Baruch to Investment Banker
I am currently a senior in high school and will be attending Baruch College through the Macaulay Honors College in the fall. I have always wanted to pursue a career in investment banking, hedge funds, bond trading, etc. Basically where all the money is, lol who doesnt want to be rich.
I have heard people looking at the glass half empty saying unless you come from an ivey you have no chance in IB.
I have also hear people looking at the glass half full saying no matter what college you go to, as long as you work hard you will have a chance.
Now I understand I may not have as well of a chance of somebody coming from Harvard, but how much of a chance will I have coming from Baruch. Any advice on what I should do during my college career to better my chances of landing a SA position would be greatly appreciated. (i.e. recommended gpa, extra curriculars, etc)
Also, my ultimate goal is to become an investment banker and I was thinking about being an accountant if IB does not work out. There are 2 majors I am interested in, Accounting and Finance/Investments. Will majoring in Accounting, to have as a backup, hurt my chances?, should I major in Finance/Investments to get the best background?
Why not study hard and earn a high GPA your first semester or two and then try and transfer to NYU?
Search. There is a lot of info re: Baruch on WSO. Re: getting the job. We place about 25 kids in our entire class into FO spots. Considering how big our class is, that number is pretty small. You need to get a great GPA in econ or finance (id advise against accounting statistically, but you can prob do it), lots of internships starting freshman/soph year, and network (bc luck is a strong component). Bottom line, you can do it, but it takes work.
On a college note, Baruch is awful. Awful envrionment, no college scene, and the majority of the kids are brain dead (incnluding honors kids). Those that are smart are usually not that cool (ie. driinking/girls). I'd advise leaving NYC for college, or transfer to NYU. Butif $$ really matters or something, go to Baruch. You can do it...
Drinking is cool!
The biggest advantage to Baruch is the availability of "stepping stone" internships. NYU Stern accepts many of the Baruch Honors students as transfers. If you can do well for one year, transfer to NYU, get an internship or two by the time summer recruiting comes along (all very reasonable goals), getting a summer analyst position after your junior year should not be a problem at all.
Max Cherry?
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"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."
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You must be retarded or poor (which is fine) if you CHOSE to go to Baruch. Obviously anyone has A SHOT at IBD. Its just a very, very small one. Of all the superdays I went to this year I ran into 1 baruch kid (who was a cool kid, don't get me wrong) but when you say 6 people went to JPM, compare that with like 25-30% of the entire senior class at stern or in columbia's econ or FE program.
CUNY- Baruch College for IBD? (Originally Posted: 07/19/2012)
Hi everyone,
Thanks for visiting this post. Just wanted to know what you think about getting my Undergraduate Degree from CUNY- Baruch College for finance and accounting. I want to do something in Investment Banking but I want to get an accounting degree to fall back on. I am planning to apply to NYU and Cornell, but IF for some reason I get rejected, I want to fall back on another good business school in the NJ/NY area.
Please let me know of your opinions and experiences.
Thanks a lot in advance
Jay
i guess
If you could estimate well (which you obviously cannot), you would find that there are about 570 students per year at stern, not 1000. That would mean that 141 go into IB, which, you might say, is still on the high end. The BB class size you estimated is too small. Its also not all BB but some boutiques as well. I would say that for wall street, NYU and Columbia are definitely among the very top in placing kids for internships and FT because of their location.
you will be in good company. Plenty of asians in Baruch who wanna do IBD.
As a backup, it's really your only choice. Pace blows. Fordham's not worth the money. St. John's is in Queens. You'll get a good education at Baruch but the campus sucks.
True on all counts as I'm currently a Baruch student myself. JPM recruit here for FO and GS started doing so recently as well. That being said, if you get accepted and have the means to goto NYU, go there instead of Baruch if you're set on IBD. For accounting, stick to Baruch as the big 4 actively recruit there.
FYI, you cannot double major in accounting and finance, only one or the other. Stupid as shit, but Baruch doesn't allow it.
