Did an Indian student from a quant trading background make the right choice picking Boston University MS Finance over NYU Stern's US-Shanghai program for building a US finance career?

For someone whose goal is US work experience and access to the US finance market, Boston University is the stronger choice over NYU Stern's US-Shanghai split program. NYU Stern's specific format, two months in New York and ten months in Shanghai, directly contradicts the goal of building US market exposure, networking with US finance professionals, and positioning for US employment. Boston is a genuine finance city with a real ecosystem: Fidelity, State Street, Wellington Management, and dozens of hedge funds and asset managers are headquartered there or have significant Boston operations.

• The STEM classification of the BU MS Finance degree is an additional concrete advantage, it provides three years of OPT, which means three lottery entries for the H-1B visa rather than the single entry available to non-STEM graduates.
• For a quant-oriented candidate with trading experience looking to build a US career in finance, the combination of Boston's finance ecosystem and BU's STEM OPT extension makes it a better-structured setup than the NYU alternative offered.