<p>I've seen that Southern Methodist University is ranked highly on Business week's best undergrad business schools and I think i have reasonably good chance of getting in. Im hoping to become an investment banker in New york and im just wondering if this a good school to reach that future.</p>
<p>Also, is it a major disadvantage if its in Texas?</p>
<p>P.s im applying from the U.K.</p>
<p>Investment Banking is very competitive from every school - however the target schools are USNEWS Top 25. Even among this list, most are only semi-targets.</p>
<p>SMU has a wealthy student body - you might be able to gain experience in Houston and then transition to NY after your first job. Breaking in to ibanking is doable but is an uphill battle from lesser-targets.</p>
<p>The real target schools are select ones on the top 10 list.</p>
<p>I thought SMU’s reputation was as a GRADUATE business school. I lived in Dallas for almost 30 years and I am not at all impressed with SMU. It has a few strong departments, and the graduate school of business is decent, but overall it is like a big high school.</p>
<p>There are a ton of banking opportunities in Texas, but SMU is way too easy to get into, poorly connected, and un-prestigious to get kids into as competitive a field as investment banking lol…
Even the investment bankers that I know in DALLAS went to Harvard, Stanford etc… </p>
<p>Case in point SMU is not really a good school. Don’t go there under the impression that its “prestige” will allow you to break into I-Banking</p>
<p>Is it really that bad? Or is it just that apparent stereotype of spoilt rich kids that overshadows the actual academics of the school?</p>
<p>The academics are so-so, and not everyone is a spoiled rich kid, but there are plenty of them.</p>
<p>You would probably be better off going to a school like the University of Iowa. Doing really well your first 2 years and then applying for their Hawkinson Institute. They frequently place people with IB firms in NYC. This program is very hard to get into. Most students had the high school academic credentials to get into schools like Northwestern, Wash U etc but chose Iowa for various reasons, typically financial.</p>
<p>[Hawkinson</a> Institute of Business Finance - Tippie College of Business - The University of Iowa](<a href=“Hawkinson Institute - Undergraduate”>Hawkinson Institute - Undergraduate)</p>
<p>[Employment</a> Report for The Hawkinson Institute of Business Finance Adds Value - Tippie College of Business - The University of Iowa](<a href=“Hawkinson Institute - Undergraduate”>Hawkinson Institute - Undergraduate)</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, SMU is not a bad school. It’s just nowhere near good enough to get kids into investment banking lol…</p>
<p>Where you went to school makes or breaks whether your application will even get looked at by i-banking firms, and SMU is on the wrong side of that equation</p>