Hi, I'm in the same boat as the OP. Seriously doubt if I can get into NYU Stern, and I'm also considering CUNY Baruch. Since you've mentioned, I really want to hear your opinions on this. I've heard Fordham offers pretty good business placements, and why did you say Pace blows? Thank you :)
Hi, I'm in the same boat as the OP. Seriously doubt if I can get into NYU Stern, and I'm also considering CUNY Baruch. Since you've mentioned, I really want to hear your opinions on this. I've heard Fordham offers pretty good business placements, and why did you say Pace blows? Thank you :)
I've never seen someone from that school arrive through the doors, unless they're accountants. I doubt any of them do IB.
recruiting for secretaries. Seriously, there's 0 of them in FO. I knew one who worked for an MD, he married her a few years after.
I have couple of friends there & my gf goes there. Shes doing ibanking at JP Morgan. Also, couple of kids got into s&t at Goldman, they did OCR this year. First time. And a few of my friends are doing finance at big banks. By all means that doesn't mean it's easy. 3.7+ gpa, join their wall street program & network. Maybe top 20-25 kids get jobs at BB. & I'll say 8 in front office overall.
K 'gaylordfacker'
tuition is good enough for me. plenty of kids break into IBD. don't expect to be "placed", however, if you bust your chops you can make it happen.
How about their MSF grogram ?
BAML also has a OCR drop at Baruch for all FO gigs
"Think about there are only 50-60+ spots in each BB and there are 8-10 BB's"
Double that class size.
You know what McGyver meant, 6 kids into IBD is not impressive and there are much better schools for IBD placement.
Thoughts on Baruch? (Originally Posted: 05/27/2013)
I shouldnt care about cachet, but I do...sort of. This is a superficial question, but is Baruch a 'joke'? Would it be worth a move back to NY to finish undergrad? I've asked a couple people in FL, where I am now, if they've heard of Baruch, and most haven't. They associate it with a community college... Does it really matter? Or are they imbeciles?
But more importantly, I'd transfer there to get a JOB (and for Manhattan). Only OCR is for BO? I know alumni base is solid, maybe more towards JPM? Accounting? Big 4 fallback? Naive?
Sorry for splitting worries all over the place but I need some real feedback. Thanks WSO.
It personally seems silly asking a question like this on Memorial Day, where my perspective may not be in proper place, but take it for what it is.
"Why not NYU?" Wouldn't transfer until Fall 2014. Stern 2% acceptance. Chances are slim and none.....
LOL. A-Rod and Jeter standing right in front of me at Starbucks.
If you're shooting for Stern/NYU - I'm guessing money isn't an issue. Why not shoot for schools like BC, Vandy, UVA, or other big name state/private schools?
Huge issue. But if I actually were admitted to those schools I'd reconsider. It'd be investing for future. I just can't get in.
You know my feelings on Baruch ;)
Outside of NYC, Baruch is pretty much unknown. But if you want to work in NYC, then Baruch is pretty reputable---a lot of smart kids go here simply because tuition is cheap as hell and the big banks do recruit here for FO positions (though not as much as NYU I would assume), and Big 4 do as well. If you do well enough, you can apply for their Financial Leadership Program (FLP), which has placed many students into FO roles. If anything, most of the students that did get FO offers are from FLP. That should tell you something....
What about UVA Econ?? That would be CAS?
Don't apply to UVA Econ unless it's for sophomore transfer and you're planning on getting into the bschool later. Apply to NYU Econ instead. Also Baruch isn't bad at all, you have a bit smaller chance of landing BB IB but you could still make it into virtually any place else for finance. Hell you could make it into GS for all I know, it depends on how much you intern and network along with your class performance (which will be easy as shit to ace according to the Baruch kids here). My post from earlier was basically saying that it's hard to transfer up to a true target and that a semi target might not be worth it, because of shitty location and/or a shitty business/econ program despite relative overall prestige. Like outside of the ivies, and a few elite b schools the campus recruiting drop off is huge, and is highly regional. That's why I mentioned the CA schools and TX (energy). I would also try IU for a sophomore transfer as well as UIUC. Junior transfer is a bad idea imo, it gives you no time to settle down and get known on campus. Since the odds aren't really in your favor for transferring into an ivy coming from Baruch, which isn't ranked at the top, I would just apply to all of these UVA, NYU, UCLA, Cornell whatever else for a sophomore transfer and would try to kill it academically once there. Make sure to take all of the pre requisites to maximize your chances, this is much easier and cheaper for soph. transfer since there are less to take. Also if you actually like Baruch, then I would just stay there since I doubt it's going to be that big of a deal in the long run if you do very well. There are after all, lots of Baruch alum on wall street.
