NYU's Stern School of Business was originally founded in 1900 as the School of Commerce, Accounts and Finance and only enrolled undergraduate students. Today, Stern offers undergraduate, master and doctoral degrees and is well regarded for its finance program, though it also has academic strengths in international business and information systems, among others. Stern's Langone part-time MBA program is also prominent, ranked the best in the country by the U.S. News & World Report in 2008.

Unlike most business school structures, Stern only has four pre-set classes in its core. For the remainder of the core, students choose five to seven classes from a foundational menu. Students then fine tune their education by focusing in up to three of Stern's 22 areas of concentration, which range from global business to entertainment, media and technology. Up to a quarter of MBA credits can be completed in NYU's other graduate programs, or students can earn one of eight degrees concurrently with their MBA, including a dual MBA with the HEC School of Management in Paris.

Recruiters come to Stern from all over the country; but New York employers are particularly evident, and the school has a particular reputation for landing its grads spots on Wall Street. This success is partially due to Stern's location in Greenwich Village, from which student have easy access to Wall Street and Midtown offices as well as innumerable cultural offerings.