Hello, I’m a High School student going into senior year and I’ve recently started to look more in depth for college applications. I want to go to a reputable Finance/ Business School that would provide opportunities to work in investment banking, private equity, hedge, or corporate finance jobs in general. I’d prefer somewhere near a city, but i’m not too picky if it’s a good school.
My rough list has:
UPenn
UChicago
NYU
UCBerk
UMich
CMU
UVA
BC
UTAustin
(need safeties)
I would love any thoughts you have on suggestions for schools, my chances for the above schools, where to ED to, safety school suggestions or any other points of discussion.
TCU! Neeley School of Business has a great reputation, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex it is located in. Your stats seem great, but make sure if you apply to add a personal touch, as Neeley is an impacted program. Also take a look at scholarships available (https://financialaid.tcu.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/freshman-academic-scholarships.php) - if you apply EA and to the Honors College you could have a good chance at being invited to Chancellor Scholar’s Weekend to interview for a full tuition scholarship. Let me know if you have any questions!
UChicago doesn’t have finance/B school. It does have the new Business Economics program. Are you instate for any of the public schools on your list? UVA and UCB do not have direct admissions in their BSchools. That is a big negative in my book if you are paying out of state tuition.
I can only speak to Ross and your grades and scores are certainly at the 75%+ level, but a lot of the admissions decision will depend on your portfolio and essays, which are crucial. And that’s impossible to judge here.
Assuming you’re not In-state, the overall acceptance rat at UMich for OOS students is 19% and Ross will likely be much lower because of the limited freshman spots as compared with LSA or CoE.
For everything except corporate finance, you don’t need to attend a school with an undergraduate business degree. Students break into IB and private equity and certain types of hedge funds with degrees like Economics all the time. Other hedge fund jobs want some combination of math, stats, and CS.
ED to Stern is probably the safest/most likely on your list.
I agree with the poster above that if you consider UVa/Cal, you would want to be happy there without potentially entering McIntire/Haas.
For safeties, your state has fine schools in PSU/Pitt and kids from there definitely get finance jobs.
Also potentially consider IU Kelley. The IB Workshop there has a good placement track record but is competitive to enter (after you have already joined Kelley).
Congrats on your stellar achievement. Keep it going! You’ll also need to be a strong performer in college to have the best opportunities.
Consider looking at Wake Forest. Business School and Finance are peers to those already listed. Excellent outcomes in both placement and salary. (full disclosure - S attends and is a rising senior. He and his circle of friends have excellent prospects and are currently in great internships in banking, consulting, asset mgmt, corp fin.)
Poets and Quants does a nice job of creating data driven rankings. That might be a good place to start and apply to your fit.
I would add Kelley School at IU as well as Wisconsin. Both send a significant number of grads to bulge bracket firms and have tailored I-banking curriculum. Both have strong career centers, although I would rank Kelley’s higher.
Biased but Villanova has a pretty good presence on Wall Street with a lot of the top finance students going directly into investment banking jobs in NY at BBs, MMs, and boutiques along with strong placement into other divisions at investment banks (S&T, wealth management). From the alums who go straight into IB, probably half switch into PE, HFs, or corp fin after a few years in banking and the other half stays on for longer careers in banking. A ton of finance majors also go directly into corp fin or Big 4 roles.