Investment Banking: Clearing things up--FAQ

<p>The Business Major forum, in regards to information on Investment Banking is the epitamy of the phrase, “blind leading the blind.” Being in the field myslef, I will attempt to clear some of the mis-information and major questions I’ve read around this sub-division.</p>

<li>Do I need to come from a target school to get into banking?</li>
</ol>

<p>No. It makes it radically easier to go from a target into Investment Banking however, it is not imposible to go from a non-target into Investment Banking, you will just need to take a different path. This path involves connections, starting at a Middle Market or Boutique Bank, etc. Also, GPA will be very important comming from a non-target–so keep it as close to a 4.0 as possible.</p>

<li>Can you rank schools in order of prestige?</li>
</ol>

<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Wharton/MIT
CIT/Columbia/Dartmouth/Cornell/Penn CAS/Williams
Brown/Berkeley/Duke/UVA/Chicago
Northwestern/Amherst/Hopkins/Georgetown</p>

<p>Any more questions?</p>

<p>i know this was for investment banking, but can you do the same type of prestige ranking for management consulting?</p>

<p>what does an investment banker do?</p>

<p>^^you dont know what you just got yourself into.</p>

<p>Hey ridewitbd24, </p>

<p>I wish I could help you out there, but I don't know much about consulting, specifically school rankings.</p>

<p>jets91,</p>

<p>That takes too long too explain, but can be found by using the search function or easily by using google.com.</p>

<p>lol i was kidding...</p>

<p>Okay good, I was worried for a second lol.</p>

<p>I was asked about what I do (interned at a bank this summer) by my friend and their parents, and when I started explaining about pitching, modeling, research, more modeling, they sat there with a blank look on their face and said "So what exactly do you do?" Of course, I thought that it was only them, until a couple other friends ask what I do. Same answer, and same response.</p>

<p>I have found that it is almost near impossible to explain what an investment banker actually does at the analyst level to the average person, other than to give a broad overview of what investment banking is. Even still, its tough to explain in under 5 minutes, and I still have yet to find a succint, concise answer.
Anybody care to give me a 5 line crash course on how to explain banking, and banking at the junior level?</p>

<p>When companies want to get listed on the stock exchange and do their IPOs</p>

<p>they come to me</p>

<p><em>point to rolex or $1000 money clip</em> </p>

<p>by this point the audience should be drooling</p>

<p>"Anybody care to give me a 5 line crash course on how to explain banking, and banking at the junior level?"</p>

<p>Investment banking at the junior level involves two main areas: Mergers and Acquisitions and helping companies become public. M&A involves helping companies buy other corporations using financial models to make the combined companies more efficient. After transactions take place, the acquring company usually refers to the investment bank to help finance the deal by stock swaps or borrowed cash. On the other hand, investment banks can also take private companies and make the appear on the NYSE and other indexes by selling stakes in the company to the public. The junior analysts job in both cases is to compile research about why certain companies should merge, the financial implications of such merger, the best type of financing for the respective agreement, and in the case of IPOs, finding reasonable financial figures to justify at what price a company should trade at.</p>

<p>
[quote]
2. Can you rank schools in order of prestige?</p>

<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Wharton/MIT
CIT/Columbia/Dartmouth/Cornell/Penn CAS/Williams
Brown/Berkeley/Duke/UVA/Chicago
Northwestern/Amherst/Hopkins/Georgetown

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I love how you talk about "clearing up mis-information" and then give this street prestige ranking with UVA at tier 3 while Ross and Stern aren't even on the list.</p>

<p>^^^ Def that is very far off...Brown and Hopkins arent recruited heavily compared to schools like haas, uva and Stern.... and dont even get me started on Georgetown and Ross they are practically dime a dozen on the street.</p>

<p>Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford/Wharton/MIT
CIT/Columbia/Dartmouth/Cornell/Stern/Haas
Brown/Duke/UVA/Chicago/Penn CAS/Williams
Northwestern/Amherst/Hopkins/Georgetown/UCLA</p>

<p>Good, revised?</p>

<p>Long story short, no.</p>

<p>^^^dude honestly you're like a parasite you just post things with absolutely 0 backing or feedback if your going to post state a reason...</p>

<p>if you do not think so than revise it to however you feel is possible, until then get a reality check and stop posting</p>

<p>You kind of remind me of that annoyance Dawgie.</p>

<p>Yeah, I missed those schools, I did this rather quickly. I know there is no single ranking that everyone can agree on, this is only natural, but I think we can all agree that this is pretty damn close, and is what is generally accepted on the street.</p>

<p>Stern has had its ups and downs, at a few BB's more people from NYU's CAS got jobs, rather than Sternies. My fellow summer analysts and I found this very ammusing, nonethelsess it is still a great school.</p>

<p>afriyes goin to stern</p>

<p>ijunitxi-</p>

<p>It is generally accepted on Wall Street that just because a school is heavily recruited does not make it any more of a target than another school.</p>

<p>Take for example, CIT and Berkeley. Berkeley is recruited more, and places more kids on the street, however, CIT is unanimously cosidered more of a target even though they barely place anyone on the street.</p>

<p>
[quote]
^^^dude honestly you're like a parasite you just post things with absolutely 0 backing or feedback if your going to post state a reason...</p>

<p>if you do not think so than revise it to however you feel is possible, until then get a reality check and stop posting</p>

<p>You kind of remind me of that annoyance Dawgie.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wow, no need to get defensive about a list you threw out in what seemed like a wild guess. A complete list of my reasons for thinking your revised ranking is way off is really not necessary (I didn't see you post your reasoning), but for fear of being put in the same bin as Dawgie, I'll give you a few: </p>

<p>Duke should be ahead of UVA and Brown.
Ross should be somewhere on that list.
UCLA should not be on the list. </p>

<p>I think any career placement numbers or previous street prestige lists that were generally accepted in these forums or of those on ibankingoasis would be in line with those three corrections.</p>