HYPSM and Wharton would be my top choices for starting a finance career after UG. HYP holds a special cachet on Wall Street, Wharton is the top UG finance degree, and many high paying entry level finance jobs require top math quant skills. Looking at salaries after graduation is dubious at best since schools that send graduates for PhDs and are strong in humanities will have lower numbers than colleges that graduate engineers and CPAs. None of HYPSM have a “finance” degree but that does not matter. They want brilliant hard working students from select schools and can train you to do what is needed. I know a kid who parlayed his HYP psychology degree into a sell side analyst position at a top bank and said that passing the first part of the CFA exam, which was easy for this stellar test taker to do, put him on equal academic footing with the Econ/finance guys. This type of opportunity is a real benefit of attending such a school over a powerhouse public honors program. You don’t necessarily need an MBA for making a killing in finance. When hired as an analyst they can track your success. A hedge fund could care less about an MBA if you have a golden touch predicting stock movements.
@YaleGradandDad “None of HYPSM have a ‘finance’ degree but that does not matter.”
MIT has an undergraduate finance degree. Course 15-3:
Don’t forget that your ability to network is very, very important too. My son’s class of new analysts includes Allegheny and Mississippi grads among the usual prestige colleges. Those guys probably hammered their alumni network to get an initial interview.
@whatisyourquest you have an extremely anecdotal example. Moelis always hires a bunch of Penn kids (Ken Moelis went to Penn), but it’s not a desirable option for top students. Congrats to your kid though, it’s a great opportunity.
@NashSaddle have to agree with that. Have many fiends who interned there while at college and a few that work full-time there. Moelis has a special connection with Penn because of Ken Moelis. That said most of the people I know who interned there did not go back for full time because Moelis works you to death, it is a sweatshop. Also it is not amongst the tippy top choices for Penn students interested in ibanking, I can think of several boutiques that are more desirable amongst undergrads.
@YaleGradandDad the big cachet on wall street is held by Harvard and Wharton. Yale and Princeton come a bit after, but still pretty close.
To answer OPs question , beside the top three, ID rank Michigan and Notre Dame over Emory for sure and perhaps over UVA.
A concern is that OP is not taking costs into account. There’s no point in getting into a college you can’t afford regardless of what graduates make.
@whatisyourquest Congratulations on the sophomore internship at Moelis. Moelis is a “very” reputable bank. Your S will surely receive good training it there.
At the level of Moelis, if there is any complain for an entry level analyst job, it is like complaining Wharton is not good enough and only Harvard is desirable.
Getting a sophomore internship at any elite bank is an accomplishment, particularly for non-diversity applicants. Most internships are reserved for juniors.
@prof2dad Thanks for your feedback. Finance is not my background; my son tries to educate me, and I learn what I can from the internet. So, it’s really helpful to receive affirmation from people “in the know.”
@MYOS1634 thank you! Finally my question got an answer haha yeah tuition is not a concern. What do you think of UNC and USC?
UNC, as a public university dedicated to the people of NC, caps how many OOS applicants it admits. I don’t think it’s better than UMich and ND but if you feel like applying, sure, go ahead. I dont think it’s that different from Emory in terms of prestige and at least Emory has private school resources.
USC would be equally ranked to Emory for finance I think (depends where you want to work. USC would be better for VC.)
@Vincent1997 What’s your goal when applying to these schools?
@NashSaddle Do you mean my job goals ?
@Vincent1997 Sure job goal. But also generally what are you looking for in the schools you apply to?
@NashSaddle For university I am really just looking at what gives me the best chances in the job field. I don’t care about tuition, location, size etc…
My realistic job goal is to make investments, for example for Goldman. I want to achieve a good ROI and pretty much let my work speak for itself. Potentially, i might want to work with the government for a couple of years as well. Unrealistically, my goal is to have a hedge fund, or get to a high position in any bigger firm (e.g. CFO). I have a wide array of interests, so I don’t necessarily have one dream position.
USC would be good if you wanted to work in California, especially around LA.
@simba9 Long term I see myself on the east coast (Virginia area). I have toured USC and I think it is an amazing school/campus, but I also don’t want to be stuck in California.
UVA on your list now makes a lot of sense. It is a target school into east coast finance industry.
If you really like the school, USC is fine. But it won’t have the cachet on the east coast that it has on the west coast.
For a job in VA and east coast, your initial list is solid, maybe swap out USC for Georgetown.