<p>Hello,
I am currently a high school senior from Michigan.
First of all, let me begin by saying I basically have few to zero connections in the financial sector in the United States (my family and I immigrated from Russia).
Given this, I am interested in pursuing a career path in Investment Banking.
After looking at the teams of IBanking firms, I came to the realization that prestige and quality of undergrad education is imperative to enter this field. </p>
<p>Given this prerequisite, I am wondering where to go for undergrad to maximize the possiblity of making strong connections, achieving ibanking related internships, and ultimately getting the job.</p>
<p>In my opinion, I have the credentials to get into most universities in the country except of course Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Wharton.</p>
<p>I have strong chances for Duke,and UM Ann Arbor is my safety, which of these two would be better? </p>
<p>Given my situation, would you recommend any other colleges?</p>
<p>Duke and UM are both great. Northwestern, UChicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, Williams etc are all good for ibanking. There are only a handful of schools recruited by the top ibanks so you want to be positioned at them. </p>
<p>Connections are great to have but determination can make up for it.</p>
<p>Obviously one of the top 5 Business schools (Haas, Ross, Sloan and Stern) will open many doors. Also, any elite university (Should you want to major in Economics or some other non-Business major) such as Amherst, Columbia, Duke, Michigan etc... will also open many doors. </p>
<p>But if you dream of finance and want to maximize your chances, nothing beats Wharton.</p>
<p>At any rate, there are many universities that will open dooes for you. Below, I am listing many of them:</p>
<p>IF YOU INTEND TO MAJOR IN ECONOMICS/MATHEMATICS/ENGLISH/POLITICAL SCIENCE/INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS/LANGUAGES etc...
Amherst College
Boston College
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
Colgate University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Middlebury College
New York University
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of California-Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Washington University-St Louis
Williams College
Yale University</p>
<p>IF YOU INTEND TO MAJOR IN BUSINESS/FINANCE (the list is much smaller):
Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)
Cornell University
Emory University (Goizuetta)
Georgetown University (McDonough)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)
New York University (Stern)
University of California-Berkeley (Haas)
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (Ross)
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Kenan Flagler)
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
University of Southern California (Marshall)
University of Texas-Austin (McCombs)
University of Virginia (McIntire)
Washington University-St Louis (Olin)</p>
<p>To answer your question, between Duke and Michigan (not Ross), I would say the advantage would go to neither. Both have excellent ties to Wall Street. But if you can get into Ross, I would say Ross has the edge over Duke.</p>
<p>Tpeck, the reason why Ibanks recruit more at Wash U than at Illinois is because of the type of student who attends Wash U. Illinois's B school is certainly excellent, and if a student wants to work for oneof the Big 4 accounting firms or for a large manufacturing company like GE or Boeing or GM, I would recommend Illinois over Wash U. But for IBanking and MG, I would say that the edge goes to Wash U. </p>
<p>Corporatelaw, I love Indiana University. Bloomington is a quaint and hit little college town, the campus is gorgeous, the students are plaidback and fun and the school spirit is hard to match. Kelley is indeed on of the top 10 undergraduate B programs. But it is not an IBanking hunting ground. that does not mean that Ibanks to not recruit at Kelley because they obviously do. But the OP wants to "maximize IBanking opportunities" and I do not think that IU maximizes IBanking opportunities.</p>
<p>Alexandre, could someone from lets say... Eastern Illinois University, attend career fairs at Northwestern, Washington University and so on to get recruited by Investment Banks?</p>
<p>There is very little that will prevent you from going to any career fair. However, attending career fairs does not help much since you will be handing your resume with hundreds of other students. Many recruiters do not even accept resumes anymore. They will direct you to the company website and ask you to fill the online application form. </p>
<p>It is in the nightly information sessions with fewer than 100 students and official on-campus interviews that students really get the attention of recruiters. You lose nothing by going to a fair, but be warned in advance, you will be received with another 1,000 students.</p>
<p>So is it virtually impossible to break into Ibanking from non target schools? Since the best bet I have is handing out resumes unless I transfer to a target school.</p>
<p>I hardly expect that a high school senior really knows what I-Banking involves; and further, if they really did know what it involved, they would be running the other way down the street.</p>
<p>:I hardly expect that a high school senior really knows what I-Banking involves; and further, if they really did know what it involved, they would be running the other way down the street"</p>
<p>You couldn't possibly have said this any better</p>
<p>
[quote]
:I hardly expect that a high school senior really knows what I-Banking involves; and further, if they really did know what it involved, they would be running the other way down the street"</p>
<p>You couldn't possibly have said this any better
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Is the job really that brutal? I'm a high school student as well and I have some understanding of what I-Bankers do, I just don't think I realize how hard it is. Could anyone describe how hard the job is please?</p>
<p>I worked in investment banking in New York in the 80s and 90s, for more than ten years.</p>
<p>During that time, all of the people who were hired into my department direct from undergrad came from one of the following colleges, to the best of my recollection:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Brown
Dartmouth
Wharton
Cornell
Wellesley
Middlebury
Stanford
Amherst</p>
<p>If I'm leaving anyone out, I can't think of who.</p>
<p>I am surprised Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Haverford, Michigan, Northwestern, Wesleyan and Williams did not show up on your list. When I was at Michigan, in 1992-1996, I would say a minimum if 100 undergrads got jobs with I Banks annually, most of them in NYC. I am sure the other schools above are equally successful at attracting I Banks.</p>
<p>my experience at a "bulge bracket" i-bank was similar to monydad's</p>
<p>i recall very strong representation (on a relative basis) at every Ivy (particularly HYP, Penn, Dartmouth and Brown) + MIT, Stanford, Williams, Amherst, Wellesley.</p>
<p>that's not to say that there wasn't representation from other strong publics (e.g. Mich or UNC) but not nearly in similar numbers - frankly, i really can't recall one.</p>
<p>given Alexandre's example of "100 undergrads" that got jobs with I Banks (mostly NYC) - a few questions: </p>
<ul>
<li>what was the rough %-age of these banks thate were "bulge bracket"? (i.e. Goldman, Morgan, Merrill, Salomon, Lehman, CSFB) - remember Wall Street has dozens of "non-bulge bracket" firms (there tends to be higher Ivy / LAC representation at "bulge bracket" firms vs. non-"bulge bracket" firms</li>
<li>what was the rough %-age that went into I-banking vs. Sales Trading? (there tends to be a higher Ivy / LAC representation in I-banking vs. Sales Trading)</li>
</ul>
<p>JP Morgan alone, about 20 undergrads (10 or so from Ross alone and several from LSA and Engineering) annually, mostly I-Bankers. Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Lazard, CSFB, Merrill ands UBS, another 40+ from Ross alone annually, again, probably all I Bankers and probably as many from LSA and Engineering. I am attaching a link to to illustrate. This is just for Ross undergrads, but it is a good indication. </p>
<p>As you can see, of the 55% or so who go into the Financial services, most of them go into I-Banking. </p>
<p>I have worked in the Investment Banking field for 3 years, (Lehman and Goldman) and I have seen many Michigan grads, as well as Northwestern and Chicago grads. Many...</p>
<p>Where is the line item in these lists for Commercial banking? Have they now merged commercial banking (much less selective hiring) with the investment banking line?</p>
<p>Besides there are many, if not most, jobs at firms that have investment banking departments that are not investment banking jobs. There are sales, trading, research, computers, back office, janitors. HR people. Some of the firms have retail stock brokers. Just because someone gets a job doing something at Lehman Brothers does not mean he/she is an investment banker.</p>