Opinions on Claremont McKenna?
How is Claremont McKenna viewed on Wall Street and the West Coast?
Claremont does not appear to have a uniformly excellent reputation like Amherst/Williams; I have heard some describe it as inferior to USC/UCLA, while others rank it around Pomona/Middlebury.
I am now looking at colleges to transfer to, and I am concerned about how a degree from Claremont would be viewed versus one from more "traditional" schools, such as Williams and Cornell. With my goal of working on the West Coast/possibly Texas, what would you recommend?
Ask Henry Kravis.
It didn't really count for Kravis, he went there, graduated and immediately went to Columbia for his MBA.
With regards to Claremont, they do almost the same number of placement in IBs as does UCLA/USC.
Dude isn't it part of the Claremont consortium? If so, that would give you access to Pomona's recruiting et al? And IB1 you can't possible say that Claremont places the "same number" into IB as UCLA/USC. That's just bull. CMC has like 1.2k kids.
To the OP -- The studies/students are legit, but the reputation - especially on the east coast - is a bit lacking. Overall, you'll have to network harder but by no means are you applying from some random terrible school. If you want to stay on the west coast, CMC will considerably more name recognition. Oh, and another aside, I wish I would have applied to Pomona or CMC out of hs. Beach and ski day sounds fucking awesome.
.
To be fair, comparing CMC and UCLA is like comparing apples and oranges; just not the same thing. The quality of kids at two places are completely different, and so is the rigour. Obviously there is no way UCLA is ever gonna place the same percentage of kids at CMC; the prestige/quality just isn't remotely on the same tier.
Which is better?
...and go back to recruit there now for my firm. Agree that if you want to work on the East Coast, it will be difficult because the school is just not as well known on the East Coast. If you want to do finance on the West Coast you will find that CMC has a very strong reputation, esp. in the business world. That is what the school is known for...and to be clear, the finance and accounting firms go to CMC to recruit, not Pomona. Pomona students piggy back off CMC's career center to get access to the business related jobs.
While Pomona might be higher ranked in terms of general liberal arts, CMC is where you go to get liberal arts plus a focus on finance/economics/accounting. And you absolutely cannot compare going CMC vs. UCLA/USC. Those are two completely different worlds.
CMC has always been a good feeder into the investment banks. We find good talent at USC and UCLA every now and then, but we can always rely on the Claremont Colleges for superstar candidates every year. And the alumni from that school have a very strong presence in the West Coast finance community.
My cousin went to CMC and I saw kids from other schools sneaking around CMC's career center. Nuff said. But if you're gonna work on the east coast or overseas... think again...
Are you kidding me?! Claremont McKenna is amazing for investment banking recruiting. We send way more students to investment banks than Pomona, for starters. Second, the best investment banks in the world (Goldman, Etc.) recruit on our campus, and we have a monopoly (besides Stanford) over their LA and SF offices. I was only a decent candidate at CMC and I STILL got recruited by 8 investment banks. Just accepted an offer at Barclays (got one from JPM but like Barclays better). We also have the 4th highest ranked career services office in the country as offer 5x the number of finance class than ANY OTHER LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE IN THE COUNTRY. Google "CMC Robert Day School of Economics and Finance"
Claremont Mckenna NY IB (Originally Posted: 02/24/2010)
How does claremont mckenna place with wall street firms for IB?
i heard that KKR came there to recruit for summer analysts. sounds like a good launching pad.
Good west coast school. Shouldn't have a problem on this side of the county.
by this "side" im assuming you mean west coast?
yeah
.
what should i be looking for in that article?
What about for New york IB though?
CLAREMONT = KKR google it
Ya dude......Henry Kravis.....Claremont Alum
.
Small, out-of-the-way school that receives very little recruiting attention. Two or three students went into IB in '13 or '14, and none in New York, as far as I can tell.
Think about it from a recruiter's perspective. Very expensive to conduct OCR at CMC per potential hire.
CMC is a really good school, and is adjacent with Pomona and Harvey Mudd as part of the Claremont consortium. All these schools have average SAT scores around 2130-2180. But IB is not big there at all. Only a few go into investment banking each year -- usually the lower-tier bulge brackets or mid-market banks that have offices in LA. Practically no one goes to NYC. Maybe SF occasionally. And they mainly have to do their own recruiting work because the OCR isn't anywhere near what it is at a standard target. And the alumni pool in IB isn't very large at all.
Anyone who follows the college scene knows how good CMC/Pomona/HMC are for the caliber of students they attract. But it's just not that great for IB OCR, or for high finance in general.
Small school --> few wanting to go into IB --> not worth the resources.
