need some future/career advice

<p>Giants, I think the disconnect here is relativity. Major financial institutions, be they PE firms, BB IBanks etc… recruit far fewer students than people realize. Even at Harvard and Wharton, fewer than 50% of students who dream of landing jobs with such firms will land them. At most elite universities, fewer than 25% of interested students (those who actually apply) will land such jobs. The odds are never good. Obviously, speciality programs such as Wharton and to a lesser degree Ross, Haas and Sloan, do a better job than straight-up arts and science departments at their respective schools, but overall, the odds are not good.</p>

<p>With this in mind, all the major private equity firms combined hire 200 or so undergraduate students nationally each year. With the exception of Harvard, Wharton and Princeton, they never hire more than 5 or 6 on any one campus. But Michigan is one of the campuses they hire on, and they typically target Ross, LSA and the CoE. As you point out, they will only hire very, very, very few students (anywhere from 0-5 on any given year). But those firms at least recruit at Michigan. If you look at the list of employees at companies such as Carlyle, Bain Capital, Silverlake, Blackstone etc…, you will see several Michigan alums among them, many of which were not enrolled at Ross.</p>

<p>[Top</a> Private Equity Schools](<a href=“http://privateequityblogger.com/2008/11/top-private-equity-schools.html]Top”>http://privateequityblogger.com/2008/11/top-private-equity-schools.html)</p>

<p><a href=“Bankers Ball)%7D%7D%7C.+)&%/”>Bankers Ball)}}|.+)&%/</a></p>

<p>Check out the source in that last link will you! LOL! Ok, so you may not trust it, but you are free to surf the various PE websites and see for yourself. </p>

<p>I do not have such links of BB IBanks, but I can assure you, Michigan does well RELATIVE to other universities, and that includes LSA and the CoE. </p>

<p>Again, the odds are never good. Each year, there are 500 or so Michigan students who graduate with degrees in Economics. Of those, 100 or so are interested in pursuing careers in IBanking and PE and have the grades and ability to be competitive applicants. Of those 100, fewer than 25 will land jobs of choice. That’s the world we live in. But on most campuses, the pecentage of Econ majors who would land such jobs is next to nil. So on a relative scale, the odds are good, but on an absolute scale, for those actually looking fo rthose jobs, the odds are never good.</p>

<p>I don’t disagree with too much of what you just said, although I still think you’re still fairly too optimistic.</p>

<p>What I am trying to say is, in a world of only Ross and non-Ross, all else equal, the Ross student is 100 times out of 100 more likely to succeed, simply because he is in Ross.</p>

<p>The point is not to analyze the absolute numbers in terms of all the schools in the world. The OP is looking at Ross vs. not, and the facts are the facts. Ross wins 100 times out of 100, all else equal.</p>

<p>“all the major private equity firms combined hire 200 or so undergraduate students nationally each year”</p>

<p>wait, what? that number is either way overstated or uses a very generous definition of the term “major private equity firms”. i think even 50 would be an extremely generous estimate, unless alexandre happens to have some info i don’t. </p>

<p>silver lake and blackstone only take a handful each year. kkr and carlyle take none (for corporate pe, at least). tpg sometimes recruits a few for some specialized funds, but never lbo fund. some of the big hedge funds like citadel, farallon, oaktree and some of goldman’s internal prop investing units (ssg and some others) also take a few undergrads. you have to either be really, really good and lucky, or in most cases, really well-connected to even have a shot at these.</p>

<p>and just for the record, michigan is sending at least one undergrad to one of the above groups this year, and didnt get it through family connections</p>

<p>i have no idea what econ numbers are like since they dont publish data, but i know several with banking offers.</p>

<p>100 times out of 100 is way too much of an absolute Giants. I agree that Ross students, on average, have significantly better odds than non-Ross students. But there are many can’t-miss candidates in the CoE and in LSA that will compete nicely with the majority of Ross students.</p>

<p>umich, I meant to say the entire PE industry, not just the main ones. Your assessment of 50 for the major PE firms is about right.</p>

<p>yea, the person umich is referring to has absurd credentials and is very smart - he is a BIG EXCEPTION. Saying you have to be a superstar to land one of the jobs he described is an understatement.</p>

<p>Notice I said all else equal, Alexandre. And all else equal, Ross wins 100 times out of 100 because of the resources (recruiting/ability to drop a resume and actually be considered for a closed list). ALL ELSE EQUAL. Which is my point. Fact.</p>

<p>Giants, all undergrads who land jobs with the major PE firms are “BIG EXCEPTIONS”. They each recruit a handful of students nationally. If you can name me a substandard undergrad student who was not the child of a billionaire or executive at one of those PE firms who landed a job with them, let me know. But at least Michigan is one of 2 dozen schools where such exceptions even happen. At most other universities, a student, no matter how exceptional, won’t even have a chance of landing such a job.</p>

<p>And I know you said “all else equal”. I still disagree. The standout LSA students and CoE are recruited DIRECTLY at Michigan.</p>

<p>That student is also in Ross, mind you.</p>

<p>Recruited directly? How so? If you don’t show some initiative and try to get your name out there to recruiters, no one is coming for you. On the other hand, you can attend Ross, never speak with a single recruiter, and just click a button on iMpact to drop your resume and land interviews. A TINY fraction of the top banks post ON CAMPUS recruiting positions on the LSA Career Center Connector. Your argument is just so flawed. It’s all about the ability to drop your resume.</p>

<p>“That student is also in Ross, mind you.”</p>

<p>haha, technically he’s in both ross and lsa as part of the triple major he’s getting</p>

<p>Na, he’s dropping his LSA majors</p>

<p>eh, whatever. he still had them on his resume for recruiting. talking about individual third parties on message boards is weird though, so i’m going to stop now.</p>