I know kids that made it out pretty big coming from Baruch (Lazard ibd, GS ibd, JPM ibd, etc.) but these kids are NYC natives (not the manhattan fags) who really know how to hustle. It can be done but you have to know how to take care of business once you're in.
I'm ready to go.
Go to Baruch then hustle and get a job, your wallet will thank you. I know plenty of people who graduated from Baruch (most with $ in the bank) and are now going to top MBA programs (myself included). You're way ahead of most people just being on this site, I wish I had known about it in college.
I think I'm gonna do it, man. It'll be a substantial change, but it's something I want to do. I congratulate and wish YOU the best of luck with MBA and thereafter. Kick ass.
I'd PM you with more Q's but it's your call.
Thanks man, PM away. Anyone else who has general questions about Baruch feel free to PM me as well. Keep in mind I graduated about 5 years ago so I'm not up to date on which companies currently do OCR there or any of the new initiates there.
.
Thanks so much for insight, BID.
More proof (I guess) that opportunities are there. Also, I coincide with your username.
I continue to be amazed with this site. Thanks (again) kid. You summed up everything I'm thinking and wanted to say.
seriously work your ass off get a 3.8+ and apply to transfer to NYU stern/columbia/wharton and if you are willing to leave the tri-state area michigan/uva/cornell. will make the job search process much easier.
How many Baruch kids break in to BB IB? (Originally Posted: 06/18/2014)
Hey guys,
I did a quick search on Baruch to see how their placement is in some of the BB IBD groups and did not find any recent material. Does anyone have any idea how many of Baruch kids get SA's and BB/EB and MM banks each year? Of course, I know, it takes a great deal of networking to really break in, but I was very interested in hearing about what the competition would be like.
Thanks
bump
I don't have statistics either, but take a look on LinkedIn.
I respect the hell out of these Baruch folks who hustled their way in.
I respect anyone making it in from a non target. I am going through the process now and it is amazing how difficult it is from a non target.
Baruch in BB?? No theyre mostly in small boutiques but if they are in BB theyre in credit risk or Ecm.
dude are you joking we sent a kid to Lazard, 2 to GS, like 3 to JPM, 1 to MS, 1 to Barclays, 1 to CS and Citi and I think 1 to DB and thats just this year
Completely false statement.
Baruch kids have landed some solid gigs
I wouldn't put RM and ECM in the same class. Although, I see your point about the ceiling being a bit lower for Baruch kids in terms of their reach for IBD.
IIRC, JPM has a thing for Baruch kids.
What is IIRC?
I friend of mine works at JPM and he said there are a good amount of Baruch grads there. I would recommend joining the Alumni Linkedin for your school and doing a quick search. I'm sure you can find people.
I applied to Baruch as a transfer and i'm still waiting to hear back, but all i hear is good things for kids landing amazing jobs. I know it's not obviously an ivy but i'm always hearing kids landing good jobs from Baruch. A good friend of mines dad worked at GS for over 30 years as an executive and said he has a large amount of connections with the company so hearing this is giving me a great deal of hope haha.
I personally know a baruch kid at UBS and another at JPM
Do you know how they made it in/their story?
Echoing previous statements they have a very solid presence across the board - GS in particular.
If you're a minority or a female sure why not, but as others quoted it is not a target school by any means. Most that do are in fig, but there are exceptions.
Exceptions? Im pretty sure most if not all are in fig ecm or credit risk.
I know one kid who's a non-traditional student from Baruch who got a BO summer position, but that's about it.
Guys stop being lazy, do a LinkedIn search and let's close this thread here.
where r u working mcgyver pm me
It's possible man, but real tough. Just make sure you do some sort of SA program. Baruch is a target for Ops but hopefully that will change in the future.
BTW, do not take Professor Bali for FIN4950. He blows cock.
