Getting into Wall St. firms from Georgia Tech?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgia Institute of Technology
1

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to go into the finance industry.

I have two routes:

  1. Investment banking, hedge funds, private equity
  2. Quantitative finance

I am seeking for the top big-name firms on Wall St. or other elite smaller quant firms.

Is it possible to achieve this if I go to Georgia Tech? My intended major is Computer Science & Math with a minor in Economics.

I am open to graduate school.

My other college option is Dartmouth, which I know is known for their heavy Wall St. recruiting. However, Dartmouth is much more expensive than Georgia Tech. But thinking ROI, I am willing to bear that extra $60k expense if it means I have a chance to land those jobs.

So the main question is, is it possible to land careers in Wall St. as a graduate from Georgia Tech? I heard they only recruit at Ivies and other top schools; will Tech’s prestige be enough?

*side note, I know it’s “possible.” It’s possible at every top 50 school in the U.S. But is it “probable?” How competitive is it?

Thanks!

2

GaTech has specific business job fairs on campus.

Here is a complete list of companies who recruit lately at GaTech:
http://career.gatech.edu/career-fair-employers

I don’t know the numbers, but here is one story of a successful Wall Streeter with GaTech degree-
https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/georgia-tech-grad-big-deal-wall-street/mG1Zeiu0peHMVWcCL58iqJ/

Another idea for a major might be the Industrial engineering/financial track. Its one of the most mathematically intensive but a plain math major or physics major is also good for Wall Street. Take as much math as you can.

https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/atlanta-georgia-tech-opportunities

3

The short answer to your question is that if you want to save $60k, Tech will reliably get you to where you want to go. High finance opportunities will not come flooding at you like they would at Dartmouth, but Georgia Tech IS a target school for several bulge bracket banks: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/comprehensive-list-of-target-schools

Georgia Tech students routinely land full-time investment banking and sales & trading jobs at bulge bracket firms and with SunTrust, Bank of America, and Duff and Phelps. You are not at all likely to land an analyst position in private equity or at a hedge fund, except perhaps at some regional firms, but your chances are not very high for those jobs at any school; there simply are not many analyst positions in PE and at hedge funds. A quant job would likely require a graduate degree, but Tech has a top 10 quantitative & computational finance program with near 100% placement.

To my knowledge, finance firms do not typically recruit at the main career fair; the college of business holds a separate career fair for finance positions. When I was at Tech, there was also an Investment Banking Club and students would travel to NYC meet with the firms. Every student I knew at Tech that both wanted to go into IB or sales & trading and put in the effort to get a respectable GPA and show an interest in finance got a job in the field; about half of them went to bulge bracket firms. Many of these students were not all that impressive outside of having a strong GPA, token leadership and finance experience, and the ability to not make a fool of themselves in interviews. I will say that fewer people got internships in IB. Mostly people interned in bank’s middle office divisions or with valuation firms and then got full time offers in IB, so in that sense it might be harder than at a place like Dartmouth where there will be tons of on-campus interviews for internships in IB/trading. That said, I’m sure lots of Dartmouth students don’t get those internships either but do end up with full-time offers, at least when the economy is decent.

Regarding your major choice, math and CS are a great background for quant roles, but if you just want to get into investment banking, you can major in just about anything. Regardless of your major, I would suggest you take lots of accounting courses and the standard introductory economics and finance courses. Outside of getting a strong accounting background and a basic understanding of finance and economics, it doesn’t really matter what you major in for IB. As an analyst, you’re just going to be an Excel, PowerPoint, and printing/errand running grunt. Besides the stressful timelines and hours, the job itself is not hard and any smart person will pick it up relatively quickly.

Also note that if you are primarily driven by money rather than a love of finance (which is fine) and since you intend to major in CS, you may fair just as well with a CS position at top technology firms. Most of my friends that went to the Amazon’s, Google’s, and Facebook’s of the world started out making more than IB analysts and reached 175-250k in total compensation within just 3-5 years. They also don’t work 90 hour weeks or need to go get an MBA and I’d argue that their jobs are a lot more interesting than being a grunt at an investment bank. They likely won’t be making millions a year some day, but neither will all but the very best of the people who start out in high finance.