Great for management consulting, though (Bain, McKinsey, etc. all recruit).
CMC still does exceptionally well with IB recruiting when adjusted for size. Sure, the IB pool for alumni isn't very big but keep in mind that the base is fiercely loyal. And yes, a good number of students do go to NYC (and not for "lower-tier" places either) and around the same number go to SF and LA. If the BBs aren't very represented, EBs definitely love recruiting CMCers as well.
How many did CMC put through into IB SA internships this year? I can imagine it does reasonably well on a size-adjusted basis considering CMC's class is only ~300 or so. Maybe close to what Williams might send each year.
Pomona, as far as I'm aware, is maybe around 5/400 (for IB SA at any level), or around 1%. With top-tier BB's and EB's being rare. Does CMC double that?
HMC has some finance courses and plenty of quantitative talent, but it's obviously more engineering/quant focused. Pomona economics majors (closest thing they have to finance) often go for management consulting if they're trying to follow the money given the type of firms that recruit there. It's just a convenient option to go that route.
And of course Scripps and Pitzer tend to be more humanities oriented, lower tier LAC's where IB is practically a non-factor.
The Claremont Colleges are also at a disadvantage due to location. It's on the opposite corner of the country from NYC, and even though it's considered the "greater LA area" it's a pretty isolated community and probably a 90-minute drive from LA's investment banks, which are relatively small offices.
For West Coast IB schools, I'd rank them somewhere along the lines of the following in terms of placement track record and alumni base:
But in terms of student quality CMC and Pomona beat each school in spots 1-4, including Stanford.
Claremont Mckenna Undergrad? (Originally Posted: 01/22/2012)
Hi there, Are there any alums or anyone with experience as to how CMC does in terms of recruiting and IB presence on both sides of the coasts? I really like the school and I've done a lot of prowling on WSO but there isn't too much direct information on the school. Thanks!
It does great! I know a family friend who went there a decade or so ago, he graduated went to ML IBD, then left after 2 years helped found an Investment Bank (that got bought out by Goldman), then he worked in ER at GS then left that to do Corporate Dev at a top internet company at the dot com boom, left that to start his own tech company (made it as one of the top tech companies in silicon), left that after a while to start another one and he also runs a small VC on the side.
He was uber successful. CMC is a great college, he had an econ and govt. dual major.
GL
I'll be at RDS CMC next year. The placement rate is very high and I've spoken with many RDS students and they have been very happy with the program.
hey guys, Thank you for the quick responses! It's good to hear that cmc has a good rep. By the way, does anyone have any info on consulting opportunities after cmc as well?
CMC has great recruiting.
http://www.cmc.edu/mastersinfinance/career_management/placement.php
harvey mudd is an awesome school..love mudders!
thanks a lot for the responses!
I have a friend who went there. Recruiting is great for the LA offices of banks, and probably the best on the West Coast aside from Haas and Stanford. On a size adjusted basis, CMC beats UCLA and USC for placement.
It only suffers relative to North Eastern targets because LA offices are generally small and very popular. Also, it is a relatively young college, and name recognition on the East Coast is low. It has an accounting major, which is a huge plus IMO versus normal LACs.
Also, the culture is great. I was seriously considering them myself. It is one of the only top colleges where the political climate is center-right. Location is good; it has great weather, but you are further from LA than you realize.
Also the dorms there are like penthouses. I heard they were like in the top 5 dorms for any college in the nation.
Claremont Mckenna? (Originally Posted: 07/14/2008)
How good is claremont mckenna in placing into IB, more specifically in LA or SF/Palo Alto/Menlo Park? And what about USC, UCLA, or UCI?? I figure UCI and UCLA will not be as good, but am not sure. Any body have first hand experience?
Thank you!
Velit tempore eveniet quo consequatur rerum repellendus. Qui maiores deleniti nulla aliquid cum modi.
Aut sequi commodi dicta porro pariatur consequatur animi. Porro voluptates harum totam omnis. Sequi pariatur facilis vitae molestias. Voluptatem hic quia illum sint impedit.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Odit pariatur voluptas itaque aut impedit vel quia. Ut aut veniam qui quibusdam officiis. Earum enim facilis nostrum voluptas sequi. Aut libero et fuga et dolorem. Qui quod sapiente ab voluptate iusto libero occaecati.
Fugit eum ratione qui alias. Ipsum provident sed ea illo et illum quasi. Rerum non nostrum harum in. Voluptatibus rem sit consequatur. Dolorem eum neque nostrum vitae dolor consequatur ut. Repellat possimus aspernatur culpa exercitationem voluptate aspernatur dolorem doloribus. Magni ducimus in aut culpa illum.