I agree about the transfer thing. The Baruch stigma sucks; "poor or stupid" is the pretty common stigma on the street. Just to clarify though, I know that JPM has made Baruch a formal target school for all front-office positions except AM. From what I heard, they placed 4 into JPM IB, 2 or 3 into S&T and 1 into REPE in AM. They are also a formal target school for Bear Stearns' S&T, though I have no idea what the placement stats are. Bryan is right though, most positions recruited actively are back-office related.
Again, bottom line: you can do it (I did it), but it really is a combination of kicking ass and then being lucky enough to land the interviews/nail the interview. It is somewhat of a crap shoot. You should definitely go to Stern if you can afford it (and if you can't, take out some loans -- though I don't exactly advise having to take out 100k in debt over Baruch). Semester externships are essential for you to get interviews.
Good luck.
Try to avoid debt, but honestly it's not that huge a deal if you get a finance job after school because you pay it off VERY quickly. You could pay off even $100K in a few years (I am on track for this).
Now I'm not advising you to do this if at all possible, as it does suck and weigh on you heavily, especially if you decide NOT to do finance.
If I were you I would definitely try to transfer to NYU... presumably the market will be better 3-4 years from now, but honestly your chances are so much better at a target to begin with it's not even worth taking the chance at Baruch.
If you go to a non-target it will take A LOT of networking, persistence and luck to even get interviews, whereas at a target you click a button and submit your resume for on-campus interviews.
Beyond just NYU, also consider other good schools like Cornell, Michigan, anything else within reach really.
even if you get to IB from Baruch you will still be disrespected. Top PE firms often ignore candidates from non-targets, even if they were at good banks.
You will not be disrespected. If you are good enough, then everyone will respect you regardless of which college you come from.
quick favor for anyone reading this who currently goes to Baruch (undergrad or MBA). If anyone wouldn't mind answering a couple of questions, could you PM me?
for your first few years, your ugrad college will be looked at and you will be judged on it. after that, its all about performance. top pe/hfs often will not want to look at a candidate from a nontarget
This is an interesting misconception. I would say you're partly right. There is no black and white cutoff in regards to this. I think there are certain non-targets that carry a stigma with buyside firms that they can't get get around without extraordinary deal experience. There are other non-targets that fall under the "good enough" category for funds that will get you in the door with most top funds without much trouble, providing you're a solid candidate with good experience from a top bank. Anecdotally, many of my friends from non-targets were granted interviews and made it very far with megafunds. Some landed jobs, some didn't. Is undergrad school a tipping point between two candidates on equal footing? Quite possibly. It certainly didn't keep many kids out of the process, though. Personally, I had no interest in megafunds but rather large, 2-3 billion middle markets. As a non-target I was able to interview with every fund I applied for (only two before I got my offer, though). However, I should note that after accepting my offer I was asked to interview at a few larger funds (1 top tier, the other slightly below - think Warburg, Leonard Green), which I declined.
what if you eventually want to go to pe in NY right, coming from Canada. And although you go to a reputable and target b-school in Canada, it isn't a known/target school in New York. Will these firms view my non-target status or stigma as the same as say someone from the University of Phoenix or whatever.
CDN-
Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario is respected in New York and the rest of the United States. The only other school in Canada which gets any respect is McGill. Other than that, all Canadian schools are considered bad.
that...is not good to hear. Thanks.
I'm not that familiar with Canadian schools (besides the obvious ones) so I can't comment on how PE recruiters view them. My main point is that generally phenominal deal experience at a top bank is more important than the name of your undergrad.
I should rephrase and say that its not that all other Canadian schools are considered bad, it's that they are not known. So if the choice is between you and a guy from Stanford you will not be chosen, because the firms know Stanford is great.
You might want to consider getting a masters degree at an Ivy League school or equivalent.
You can be an investment banker. Good luck getting into the bulge brackets, however, and expect to do front office IB. I'm sure it's possible, but the superdays I've attended included only kids from the name brands (not necessarily elite or ivy, but name brands).
find out from career services if there are any alumni in banking and start networking with them.
I always come across NYU and Michigan kids, more so than other colleges.