Other Things at Tech
Although it’s more related to asset management than to IB or trading, Tech has the country’s largest student run foundation and many students interested in finance get involved on the investment committee: http://www.gtsf.gatech.edu/s/1481/alumni/17/interior-wide.aspx?sid=1481&gid=42&pgid=4836

Gary Jones’s class (MGT 3079 - Management of Financial Institutions) in the college of business is also fantastic. Gary is the former Managing Director of Credit Suisse’s Fixed Income Division and he’s happy to help students pursue careers in finance.

Tech also has a mock trading floor and classes you can take on trading: https://www.scheller.gatech.edu/why-scheller/business-at-tech/tradingfloor.html

4

Will you need to take out debt to go to Dartmouth?

I don’t think anyone here can provide you much clarity. Dartmouth simply places much better. Going to Sun Trust or Duff isn’t going to get you where you want within finance. And I don’t actually think the top quant jobs recruit from GA Tech (maybe some small prop shops do) but they don’t recruit from Dartmouth either.

5

If you calibrate the cost of living for these Wall Street jobs, the pay is equal to an average entry level Salary in Columbus, OH. Add your student loans to that, and you’re looking at a life of complete misery. That’s why these firms recruit so much. They have huge turnover problems, and a fresh set of naive Dartmouth graduates they can hire from. It’s NOT worth going into extra debt for these jobs. If you’re planning to major in CS, then stick with GA Tech and stay FAR away from New York. There’s plenty of good lucrative tech jobs in the finance industry where financial knowledge would be a real asset.

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@coolguy40 It’s more about the long term earnings. The turnover is because analysts stints are designed to be two years. Some people stay, lots of people choose to leave for better opportunities. And who wants to live in Columbus?

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@lmao2018 Bulge bracket firms recruit at Tech and the type of person who would get recruited from Dartmouth likely won’t have much trouble getting recruited from Tech. It will take more leg work since Tech is further from NYC and there are fewer interview slots, but there is also far less interest among Tech students in finance and Tech alumni are very helpful, so it’s not like it’s some fierce competition to land interviews. If the OP comes to Tech, gets involved, does well academically, and puts a respectable effort into networking and pursuing internship opportunities, the OP is not going to having trouble finding a job in finance, including at bulge bracket firms. It’s not like Tech is some non-target school where people have to go find an interview solely through networking. There are recruiting processes established and current students and Alumni who are happy to help fellow Yellow Jackets get to where they want to go.

The regional and MM places like SunTrust and Duff & Phelps allow people to practice IB in the south. There is no BB presence here, so these are the top places in the region. Sure, they’re comparatively smaller and far less prestigious places to go, but there is a lot of money to be made outside of NYC, and the money goes much further down here.

I have no clue if the “top quant firms” recruit at Tech and you have implied that you don’t know either, but I do know that the average starting salaries and placement stats for grads from Tech’s program are comparable with just about anywhere: https://quantnet.com/mfe-programs-rankings/ Regardless, these are grad programs, and the OP could get into these programs or a top MBA programs after pursuing an undergraduate degree either school being considered.

Regarding “long term earnings,” high finance certainly offers the opportunity to earn millions a year, but the vast majority of IB analysts will never make it to that level. As you noted, analyst positions are 2-year stints. Some people will stay with their bank as associates and some will leave to pursue an MBA or go onto PE and HF positions. Of those, they would still need to continue to moving up several levels before they started to earn in the millions, and that just doesn’t work out for most of them because there are a limited number of positions at the top of all of these places. And of course a good chunk will leave high finance altogether after their first few years. Working as an IB analyst is a great place to start a career and most of the kids getting these positions won’t have much trouble landing somewhere where they will make several hundred grand a year if that’s what they want. That’s a lot of course, but there are many other ways to earn similar levels of compensation, including management consulting, public accounting, software development at the top tech firms, certain specialties within medicine, mid to upper level executive positions at Fortune 500 companies, etc…

Not related to helping the OP, and this is unfortunately going to come off as a bit preachy from someone you don’t know, but comments like “I don’t think anyone here can provide you much clarity” make you come off as either immature or aloof, or both. It’s not a good look. The OP got into both Tech and Dartmouth and with some hard work and self-awareness will likely be very successful. The difference is not going to be Tech vs. Dartmouth. Both schools leave the door into finance open.

