Basically wondering if Cornell/Brown beat Williams/Middlebury for IB placement- I have a decent (~2300) SAT and strong scores across the board, as well as great ECs-I want to know what would help me more if my long term goal is middle-market private equity. Thank you 
From what I’ve researched, the Ivy’s usually come first. Williams is also a target for recruitment, but probably not Middlebury.
Lots of less selective schools will probably give you as good as/better banking oppurtunities than the 4 you mentioned, especially: NYU-Stern, Duke, Northwestern, UM-Ross, UVA, and Berkeley-Haas.
I’d choose Williams over any of the schools in the two posts above. I think the only schools with more cachet in the I-banking world are HYPSM. A few others might be equal, but none of the names listed above.
OP didn’t ask about HYPSM
According to LinkedIn (probably the most reliable metric we have for career outcomes), Middlebury does better than many of the schools mentioned above (including Williams).
@julien13. Thanks @arcadia. I thought it was well-understood that Middlebury was a leader in IB. Based on Jackrabbit and CHD’s comments, it appears not everyone got the memo.
Thank you everyone! jackrabbit i’ve been considering UVa as well.
Hahaha, I think monydad said it on another thread, and I agree, it is up to you.
If the IB’s recruit at your school, then it is up to you to get an interview. If you are in the top of the interviewees, you might get a internship. Then you need to prove yourself as an intern. When finally in the job, you need to prove yourself constantly. Chances of getting to this point is very, very low. Getting into the investment banking world is lower than getting into Harvard. ( I actually remember reading that but cannot site the source. So it could be wrong)
Anyway, it is very highly competitive.
I am speaking as a mother whose D, from Cornell, got an internship, after sophmore yr. at Goldlman Saks in Global Compliance. She wanted to go to law school but got interested in finance during the internship. So the next year, after junior year, she tried to get into the front office, ie investment banking. GS had a policy that you could only be hired into your previous position and then request a transfer if there was an opening. JPM made an offer into trading. She figured it was an offer vs a maybe. She accepted and is now doing very well. Loves JPM vs Goldman.
The two ladies she lived with her first year out of college, from Cornell, were in Investment Bankining. One, one of her best friends, will be starting Harvard Business School this fall.
So your silly comparing and ranking about schools is immature.
One of her best friends…^Harvard Graduate School for an MBA.
Forgot to mention D1 is working in trading fx forwards in sterling and francs and loving it. Although she is a woman in a mans world.!
morrismm Your D’s story sounds amazing! I have a friend who is also female working for Goldman, made it there out of Harvard but an achievement nevertheless. I understand the chances, but I am leaning towards IB as opposed to S&T, and I am willing to work hard to get it-I wouldn’t discount the value of a Cornell degree compared to a non-target community college, so I do think your D had better chances than most people who want to break into the industry. Cheers!
I never said that Midd is not a leader in IB; I said that I think Williams has more cachet in that field.
^^^You attribute the quoted text to me, when in fact, you were quoting urbanslaughter’s post #5.
You didn’t mention Columbia but I think that the I Banks recruit pretty heavily there
Ugh… The amount of misinformation on this forum is atrocious.
Cornell/Brown and Williams/Midd all have very good placement. The difference between each is really negligible. It’s up to your own preference.
If I were personally given a choice between the four, I would go with Williams simply because I would prefer a small liberal arts college with a fiercely loyal alumni network as opposed to Cornell (where there are tons of kids in a really competitive environment trying to break in) and Brown (which is probably the opposite of Cornell, since how it’s considered the most “liberal-artsy” Ivy).