<p>I've heard that if you don't attend any Ivies/Stanford/MIT/Chicago/Duke, your chances of getting an ibanking gig are slim to none. How true is this? Is it still possible to network through other means and not be seen as a lesser candidate?</p>
<p>It’s hard, but not impossible. Takes a lot of networking.</p>
<p>I banking jobs are hard to get, no doubt. Very hard actually. About equal to getting accepted to Harvard, haha. But people get accepted to Harvard who are not rich and are from public HS’s. How? You have to be very smart and make your case. And a connection does obviously help.</p>
<p>The same is true with getting a front office position at an IB. If you do not attend a target school ( and the targeted schools are a bit broader than the listed above. Especially if you would consider non American banks such as Deutsche Bank, etc.), you need a very high gpa and a solid resume that makes you desirable. And network, network. An alumni or family contact will help you get an interview.</p>
<p>It is significantly harder, no doubt. Unless you’re totally set on the field and can’t see yourself doing anything else, don’t pursue it if you are not going to any Ivies/Stanford/MIT/Chicago/Duke. Why put yourself at a disadvantage in an already super competitive field? In addition, this is just purely speculative, but if you cannot get an acceptance to any Ivies/Stanford/MIT/Chicago/Duke, what makes you think you will succeed in investment banking? I’m not talking about choosing to attend a lowered tiered school, but about just getting an acceptance to a top tiered school. Yes, there are exceptions, but it would be wise to take a hint that the field is possibly not right for you.</p>
<p>Chicago does not belong to that group. Very few Chicago grads break into IBanking, and quite a few of them get into top grad business schools. For IBanking, I’d replace Chicago with UC Berkeley if not Georgetown.</p>
<p>^ I wonder how true is that claim when the school also claims to have the best economics program in the world? And, as we all know, economics is supposedly an excellent preparation for banking as it is highly quantitative.</p>
<p>econ in the academic sense is actually completely useless for banking. Theories of supply and demand, capital/current accounts, interest rates, etc. are about as relevant as bernoulli’s principle.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I am no fan of Chicago, but when we visited there they touted their accelerating access to the major IBs. They identified how strong their recruitment is among the IBs. I was surprised. Of course, we don’t know if the recruits were going into front line corporate finance, or just in some back-office quant position.</p>
<p>UChicago is a target school for pretty much all the BBs. It’s definitely more of a target than Berkely is, but I would put it in the same level as Georgetown and a step below the other schools listed.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve gotten the feeling that Chicago may send fewer people to ibanking, but it’s because more students are interested in other fields compared to the other schools listed, not necessarily because it’s a lesser school. </p>
<p>How is Brown for ibanking?</p>
<p>From my experience, Georgetown, Berkeley, Northwestern and Michigan Ross are better represented than is Chicago. Georgetown kids do surprisingly well.</p>
<p>^^That’s because Gtown has their “wall street council” and they all send their kids to gtown…</p>
<p>Brown will definitely get you noticed by the I Banks</p>