I have been admitted to UC San Diego undergrad and was wondering whether it is possible to break into investment banking from this school. I am majoring in comp engineering but plan to switch to comp sci as it will be easier to maintain a high GPA for grad school.
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Can you? Yes. Is it a semi-target? No.
Wouldn't call it a semi-target since not much recruitment goes on there. However, I do know someone who went to a BB from there and is now working for a MM PE firm.
Just make sure to keep a high GPA and network and you should have some options. Have fun down there too - A lot of great beaches in La Jolla.
You are passionate about computer engineering, but you want to switch to computer science because it will be easier to get a high GPA (which doesn't make any sense). But you want to ditch all this upon graduation and go into investment banking.
Why?
I have never met a UCSD alumni who works in investment banking. UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Claremont McKenna, USC and even Santa Clara University alumni are much more prevalent in west coast investment banking.
There are definitely people from UCSD in banking, albeit very very limited. You almost have to get on the right path immediately, like knowing day one you WANT to do banking. PWM internship during the school year, hopefully a regional boutique banking internship during one of freshman or sophomore summers (doable. there are some boutique advisory firms down there in SD). You just have to hit the ground right away. If you just get good grades without any internships you won't be able to do it.
I would say semi/non target school.
I would guess that the lack of UCSD kids is self selection rather than an inability to get jobs. None California people that don't know much about the UC system don't know that the reputation of the schools is for Bio/Med/Engineering. Most kids that choose to go there are for those reasons, where as kids the choose to go to Berkeley, UCLA, etc. could have a higher entry interest into finance.
Its a good school and if you do well academically I'm sure it will be possible to get a shot at IB.
I don't necessarily agree with the self-selection favoring Cal and UCLA. Cal is considered an engineering powerhouse, and UCLA is considered to be a top pre-med/math/engineering school.
I didn't recruit for banking, but I did go through recruiting for consulting on the west coast. I myself don't attend a UC, but I met kids from UCLA, Berkeley (along with Claremont and Stanford) at most recruiting events/interviews. I even met some from SC, UCI and UCSB, but none from SD.
I think it's more of a location thing than anything else. San Diego doesn't really have much going in terms of consulting/banking. None of MBB have offices in SD (and as far as I know, neither do the major banks). While it's a good school, it doesn't have the brand value to make firms travel to recruit on campus - and doesn't have the locational advantage that say... UCI has. It does well in biotech and aerospace, because a ton of them are based out of SD/SoCal.
For finance, I would classify UCSD as a non-target. The only UC alum I have ever met in this business attended either Berkeley or LA. SD is well known for its bioscience and med programs.
For what it's worth, I get a lot of non-targets (esp. west coast non-targets) that reach out to me during networking season and have decent visibility into how each school gets in (if at all). The top 5 or 6 have a pretty objective hierarchy (i.e., there isn't much to debate here).
Ranking the UCs for banking placement would go as follows: 1.) Berkeley 2.) LA 3.) SB 4.) SD 5.) Irvine 6.) Davis (Presumably. Never actually met/heard from a Davis student) 7.) the rest probably can't even get in with networking
As far as the path goes, the SD guys that I've seen break-in typically do Sophomore year internships at no-name boutiques in LA, then junior-year internships at JMI Equity during the school year or junior summer, followed by a BB/MM SA+FT. (Full disclosure: I did NOT go to UCSD.)
Definitely doable for the standouts and like the other schools in its tier (SB and Irvine), it's part of this whole "aspirational-non-target" class that gets some decent spots every year, but it's still not in that semi-target range.
Thanks. I am not super passionate about comp engineering but chose it since it is among the more prestigious ucsd majors and i had previous exp in the field. I have some connections so i guess ill try to network and get early internships.
My brother went to UCSD. It's possible to get in as I know some grads from there but it's a non-target.
I go to UCSD. This year GS, MS and CS actually had résumé drops on our career services site. There are also alums in BBs but you definitely need to create your own path to reach success. I personally know 9 kids at BB SA roles right now. PM me for more info
Not a chance.
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