GPA GPA GPA Then network network network
i have the network, not the gpa :(
what do you know about investment banking, hedge funds, or bond trading, as you say you're interested in them? probably nothing, like most kids these days. ok, now you're not bad off right now. you should get a 4.0 gpa. baruch is in ny right? so try to get a job getting coffee for guys at a hedge fund this summer. (work for free) then take your 4.0 and transfer somewhere reputable. boom you're in
feel free to hit me up on aim LLL2429 ....i'm a Junior...I go to Baruch..and I landed several superdays with various BB's within front office...not no bullshit ops positions......get at me
Only JPMorgan recruited for IB this year. We're not even sure JPMorgan will continue recruiting for IB. It all depends on how the Baruch SA's perform so its a risk. It is extremely difficult to get a front office offer unless you are a minority(Black or Hispanic). The diversity programs like SEO and INROADS definitely help Baruch kids get into front office finance. I would recommend going to a target school because it will make your recruiting life a lot easier. I am a Baruch student and honestly this school should be your last choice if you want to become a banker. If you want to be an accountant (at a Big 4)or a back office BB finance person then Baruch is the place to be.
It isn't just a matter of who actively recruits thought -- you have network, etc. Just for statistics, within the analyst ranks, we have 3 Baruch alumni in my group. None of them are minorities. Don't make excuses.
Krakauer, your group must be really horrible.
DCHockey1, what are you implying?
at least you will be in NYC to network, baruch obviously doesnt have as many alumns on the street... but you would be by no means in an impossible situation. check out their investment clubs. they dont seem to be doing that bad off.
Haha. It's obvious what he is implying, and so be it. To clarify, I meant division and not group. Three alumni in my group would be too much for even me.
What i'm implying is that on average, people from Baruch are not as talented as those from ivy league schools. The top 5 most talented people on the street could well be from baruch (thought i doubt it), but on average, baruch people are weaker, which is why they went to baruch on the first place. However, having 2-3 baruch people in a BB IBD division isn't a big deal for me, and if its that low an amount im sure they were standouts at baruch and may very well deserve to be there. however i do think there needs to be a reduction of recruiting at sub par schools, id say that about 10% of people should be recruited from non top 10 schools. also, i think that 50 percent should come from HYP.
I'm assuming you come one of the above said schools. With that said, I completely disagree with your statement. The statistics don't lie, and in general, students coming out of top 10 are at a higher level intellectually. However, who's to say someone coming out of Princeton will be a better banker than someone coming out of the University of Wyoming? Investment banking doesn't require much brainpower.
While I don't agree with the Top 10 sentiment (take things like scholarships and location into account and you could justify picking UCLA over Cornell etc), I would agree that a school like Baruch doesn't need to be actively recruited. The bottom line is (as an alumni), 95% of the kids there are not too bright (any Baruch students disagree with me?). The ones that are smart enough and want it enough can network their way to a position because (despite the student make-up) the professors/education are top-notch if you choose for rigor and not ease, and the location provides a great opportunity to get internships and network with alumni and others on the street. We consistently place maybe 20 kids in FO internships annually (growing due to the Wall Street Careers program) and those kids are probably the best qualified (for the most part). I would have a hard time saying more than 40 kids in Baruch/MHC @ Baruch deserve a FO spot over a 3.7+ from a top school (namely HYPCC). And plenty of 3.7+ kids from those schools are left without an internship from a bulge.
I agree with Krakauer, there are several kids that I know off who study at ivy leagues with 3.7s (great majors) with good work experience who have no offers this year. Not even first round interviews for some of them. On the other hand, I know of so many people from places like michigan, NYU and virginia who got into great places this year. DChockey, you say that only 10% should be recruited from non-target, but trust me, less than 10% are actually recruited. The ones that make it through, completely deserve it and are incredibly intelligent, usually people who have made it to ivys but have refused to take up those offers just for the sake of money or any other personal issues.
Krakauer, I would have to say about 75% of Baruch students aren't that bright. What bank do you work for? Mind helping me connect to those alumni in your group? I am in the Baruch Wall Street Careers Program.
I am attending Macaulay Honors Baruch next year. Can anyone in Baruch going to IBanking hit me a PM? I got some questions. Thanks
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