<p>I got a likely to Dartmouth and am now waiting on HYP and Penn (Applied to CAS since Wharton is absolutely ridiculous to even attempt and I don't have a huge business-based profile). I hope to study econ and finance and hopefully enter investment management0 or fund management while pursuing a Wall Street career.</p>
<p>Until I got my likely, Dartmouth was always a TAD lower in my mind compared to HYP and Penn-However, recently, I've been learning that Dartmouth is 2nd to none in finance and is even called "Goldman Sachs" on Wall Street. The percentage of finance jobs they send and the alumni network they have is amazing.</p>
<p>I don't think I'll get into HYP or Penn. But going to Dartmouth, could I rightly tell myself that my undergrad education and the opportunities I'll have are no less than those I'd have at HYP or Penn? If so, why is Dartmouth never mentioned in the "big mix" of HYPPC?</p>
<p>All of them have strong alumni networks in banking. Reach out to people early, get to know them, and smooze your way in. Simple. You can’t go wrong with any of those schools. </p>
<p>I recommend reading the blog “Mergers and Inquisitions” if you are interested in breaking into the industry.</p>
<p>Princeton probably is the most connected on Wall Street compared to Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth.
HYP as a whole would be better, to be candid. Congratulations on Dartmouth, though!</p>
<p>Dartmouth easily is among the top 3-4 schools at Wall Street placement. It might be a step down from HYP, but I think very few people would put Penn above Dartmouth.</p>
<p>The problem with all these anecdotal ‘placement’ rates is that it’s never clarified as to
number of students who are applying for finance jobs
number of students who end up with offers
and 2a) number of offers per student
and perhaps 2b) the nature of the jobs–M&A, HF, PE, VC etc. </p>
<p>Absolute numbers aren’t very interesting, as a smaller school such as Williams or Dartmouth would naturally send a smaller absolute number to…well…any kind of profession or grad school. </p>
<p>On a gut level, I’m pretty sure breaking into the finance world is no harder if you go to Dartmouth or Harvard or Penn, all else being equal.</p>
<p>Some of the most astounding candidates I have interviewed came from Wharton. They had better industry knowledge, and had done more (and more interesting) independent research than students at any other school. If business is your passion, it is a great school.</p>
<p>But we hired from all the Ivy and Ivy-equivalents. More important than the school you choose is doing extremely well there. Depending on major, the soft cutoff for interview is between 3.5 and 3.9, with at least one non-coursework experience (job, activity, research) on the resume to discuss.</p>
<p>Wharton>Harvard>Princeton>Dartmouth when it comes to finance. However the recruiting at all four campuses is very aggressive so yo will not be doing yourselves a disservice by going to Dartmouth. 9Unless though, you are looking into going straight to private equity. Very few PE firms hires straight out of college and the few who do (e.g. Blackstone group) hire exclusively from Harvard and Wharton.</p>
<p>@glassesarchaic - There’s no official policy, but when you have 100 resumes of people who are putatively qualified and you can interview 13 or 26 people, you have to make tradeoffs. What the subjective comparison is for each major depends on the school. Wharton aside, business and other social sciences are usually viewed as less challenging than hard sciences and engineering, so those majors need better grades to compete.</p>
<p>@3dollarbaby - that used to be true, but over the past decade there’s been a trend away from business majors towards mathematically-apt people in general. I don’t think Wharton > Harvard anymore for banking.</p>