<p>Which of the following schools have the best reputation on Wall Street for investment banking?</p>
<ul>
<li>Ross School of Business</li>
<li>Stanford Economics</li>
<li>Princeton Economics</li>
<li>Cornell AEM</li>
<li>NYU Stern</li>
<li>Columbia Economics</li>
</ul>
<p>This is assuming that my GPA is pretty solid (3.7+ at the least) and assuming that ease of getting internships is irrelevant (Stern and Columbia) because I will be returning to Hong Kong every summer and should be faced with the same level of opportunities there.
Also, which are the firms I really should be aiming for straight out of university, for the best opportunities and salary?</p>
<p>How can you disregard internship availability? If you do, you are really not maximizing your opportunities at these schools. </p>
<p>I would lean to say Columbia due to location…but you would need to do internships while there. All would be targets for IB.</p>
<p>All of them have a huge amount of reputation.</p>
<p>Columbia and NYU have the advantage of a close vicinity. Between the two, Columbia is better.</p>
<p>Stanford has incredible clout in the industry in general, including Wall Street, but the school’s location makes it hold more reputation in the west. Obviously the school is still a target though.</p>
<p>Princeton is Princeton. The school is amazing and close by. A definite top target.</p>
<p>Cornell holds a lot of reputation. The school is not a top pick, but still a big target.</p>
<p>Ross has clout, but not as much as the others. It is a target, but not an Ivy caliber one.</p>
<p>My ranking would be</p>
<ol>
<li>Princeton/Columbia/Stanford</li>
<li>NYU/Cornell AEM (NYU holds a little less reputation for less domestic areas, but still a lot)</li>
<li>Michigan Ross</li>
</ol>
<p>All of the schools have incredible opportunity. The Ivy League tag or Stanford tag give a slight boost.</p>
<p>The most sought after firms are Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, or Blackrock, just to name a few. This would be for the analyst or associate position (front of the house). If you do not get an offer at an extremely competitive place, there are many other banks on Wall Street to go for. These schools have many alumni or career resources to help students. The hard part is the networking to land the interviews; however, reputable target schools facilitate recruiting.</p>
<p>You should probably go onto Wallstreetoasis and ask.</p>
<p>From what I’ve gleaned after lurking on there, all those schools are great for IBD. Stanford allows you to go either West or East coast, although many go to LA or SF after graduation.
I’m obviously biased, but if you are deadset on IBD no matter what (even if you get rejected from a bulge bracket) you should go to Stern. Stern has every MM and boutique going to recruit there, and that is the advantage that it has over Cornell/Ross etc. </p>
<p>I’m going to diasgree with the above about most sought after firms. The people on WSO would most likely order the BB firms like this: GS/MS, JPM, CS/DB, BAML/Citi, BarCap/UBS. I don’t think that means you should avoid the ‘bottom tier’ BB banks, because they are still BB banks after all. Also, Wells Fargo has barely any presence in NYC, and Blackrock undergrad positions are only obtained by the absolute superstars of any of the top schools.</p>
<p>The top boutiques are amazing, as well - some of them have better opportunities than some of the BB banks. Lazard, Moelis, Greenhill, Evercore are the boutiques that generally lead to great PE offers etc etc.</p>
<p>But seriously, you shouldn’t be going into college worrying about getting a job in IBD. You’re in college, after all, and you should probably enjoy your life before slaving away in a cubicle ~90 hours a week. Not to say you should just party your butt off for four years, just that you should give yourself a little breathing room.</p>
<p>yeah i know too much for a HS senior >_></p>
<p>Just go to wallstreetoasis.com and ask about schools. While it is mostly college students, there are some people there who actually work in the industry and can give accurate advice. Take everyone’s advice on this board (including my own) with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>Ranking schools on only IB placement (I judge this by my perception of those who actually become investment bankers divided by those who want to become investment bankers):
For anything west coast you should choose Stanford.
For Chicago go Ross.
East coast imo would be:
- Princeton/Stanford
- Columbia
- NYU/Ross
- Cornell</p>
<p>I don’t have very much evidence to support this ranking other than by talking with students at other schools and what they say about it. However, I doubt many others on this board will have significant evidence to support their rankings either. </p>
<p>Ranking banks is dumb unless you set a criteria for it (exit opportunities, lifestyle/culture, groups/experiences, dealflow, etc.). For example, I chose the bank I will be working at based on exit ops, experiences, and culture, but will be sacrificing lifestyle. I turned down a lot of BB offers to intern with one of the boutiques mentioned above. One of my friends passed up Goldman Sachs because he found another bank with a culture and more diverse experience set that he liked better. </p>
<p>You are going to be spending 100 hours a week at work, and if you are doing it because of other peoples perceptions of where you work then you will not enjoy it.</p>