<p>I'm looking to go into banking or consulting, so I've been heavily considering Olin business school in WUSTL and NYU Stern. But I want to give all my schools fair consideration so I thought I'd ask if any of you know how well Vanderbilt does in placing students for these types of jobs. I suppose I would major in something like economics. I've been able to find all kinds of data on employment and internships for business schools, but haven't had as much luck with Vanderbilt as it doesn't have an actual business program. Are there enough internship opportunities/recruiters for jobs in banking/consulting and do students find jobs easily?</p>
<p>Anyone have any input?</p>
<p>There’s a pdf online that summarizes what Vanderbilt students do post-graduation. I seem to recall seeing BoA Merrill Lynch, GS, and JPM for Investment Banking as well as quite a few boutiques (MM.) In terms of consulting there were Bain and AT Kearney. One benefit is that a lot fewer students seek these positions out unlike Stern (where every single person in the class will be applying against you.)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vanderbilt.edu/career/media/pdf/PGR2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/career/media/pdf/PGR2011.pdf</a></p>
<p>S has told me they hire one Vandy student at Bain each year. In his class ('06), if I remember correctly, I think he said 90 applied, 9 got an interview, and 1 was hired. He had a classmate who worked at McKinsey in Chicago. He got a job with a consulting firm in DC doing quantitative analysis at Thanksgiving prior to graduation, but that was pre-recession.</p>
<p>That pdf is slightly unsettling. Only 48.6% of graduates even have job offers by graduation. But those that do venture into Finance and Consulting do seem to do quite well.</p>
<p>Two of the top three consulting companies were started by Vanderbilt grads (Bain and Boston Consulting Group)</p>
<p>If you’re motivated, you can get pretty much any job you want. A few things I’ll point out:</p>
<p>1) We have recruitment from BofA Merrill, Citi, Goldman, Bain, and BCG
2) Fewer people want to go into finance/consulting from Vanderbilt than say, Stern – so if you know you want to do it now, you’ll be at a big advantage, and have less competition.
3) Bain and BCG mostly recruit for southern offices (Atlanta/Dallas/Houston). A downside in my book, but it also means you don’t compete with as many Harvard/Yale/Princeton kids.
4) In my experience, Vanderbilt alumni are extraordinarily helpful in terms of getting your foot in. Tons of school pride – I haven’t seen that as much at Stern, where it seems like much more of a competitive, do your four years and get out mindset.</p>
<p>speechie: I’m sure that’s true of any school, even state schools. But I want to put myself at the most advantageous possible position to find employment. It’s great that Vanderbilt has recruitment from such great companies, but those are just a few. I’m more interested to know if there are enough opportunities in general, even from smaller companies.</p>
<p>I obviously can’t speak for the entirety of Vanderbilt, but we get a decent share of boutique firm action as well; off the top of my head, I went to an info session for T. Rowe Price and Harris Williams on the investment banking side, and Deloitte and Huron on the consulting side. I think the general consensus is that we have better opportunities in consulting than in investment banking overall, but the other thing I’ll point out is that a lot of people I’ve seen who get frustrated the recruiting process are people who decided at the last minute that they wanted to go into these fields (for example, the pre-med kid who takes bio and chem freshman and sophomore year before deciding that he hates science, and then goes into consulting interviews having spent two summers working at a hospital, doing research, taking classes, etc). If you know NOW that you want to enter these fields, as I did when I got there, you’ll be fine. Just my two cents, and good luck with whatever you decide!</p>
<p>Thanks so much, I really appreciate the input.</p>
<p>Go to Forums | Wall Street Oasis and do some searching around for Vandy/Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>That forum is much better for the many finance related questions you’re going to have.</p>