Getting off track. I shouldn’t have said. The main point. It’s not impossible from anywhere.
And OP likes TCU but was concerned. A google linked in shows there are TCU grads…business and otherwise, in IB.
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Definitely not mistaken. Moreover, there are sometimes bonuses and allowances for housing and groceries in addition to the $85K. Understand that these are usually given to those juniors whom they expect to tender a return offer, so these are students they are serious about keeping.
Acknowledged that this is a side-topic. I did not intend to hi-jack the thread.
I too question this. IB Analysts starts at 110k plus bonus ( maybe another 10k for moving), which can range from 10 to 50% of base. Maybe a few hedge funds have a few quants paid substantially more, but it isnt more than a handful.
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See attached. These numbers look to represent an accurate range based on my kid and his friends who landed IB jobs (summer and full time) from an HYP, especially at the junior levels where comp is pretty competitive across firms. Investment Banker Salary and Bonus Report: 2022 Update
Let’s use some common sense here as well. There are roughly 100 IB summer analysts at a bulge bracket firm. So who pays $8.5mm before payroll taxes, moving, and other allowances for, frankly, kids that add marginal value if any. They’d all be happy with $20-25k for the summer with a good prospect of landing a return offer of $100-120k in base salary plus bonus . IB firms are mercenary in the field of comp speaking as a former MD who had many bonus pool conversations. No one is going to spend $8.5mm in comp when $2.5mm will do.
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What @BKSquared wrote is correct. One of my sons was an analyst, then associate, at Goldman, and his compensation was as BK describes.
I am sure there are exceptional kids, and exceptional firms that pay more, but Goldman isn’t shabby, and they weren’t paying what some on this thread are claiming is the industry norm.
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Yes as I pointed out this is from my daughter abd it’s probably the annual rate. Sorry to off track us
The main point. You can get into IB from anywhere. Not easily but u can. And a look at TCU on linked in shows this.
Op is asking which of the three is best but likes TCU.
Answer is go for it
We should move past
Sorry for getting everyone off base
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The grad may not be elite but their undergrad b-school is closer to elite than you think it is. You cannot lump it with other public colleges the OP got into, which you tend to do in your other posts. If the OP prefers TCU, then sure, but those other undergrad programs don’t have the same general reputation, for some reason IU has established itself as a very strong place for IB and finance, out of undergrad.
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matter of opinion 
It’s solid as I say…it’s very good. Elite, to me, is a handful of schools. Then there’s another handful - and then there’s the tier with IU - which very good - always top 20.
Words like elite are opinion based.
Many colleges place people in high finance - and not all from B Schools.
Percentage wise few from IU will be there - and we have to move past Wall Street because high finance is so much more today.
Anyway, we all have opinions - that’s mine and yours is yours.
Here’s one (of many lists).
Anyway, the point is OP can get to (not easily) to IB from TCU and I’d personally make that statement about IU.
Thanks
Investment Banking Target School List (Using Data) (peakframeworks.com)
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Good linked article. The passage about Volume and Prestigious Schools should not be overlooked. While only Middlebury made the list at 28, a lot of the top LACs punch above their weight in this area, fewer students overall and even fewer students who want to pursue this type of career, yet recruiters from top firms are still active there.
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Go to the best school you get into and then crush it (both academically and then in your job). Crushing it doesn’t necessarily mean getting a 4.0…high grades are important but you also need to be well-rounded and build the soft skills needed to succeed in these pressure environments. Also realize that a path to IB (and definitely PE) is not always linear. Yes, it is more linear to kids at the top 10-15 schools or feeder programs but for some/many, the path might include working for a few years at other great jobs (audit, operations consulting, corporate finance, etc) and then getting into IB through a top 15 MBA program…and then pivoting from a few years of IB into PE that way. I went to a top MBA program and saw folks getting into IB through lots of non-traditional paths - the common thread was that they all excelled in whatever they were doing pre-business school. I also had plenty of friends going to business school after IB and looking for ways to get as far away from the IB lifestyle as they could.
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I can relate to this. My son told me that IB is not a choice for him because he values sleep and quality of life, and doesn’t want to work 80-100 hours a week in what is known to be uninteresting work for the first 4-5 years of your career. The interesting work starts after that.
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With the significant increases in starting pay for jobs like IB, consulting and biglaw, I think young people often miss that what they bring to the table at that point is working crazy hours.
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Someone needs to work all night to put together the presentation of the day’s accomplishments for the next daily kickoff meeting.
I have always felt that this is the cost that the entry level associates in MC pay for the privilege of sitting in the room while the Seniors talk.
I had a job working for IBM in undergrad. Glorified gopher in some respects but also helped put presentations together (back then it was creating individual slides that were slapped down one by one on a projector). Team I was working for was proposing on a huge project. We worked for weeks on it. Night before the pitch, we were finalizing everything and one of the two main presenters looked at the stack of slides and said 85% of them were mine. Got paid (about double minimum wage at the time to play with computers). Was also great to work in an office environment and learn from those who were senior to me. And most interviews I had later for accounting jobs involved hearing “So tell me about IBM.”
Had professor in grad school who consulted with local firm. He lobbied like crazy to keep starting salaries lower because he thought there would be too much pressure with higher salaries to produce from day one. I think he had a valid point. Less training/observation as a result of higher pay. Though fast forward several decades and he totally lost the war on that one. LOL
That list pretty much proves my point, IU is 19th on that ranking with the other two colleges the OP is considering not even on it. And IU is ahead of Northwestern and Stanford, fwiw.
#19 is not proof. And it’s one of many.
I did not say you can’t get to I-Banking from IU.
I said it’s not elite.
It’s a big school with many solid and some spectacular students. It’s well reputed.
I said it’s not top shelf.
Again, we each are entitled to our opinions. Time to move on.
Not disputing that IB, Consulting and Big Law jobs involve stressful long hours for juniors, but that is training. These firms invest a lot of time and money to get junior bankers, consultants and lawyers up to productive levels. Yes, diving into annual reports, Bloomberg data and analysis, research reports, building projection models and then putting this into presentation form can be perceived as grunt work, but at the same time the analyst/associate is learning about key drivers of financial and operational KPI’s, capital structure, credit and valuation for various industries. This knowledge and the ability to interconnect these concepts is critical to a successful career, plus being good with people, clients and co-workers.
You see a lot of criticism over these careers, some of which is justified in terms of the stress and toll on health, physical and mental, but it is not misery and low job satisfaction for a number of years before arriving at the promised land. It is a progression based on individual performance and skill. You should always be learning something and taking on additional responsibilities, like any other career.
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I agree with all of that. But I was speaking more in terms of the employer’s perspective. Very good learning opportunities for junior people. But when they first start out, what they bring to the table is pretty much a willingness to work crazy hours. Over time, you expect that you will bring more than that (though ultimately in many jobs, the crazy hours continue).
When I interviewed for a judicial clerkship years ago, one of the questions was how long a clerkship would be. Most were 1-2 years. One of the judges said he required 2 because the first year was for the clerk and the second year was for him.
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Yes, you might get an analyst position right out of undergrad. However, to really get to the top in IB you need an MBA (for most people). And, at least several years ago, most IB will only look at top MBA programs for recruiting.
Most people who join IB right out of undergrad have zero interest in an IB career. They are leveraging the IB experience to end up where they really want to be.
Everyone’s expectation is that they will be there for two years and move on. Even the timing of the bonus reflects this. Bonuses for analysts are often paid mid-year, as opposed to year-end for everyone else.
In contrast, many who join at the associate level after an MBA are looking to IB as a career.
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