Why do banks recruit at ivies?
Why do banks recruit out of non Wharton or non Cornell AEM ivies when they don't offer a business program?. I'm sorry, but engineering or economics is no substitute for having legit accounting and finance skills an internhips you get through the top ugrad bschools. But the banks are so elitist and will take a 3.9 kid from harvard who doesn't even know what banking is until sophomore year over a kid from a good accounting program who has actually studied the material. Isn't that ridiculous?
I saw a troll thread from a mile away.
Cornell's AEM is not a real business program, just FYI.
And you're generally right in terms of ramp-up time and interview preparation, but 6 months into most IB jobs and an econ-type major has already gained all of the knowledge from a 4-year business degree (well, in reality, 2 years of business classes), in addition to the economics/quantitative/social modeling skills the econ degree provides. Also let's not forget that some of the smartest, hardest-working kids in the country go to ivy league schools and not public schools or others with large accounting programs.
Prestige.
Reliability.
Prestige.
Because it's the cheapest/quickest way to get a large pool of smart candidates.
Most people with the intelligence to get good grades at an Ivy can be taught corporate finance in the 2-3 month training program that the BB's offer.
Because banks are filled with Ivy alums pushing for more kids from their school. Same reason BB's in Houston hardly look at anyone outside of Texas, Texas A&M, Rice, SMU, and TCU.
Being at an ivy doesn't automatically mean you're smart. There are plenty of idiiots at Wharton, I should know I went to wharton and interacted with many. It's hard to weight GPAs among different schools, you have to factor in grade curves, relative cimpetition among students and the rigor of the course material. On average, the rigor at an ivy league is far more difficult than say Tufts or BU, and the students are harder working and on average more intelligent. Wharton's ugrad curve for ex is 10% A, very difficult.
Is the kid at Yale studying chemistry or (insert non finance major) really more intelligent or deserving than someone who has done well in a good finance or accounting major and done a boutique Ibd internship?
Probably more intelligent on average, but depends on your definition of 'done well'. What do you mean by 'deserving'? If we are talking about adding value, the only thing that should really be a consideration, then any value add from the boutique internship will probably be exhausted within a month or two.
Work experience counts for a lot...if it were a Penn State kid with an internship at RW Baird vs Harvard Art History, the Penn kid wins out IMO.
But, a business major without comparable work experience (eg PWM, consulting, accounting) will lose to the better school 90%+ of the time. The finance used in banking isn't too advanced, and has little to do with what is covered in an academic setting. So, unless Joe Ivy literally just spent the past 3 summers at his dad's country club, the gap isn't that wide.
Proximity.
The reason banks, law firms, and consulting firms rely so heavily on school pedigree when hiring analysts and associates is because thier clients rely heavily on firm pedigree (of which the academic backgrounds of the staff is a component) when selecting them.
All three types of firms deal with "bet the company" types of problems for their clients. Because the problems these firms tackle are so important to there clients, the clients are understandably very concerned with choosing the right firm to provide the needed advice. Unfortunately there is preciously little information available to clients with which they can compare the quality of the advice each firm provides. This is true not only before the advice is provided, but also after the advice is provided. If your a CEO there is just know way to know if the advice Goldman, McKinsey, or Cravath provided your company was better or worse than the advice Morgan, Bain, or Skadden would have provided.
Because there is no way to judge the quality of the service provided, clients select providers based on the information they can know. What other clients has the bank worked with, where do they sit in the league tables, and where did the bankers go to school? In this context, weak signals of ability, such as school pedigree, actually become extremely valuable to the bank. Therefore when making hiring decisions banks (and consulting and law firms) will always balance the need for signals of competance with the need for actual competency.
It's all about expanding their network.
Usually, ivy kids have wealthy parents who hold important positions. So, you want their kids in your company.
^^^ I don't think pedigree has a whole lot to do with some of the decisions. Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, Oxford, and Chicago offer the same pedigree as the ivies. They are not recruited quite as heavily. The bottom line is that Princeton is a 90 minute train ride while Stanford is a 6 hour flight.
This is not true at all. Duke is as well recruited as (if not better) Cornell, Dartmouth and Brown. Stanford is considered better than Yale and Columbia for recruiting and on par with Princeton. Only Harvard and Penn-Wharton are better than Stanford.
As for Chicago and Northwestern, yes they do seem to be dealing with a lack of prestige problem. Seeing how few students either of those send to MBB or BBs is rather striking. Still targets, though. Just not as strong as Ivies, Duke, Stanford.
Also, can some mod please close this troll thread. We've already had 100's of such threads. No need for any more and OP has already had his question answered in this thread as well.
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