East or West Coast for college student studying finance?

My major is finance and I would like to gain as much oppurtunity as possible. I would like to live in a big city, I dont know where to apply to college, because my list consists of schools in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Miami. Out of those I prefer New York and LA. I've never been to the west coast. I am from PA and have been to NYC many times and love it. But I would also like the beach and southern California looks beautiful. I am going out there in a few months... visiting Las Vegas and Los Angeles. But I will be applying to colleges before that so I would like to know what would be best for me. I know that LA and NYC benefits the wealthy, which I do not fall into. Will it be hard for me to live as a college student? I plan on living in a dorm in college. In conclusion, I would like to know where would be the best place for me with a lot of things to do and business oppurtunity as well as a good education.

Public Comments

1. If you are going to study finance, then go east coast. New York, Philly and Chicago are probably the three best cities for finance majors to get a good start. NYC is the top, since Wall Street is money.
2. I would say that NYC has the most finance jobs, many banks are headquartered there. Going to school there doesn't necessarily help you to get one of those jobs, since big firms recruit all around the country. Los Angeles and SF also have good opportunities. LA, SF and NYC are very expensive to live. You'll get a smaller place for more money. As far as best education, you can be just fine with an education from any of the big name colleges. You could get a good education at a smaller college, but then you won't have the brand name, and not as many companies will recruit at your campus. So try to find out which companies recruit at each college you are considering and look at the ranking of the business school, not just the overall university rating. Then you just have to consider the differences in tuition, which can range up to $32,000 or more. With $10,000 added for living expenses, you could be out more than $160,000 before you graduate. So you have to do a cost/benefit analysis there.
3. East coast.........esp schools like Univ of Penn, U of Michigan, Michigan SU, Purdue, Schools in Illinois, New york etc........and in the west....try univ of Washington or Washington SU, schools of Univ Cali system.....but I would again say east coast...good luck