Best Undergrad IB/PE Club Placement
As college decisions come out, I’m curious to hear what the best clubs/groups at different colleges are for finance placement?
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i know for cornell it's two clubs with unparalleled placement (all EB, BB IB, MF, L/S) and then everyone else kinda fights for the remaining spots.
Which ones?
Cornell Financial Analysts and Cornell Hedge Fund.
Above poster is wrong, it is gonna be Sigma Phi Society, Sigma Chi Society, and the Varsity Lacrosse team
at nyu, it's FS for ib - all of their students have placed well over the years. i also heard that VQ has been sneaky good with both sellside and buyside placement
congrats on VQ
For Rice, RNEF places lights out for Houston despite being really small (MS, LAZ, JEFF, EVR, Citi, etc.) and places a huge emphasis on helping sophomores recruit/connecting with club alumni etc.
That darn rice IB bootcamp be placing hella good too ngl
Which bootcamp? Rice has its business society that has a new bootcamp for training people as of last semester. I’m not sure that can be attributed to placement rates yet other than further preparing Rice students, and RNEF. Other than that there’s a TPH bootcamp in Houston that typically has a well represented Rice turnout (alum also founded it). There is also a training program through the undergraduate investment fund
Rice doesn’t have an IB bootcamp. You’re probably thinking of TPH’s Bootcamp where a lot of Rice kids get into.
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Western Investment Club is punching well above their weight for a canadian school
GPS across a few schools: Wharton, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, NYU and a few more
I’m not familiar with GPS; you mind elaborating.
Stands for Global Platinum Securities, search them up
Some of the Canadian schools have some stellar investment clubs that place at the top firms in the US like Western Investment Club at Western University and Limestone Capital at Queen's University (BX, EVR, PJT, P72, GS TMT, Bridgewater, BDT&MSD, MoCo, etc).
Congrats on Limestone (BX, EVR, PJT, P72, GS TMT, Bridgewater, BDT&MSD, MoCo)!
What happened to QFAC? When I was recruiting it seemed like they always placed the best (GS TMT, JP, etc.).
EDIT: meant QUIC*, on a related note - crazy what happened to QFAC as well lol
Club doesn't exist anymore
QFAC got suspended and disbanded in 2022, see this article.
Quic fell off a bit, not quite what is used to be back in the day
QUIC is doing just fine - they are the BX PE / BDT / Bridgewater placements you see in the comment above and have placed lots into GS TMT / EVR / Moelis as well (although these banks are not mutually exclusive placements to the other finance clubs on campus)
WIC places lights out and doesn't belong in the same conversation as Queen's. 2/3 of Queen's US placements are diversity, just look at the clubs recent placement posts on Instagram/LinkedIn.
Dartmouth Investment & Philanthropy Program (DIPP)
What are DIPP's placements?
NU IB Club placed lights out this cycle
UGA Corsair/SMIF has great presence for a southern state school
Go cats baby
del
Tamu AIC started a 50K fund and are beating S&P, has solid placements there
uchicago - the blue chips has a $200k fund
Second this - being a sector leader in TBC is an almost deterministic predictor of success when it comes to where these kids end up (top banks, MFs and HFs)
Unsure how this is possible because SLs are selected after recruiting ends.
Seconded - though the quality of TBC applicants has dropped recently. I interviewed a sector leader who could barely use excel
tbc isn't super hardo. they sorta just filter for nicer/nerdy ppl
Is this the only club worth joining in terms professional advantage?
The blue chips is the only club with an established network in the industry, but there are plenty of other good finance RSOs. UIBG and PNG also offer training programs - just not of the same quality/intensity. Last I heard TBC's acceptance rate was 5%, so I would apply to multiple. Also, it's very common to get offers without any top clubs.
UCLA - Bruin Asset Management & Bruin Hedge Fund - both small clubs for a large school but great placements recently per headcount in all EB/BB
It is also worth noting the other clubs on campus. Bruin Capital Management has guest speakers and has been rising fast. Other clubs include Bruin Value Investing and Bruin Investment & Trading
Bro got 10 monkey shits for hyping BCM on another UCLA thread, but persistence is key in finance I guess.
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Excellent, BCM has a great website to see the recruitment timeline. Typically recruits the earliest to take the top talent.
BHF/BVI/BAM main clubs historically, BIT is also great. All will give you the same placement, just look at their websites. Weird BAM alum keep hyping up their organization (coming as a past alum).
At Cal, at least when I was there, BIG and UFA were probably the top two clubs placement-wise.
