Is Boston College or Columbia better for getting internships in New York City?

Columbia offers the more direct route to New York City internships for a student focused on both finance and media. Its Manhattan location makes it realistic to attend employer events, informational interviews, and even part-time internships during the academic year. For media especially, proximity to newsrooms, studios, agencies, publishers, and digital-media companies is a meaningful day-to-day advantage.

Columbia students benefit from recruiting access built around New York: finance firms and media employers regularly hold campus events, and alumni are concentrated across the city’s industries. Being able to meet an alum for coffee before class or commute to an internship after class can make networking more frequent and less dependent on a single summer recruiting cycle. Columbia’s name recognition is also especially strong in NYC professional circles.

Boston College can still lead to excellent NYC outcomes, particularly through the Carroll School of Management, its active finance-oriented student organizations, and an alumni base with a notable presence on Wall Street. BC students do secure New York internships and full-time roles, but most networking and recruiting work requires a planned trip to the city or happens through virtual outreach, school-sponsored treks, and summer internships.

For finance, BC may appeal if you prefer a more traditional campus environment and a business-school structure, while Columbia provides unusually convenient access to the firms themselves. For media, the location gap is even more consequential because many opportunities, events, and freelance or semester-time roles are centered in New York. At either school, joining relevant student organizations early and building alumni relationships will matter, but Columbia makes repeated in-person contact far easier.