, recreational events serve to acquaint first-year students with one another in preparation for two years heavy on group work. Some graduate students are also invited to Summer Start, a program designed to acclimate career-switchers and those most far removed from school to the demands of a top-flight business school.
Undergraduate Program
Two distinct curriculums make up Stern's undergraduate program. The conventional program consists of a heavy dose of liberal arts courses that allow students to pursue a second major or a minor in another field. Students enrolled in this program are required to take four courses that make up the social impact cluster and two courses to complete an international business sequence in addition to the classes necessary for their business major. Another path introduced for the 2009 academic year, the Business & Political Economy program, has similar social impact and global business requirements, but requires additional courses on political theory and economics. Furthering its international ambitions, Stern requires all students to travel abroad at some point in their undergraduate careers to examine business in the global setting.
MBA Program
The Stern MBA program follows the typical format: one year of core courses followed by a year of increased student choice and specialization. In their second year, MBAs can choose to declare specializations or take an array of electives at Stern and other NYU schools to get a taste of all that the university offers. Considering the glut of media in New York City, it is no surprise that many of the popular electives among MBAs are media-related courses offered at the Tisch School of Arts and Steinhardt School of Culture. Students who aspire to travel overseas can take comfort in the large graduate study-abroad program that sends students around the world for anywhere from one week to a full semester. Regardless of where Stern MBAs hope to work, all leave with practical skills. Experiential learning—including investment funds, case studies, and social venture programs—is a crucial aspect of business coursework.
New York City
While they enjoy the vibrant nightlife, the diverse culture, and the seemingly unlimited attractions the Big Apple offers, Stern students love the Greenwich Village campus for another reason: its proximity to Wall Street and world business leaders. New York City houses 43 Fortune 500 companies, the second-largest regional economy on the planet, and with London is considered the center of the finance universe. Stern's three buildings are located alongside the 10-acre green oasis known as Washington Square Park, in the trendy "Village" neighborhood that once fostered a highly bohemian culture. Students take advantage of their location through the Cohen Arts & Culture Experience, which provides discounts to many of the leading museums and theaters in the city. According to one finance student surveyed by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "The experience of an MBA in a good New York location, with the access to firms and cultural life, cannot be matched by other schools."
Business of Film
Two programs unique to Stern reflect the union of business and culture in New York City. MBAs enrolled in the Craft & Commerce of Cinema course travel to France each May to observe the Cannes Film Festival. They learn from important figures in the world of cinema and get a firsthand view of the marketing, production, and distribution of motion pictures. Outside of coursework the ProMotion Pictures Film Competition teams Stern MBAs with students from the Tisch School of Arts to create an original film for the benefit of sponsor companies. Competing teams present their work to company executives at a Manhattan theater.
Stern Consulting Corps
Just one of Stern's many local experiential learning initiatives, the Consulting Corps has MBAs consulting for nonprofit organizations in New York City. During the 10-week program, students team with mentors from top consulting firms to advise the organizations on developing a business plan. B-schoolers gain real-world experience, a chance to work in the community surrounding their school, and a networking opportunity with a successful consultant. Students pictured above consulted with a small business on the Lower East Side as part of the program.
World Touch
In addition to Stern's strong promotion of university study-abroad programs, during the spring semester of their junior year business majors are required to take the International Studies Program course. Students learn extensively about a country's economic history, with a particular focus on a single industry, and then travel to that country. Pictured above, students visit Britain to observe international business and culture and meet with corporate executives. MBAs also have the option of taking a semester to study abroad, but many choose to apply for the Doing Business In… program. The program sends students to Italy, China, or Australia for two weeks of coursework, including lectures from local business and government leaders, that counts toward their GPA.
Student Life
Without a formal campus to separate its enormous student body from the rest of New York City, NYU students might find it difficult to recognize friendly faces. Grad students can take solace in the fact that nearly a third of their coursework will be presented in the form of team projects, and in business organizations such as Social Innovation & Impact (which hosts the Eco Fashion Show pictured above). Undergraduates have a large selection of student organizations, including fraternities and sororities—a number of which have historical significance within NYU. However, only a small portion of NYU students partake in Greek life. Varsity sports also play just a small part in student life. The school competes in Division III athletics and lacks a football team and major program. As a result, students rely on their living arrangements and classroom acquaintances to forge a social life at NYU.
Stern Curve
Not mentioned on the Stern Web site but infamous among students and recruiters, the "Stern Curve" looms over every graduate class and has crept into the undergraduate ranks as well. The curve guarantees that the average among students enrolled in every Stern course is a B, and ensures a similar average GPA for every graduating MBA class. Predictably, the curve yields a hard-working set of students but also considerable competitiveness among them. One undergraduate told Bloomberg BusinessWeek that as a result of the curve "it is hard to develop a closeness when everyone is always competing to get higher grades and the same jobs."
Faculty
Stern boasts an accomplished faculty who instruct NYU students in relatively intimate settings. Two-thirds of undergraduate business classes have 50 students or fewer, and core Stern MBA classes average 61. Undergrads and MBAs rave about the accessibility of the faculty. "In 18 months, I developed personal relationships with administration and professors and expect to maintain those relationships," one MBA told Bloomberg BusinessWeek. In addition to making themselves available to students, professors offer their expertise to the financial world as a whole. Amid the Great Recession, 33 Stern academics published their prescription for preventing future economic crises, Restoring Financial Stability: How to Repair a Failed System.
Stern Entrepreneurial Challenge
Each year, Stern rewards hefty cash prizes to student teams with the best entrepreneurial plans in two categories. The business plan competition encourages students and alumni to devise a business of their own. Past winners of the 10-year-old competition range from Nanocs, a company that sought to bring nanotechnology to the biotech and manufacturing spheres, to Let-Me-Tell-You, a company that markets event-specific scrapbook kits. Other entries are gathered under the Social Venture Program, where winners take original approaches to solving social problems. In 2006, Verge Records took home the prize for a business model to increase awareness of issues facing troubled neighborhoods around the world by distributing socially aware hip-hop music.
Career Services
All B-school students have access to the Wasserman Center for Career Development. Recruitment fairs, résumé assistance, mock interviews, alumni networking, and a host of job placement services are provided for Stern students. Undergrads, who are discouraged from seeking internships prior to the summer after their junior year, are instead advised to focus on academics and extracurricular activities. For MBAs, the school's advantageous location allows students to supplement their schoolwork with a part-time internship at one of the countless nearby firms.
After Graduation
Eighty thousand Stern alumni in more than 100 countries, like those at a recent alumni conference in Barcelona, above, ensure that graduates will find a friendly face no matter where their careers take them. However, nearly 90% of Stern students, at both levels, earn their paychecks in the Northeast. Half of MBA students and more than 60% of business majors land jobs in finance, with big banks such as JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs leading the way in employing Stern graduates. Undergrads enter the workforce with a median starting salary just shy of $60,000—one of the best in the country—and the average MBA student sees a salary spike of $30,000 upon graduation. Accordingly, Bloomberg BusinessWeek awarded Stern high grades for career placement in recent surveys.