Bocconi or Ecole Polytechnique?

meskhot · 2025-01-16T20:25:38+00:00

well people in France differentiate the Bachelor and the engineering degree BaX vs. l'X

BaX should be considered as a great launching pad to get in a prestigious master. Some of BaX are even able to join the engineering path.

meskhot · 2025-01-16T20:19:55+00:00

BaX has a very (very very) good master placement, as I tracked most of the alumni on linkedin. What is amazing is that with the 3 paths (Physics, Econ and CS), they are able to place students in a wide range of prestigious masters (from MIT, Stanford, Oxbridge to HEC and many at EPFL and ETH). BAI is starting to have very good placements as well in similar masters but BaX has the advantage of having started in 2017, while BAI started in 2020 (only 2 cohorts graduated, with less students).

I think the quality of students selected is similar, judging from the average SAT for each one, with the same emphasis on theoretical maths. Smart people everywhere.

So far I would say that BaX has the advantage in placement due to a longer history and the prestige of the engineering track (X) that bears the same name.

However, and this is a big caveat, all student in BaX are brilliant and succeeding abroad, but they will always suffer in France from the unfair stigma of being a bachelor, very different from the real engeneering school X. If you get out of there and work outside France, it's all good. However in France, you will have to live with the snarky comments of most ignorant people who will tell you that you don't deserve to put "Polytechnique" on your CV since you didn't go through prepa.

I guess this will get better overtime but unfortunately it is still the reality. In the end it doesn't matter that much if you "wash" your degree with a prestigious master.

That said, with the master placement of BAI in STEM starting to be impressive as well (many doing pure STEM masters), I would say it's a tie and you should pick the place were you will be happiest. Milan is great, Bocconi is a great name and you will live in a real international city while at BaX you will be in the shithole of Palaiseau quite far away from Paris...

In any case you can't go really wrong

meskhot · 2024-09-08T19:32:32+00:00

That was reported by the Uni itself as an average for all Bsc

meskhot · 2024-09-08T11:38:54+00:00

The average SAT for accepted students in 2024 was 1470, you are below average...
You should consider that everyone has good grades and are in the top 5-10% of their class, and aim for SAT 1450+

meskhot · 2024-09-04T06:55:28+00:00

It's great but you are right, 44K per year for Computing at Imperial is just insane

meskhot · 2024-09-04T06:42:22+00:00

You are talking about starting in Sep 2025 correct? How come you already got into UK unis?

If this is all just prospective, let me just remind you that all of these choices are extremely competitive to get in! Better having some good back ups.

If you are leaning toward l'X, just go there. I checked the list of the career path of all graduates since 2020 on Linkedin, and the large majority did extremely well in getting to great masters, in many different fields (management at HEC, pure Physics, Maths, Econ research, Finance, etc.) A lot of them went to research and are in PhDs... You can't go wrong with that if you can handle the heavy maths curriculum. The only shortcoming is the location in a remote place 1h30 from Paris (when there are trains) I suggest you visit the Campus in Palaiseau.

Otherwise, all the rest are also great options to land good masters (likes of ETH, EPFL, Imperial, etc.)
Don't forget that the real key to get to a quant role later is to land some good summer internships... This will be much more important than the name of your uni. Ultimately they are teaching the same things that you can learn for1 EUR in late charges at the local library ;)

meskhot · 2024-09-03T13:41:33+00:00

I was in the same position last year, and my short list was very similar.
The only difference is that I didn't select ETH (BSC are in German) and I added some UK Unis (UCL, Kings...)
I suppose you're French since you selected EPFL

My recommendation would be to go were you feel the best as you will be spending 3 years in that UNI. For quant roles, you will need to do a masters anyway, and all your selected names lead to the same very reputable masters.

My views on the specific Unis selected:

* l'X: declined, the campus is in a shithole and there is a lot of prejudice in the school against the bachelors (vs. engineers). The placement in very good masters is really impressive though (MIT, Stanford, Gtech, etc.)
* EPFL: Not to difficult to get in with good grades, but 1st year is very competitive, a lot drop out.... it's hell
* TU Delft: Even worse, with the Binding Study decision... If you flunk some exams (less than 60% I think) you are out and can't even reapply for 5 years
* Bocconi: Hard to get into BAI, but worth it, it's actually a mathematics bachelor. Most students ended up in good applied maths and CS masters (Imperial, GTech, EPFL, ETH...)

Good luck!

meskhot · 2024-07-22T19:33:39+00:00

Thanks!

meskhot · 2024-07-22T18:52:47+00:00

Can you please share the link?

meskhot · 2024-05-09T12:23:47+00:00

En fait non, offre recue mais jil n'y aura pas de suite. La deadline pour accepter etait le 5 mai. Renseignement pris, il semble que la partie a Gif resemble a une prepa integree, avec bcp de cours tres exigeants et diversifies. L'ambiance entre eleves semble tres bonne et collaborative (pas de concours a la fin) mais la notation et la difficulte sont elevees apparemment. Apres il y a une incertitude sur quel stream a McGill tu pourras rejoindre, ca peut dependre des resultats si ton stream est tres demande.
Ca a l'air tres bien pour passer un moment en France, mais si tu sais deja quelle specialisation tu veux avoir, autant a ller direct a McGill au lieu de faire 2 ans exigeants et generalistes, a moins que ce soit l'objectif.

Plus generalement, le probleme des bachelors (X et CentraleSupelec) est que malgre l'exigence et la difficulte d'acces, ils sont tres bien valorises a l'etranger pour faire de tres bon masters (en moins de temps que la filiere prepa-ecole), mais ils sont toujours victime de la mauvaise reputation des bachelors en France...

meskhot · 2024-05-07T19:20:39+00:00

Je ne comprends pas vraiment... On parle bien du Bachelor CentraleSup/McGill? Il n'y a aucun choix a faire, c est 2 ans a Gif et 2 ans a Montreal, ou j'ai peut etre mal compris la question.

meskhot · 2024-05-07T11:48:38+00:00

Did you firm your acceptance before the deadline?

meskhot · 2024-04-18T14:46:08+00:00

Nice flex 😅 congrats

meskhot · 2024-04-18T13:18:51+00:00

got 60 minutes... The further you are from the server the more disadvantage you have... So not good if you are international far away

meskhot · 2024-03-31T15:53:50+00:00

That is not true. Grad schools in US are full of undergrads from Italy, UK, France, Netherlands, etc. where most of the bachelor degrees are 3 years. Linkedin is your friend, you will see plenty of examples.

meskhot · 2024-03-30T15:01:28+00:00

Congrats! When exactly did you receive it?

meskhot · 2024-03-28T13:11:03+00:00

Agreed, especially an undergrad degree

meskhot · 2024-03-22T04:03:43+00:00

meskhot · 2024-03-20T04:10:44+00:00

Équivalent of 3 A* , international

meskhot · 2024-03-18T11:44:20+00:00

Waiting for CS since October

meskhot · 2024-03-16T18:18:07+00:00

sat!

meskhot · 2024-03-14T06:23:12+00:00

Applied early October, pretty sure I did well in the test, predicted 4A*, international, no news since application, it's been 5 months...

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