8

@InPursuit My honest opinion is that this forum has almost no value when making decisions such as these. We’re random users advising a person on the biggest decision of his/her life, yet we lack any understanding of the family’s financial situation and have a limited (or biased) understanding of the schools the OP is choosing from. For them to weigh my opinion or your opinion in even somewhat heavy regard would be incredibly foolish. The only value we add whatsoever is by presenting relevant information in an honest way. I feel that your posts poorly portrays the quality of the banking opportunities pursued by GA Tech students, and thus loses a little of its honesty.

That aside, GA Tech objectively has a very limited presence in Wall Street. The students there are smart so the door is potentially open, but it’s a very rare and difficult path. Living in NYC is a special experience. It’s loud, smells bad, and is very expensive, but it’s also one of the most exciting and fun places to live. Beyond that, the regional banks do not carry the rich exit opportunities and generally do much less complex work. Going to GA Tech and pursuing a regional banking opportunity, instead of pursuing a role in tech where they are very strong, makes almost no sense to me.

The top quant firms don’t recruit there. Maybe small prop shops do on occasion. Pursuing an MBA or any grad school adds a new level of complexity to this choice, and would be very expensive in any case.

In terms of other paths and compensation, management consulting and accounting are also both better at Dartmouth, but neither pays as well as banking early on, and accounting provides a much more rigid skill set and network. Obviously if the OP wanted to pursue tech than GA Tech is the better choice, but that was not the point of this post.

And yes, your post is preachy. I get the point you’re making, but it seems pretty clear that if OP wants to pursue finance then Dartmouth is better. Only he and his family know just how much $60k affects them, and no random user spouting a biased and often misinformed opinion has any insight into that.

9

@lmao2018 Thanks for clarifying. While I understand that you “feel that my post poorly portrays the quality of the banking opportunities pursued by GA Tech students, and thus loses a little of its honesty,” your basis for that feeling seems to be little more than feeling itself. I refer readers to LinkedIn to see the listing of recent Georgia Tech grads in IB and trading at places like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. All of the MBB consulting firms and all of the big 4 accounting firms also recruit on campus and on the quant side D.E. Shaw and AQR Capital recruit.

If the OP was 100% set on finance and the $60k did not matter, then Dartmouth is an easy choice. Dartmouth has more students interested in finance and more abundant recruiting, along with the increased competition for interview slots that come along with that student body. The $60k does matter though, as the OP only wants to “bear that extra $60k expense if it means I have a chance to land those jobs.” My point is that the extra $60k does not give the OP a chance not available at Tech. The opportunity to go to a BB bank for IB or sales and trading is alive and well at Tech. (see: LinkedIn)

10

@lmao2018 I disagree with your opinion that Dartmouth is a better pipeline to Wall Street or any job. I believe the quantitative training at GaTech is stronger than Dartmouth, and will give OP an edge. I agree with @InPursuit that Linked in is a good way to figure out where Wall Streeters went to college. Wall Street loves and has always loved MIT and GaTech grads in math, physics and computer science, because those students are better at math to begin with, and only get even better after four years of intense math training.

A little outside the argument but to make the point that math matters: Every single physics PhD student can have his pick of Wall Street jobs, if they are lacking in enthusiasm for a physics career in government or academia. Many PhD students from all the good physics schools " bail" to Wall Street to make money.

Here is a nice discussion of why Wall Street loves math and physics majors-
https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Wall-Street-hire-PhDs-in-Physics