Columbia and Chicago would be better than Stern for PE/VC. Columbia's strength really is its massive NY/San Francisco/London alum network whereas no one will doubt your quant analytical skills if you end up at Chicago.

Thanks. Any insight from anyone on NYU as far as placement into PE/VC? Also, any other competitive strengths for each school aside from obvious (location, finance programs, etc)?

I have no information on NYU. However, I took a course at the Johnson School during my senior year at Cornell. Their PE/VC (Entrepreneurship & Private Equity) courses are taught by David BenDaniel. His course was excellent and he is very well connected to a seemingly endless number successful investors. You should look in to their program.

Moved to more appropriate subforum.

is it just bad information that i've read, or isn't it quite difficult to get into PE/VC, unless you graduate from Standford or Harvard. And even so, I've heard it's difficult for them. Not trying to discourage anyone, but I was considering this field after my MBA and my research hasn't provided much encouragement....

I think it's fair to say that it's tough to land VC/PE work from any school. It's easier from a top school, but a top school like Chicago Booth (from which I'm an alum ) should be just as good as Harvard or Stanford.

A lot of factors go into the outcome that you're describing and you might be better off evaluating them individually -- the quality of the education, the nature of the alumni network, the type of recruiting program, and so forth.