Agreed, for buyside recruitment BIG is definitely top. For BB/EB placements, I’d say UFA and BFC are the best though UFA doesn’t feel too much like a club. Again, not really a club as well but DSP has great placements too
I think the biz frats are generally good with recruiting, DSP has a good GS TMT pipeline. BIG, CIB, BFC have pretty good placements, I think BFC focuses more on IB, whereas BIG/CIB are more investing focused.
BIG is an HF juggernaut - very impressed with the people there. UBG is a rebrand of AKPsi, seems like they shed their SEO/MLT members but have otherwise had great placement.
IBW at IU Kelley is very good - 2nd in the B1G behind Northwestern (although I don't know if they actually have a club)
Salant at Hopkins places all EB/BB
Waterloo Private Capital at the University of Waterloo
Congrats on Evercore PCA!
This is why Waterloo as a school is frowned upon
says the guy planning on turning down RBC for Scotia
keep coping brodie
ucla - personally attend here and recruited this cycle; dsp, bruin consulting, bruin asset management do pretty well
cal - have friends here, heard about akpsi and dsp having great recruiting success
umich - also have many buddies who go here, have heard a lot about investing clubs like mii, gic, and vvi as well as the business frats like akpsi dsp etc. placing really well
northwestern - have a friend here and have heard about NUIBC being good
personally think the public school semi targets are really club focused based on how my friends and i recruited this year
umich - mii -> gic -> mig - > others, for clubs
WITG consistently places well year in year out (obv variance in quality between different groups but not as involved with the org so unsure about specific placements outside of SSG/TacOps typically being strongest), GPS and VQ place strongly as well on a per capita basis
From another thread:
Seems OK I guess…
IBW at Indiana always does well. They send kids to Apollo, Bx, PJT RSSG, Qatalyst, LionTree, CVP, EVR, etc. Other strong EB placement - Moelis, PWP, Greenhill, Gugg, etc.
Wall Street for McCombs (WSFM) at UT would have 100% placement in IB in NYC when I was an undergrad there. By the looks of LinkedIn, looks like they're still consistently placing kids in NYC.
WSFM isn’t comparable here; actual orgs w good placement are TEG, USIT, TUIT. TEG for BB, USIT for buyside, TUIT for EB.
I'd go look at their placement for the class of 2023, it's available on linkedin. Pretty much all BB, EB, and I think a few buyside. I would say definitely comparable. UT in general places really well. Not saying the other orgs you mentioned don't place well.
not 100% anymore, still high though, IBA is also good
UCLA Alum Here - I will keep this short but have interacted with many Bruins as of this last cycle. 4 clubs on campus being BAM, BHF, BIT, and BVI. BAM is the longest standing club on campus and is the OG of finance on campus with a great alumni network for the club members. BHF has taken market share hosting the case comps, which results in a direct pipeline to RX and is the only investment fund on campus. Apparently BAM/BHF are favored heavy by Ken Moelis; pretty impressive. Next is BVI who is also solid and usually very technically sound through their great training program for new members. Lastly, BIT another solid club with great placement starting with freshman gaining internships for their resume. For the '25 cycle, BHF and BAM placed lights out to the best EBs/BBs. If you can get into any of these clubs you will be fine but UCLA clubs is important for placement. I'd favor BAM and BHF though, but will be recruiting young moelis hard during club recruitment next year
This is such b.s. lmao, there is 0 favoritism. '23 cycle, 1 BAM, 1 BHF to Moelis LA, '24 Cycle, 1 BVI/BAM to Moelis LA, and in 2025, none from any of the clubs from LA. There has always been three main clubs: BAM/BVI/BHF and they're all literally the same. For incoming freshmen, this entire comment is inaccurate.
2025 Cycle has 1 from SOF UCLA, but rest seems true
2023 and 2022 cycle took interns from BHF for Moelis LA
Deleted
Exactly, any club is fine whether its BVI, BCM, BIT, BHF, or BAM. They all strive for the same goal and all place equally as well. Go bruins
This thread is just college kids hyping up their own school club lol
Northwestern IBC places lights fucking out. Co 2026 placement so far (still placing too) has 2x baincap, BDT, 3x Blackstone, 3x Bofa, CVP, 7x EVR, 2x GS, 2x JPM, 2x KKR, Laz, 7x MS to name a few, and Co 2025 might've placed even better. Crazy thing is too IBC is not that competitive to get into compared to a lot of other finance clubs
tbf none of their BX placement is Corp PE. Only one of their KKR is PE, same with Bain. Although their banking placement is very strong, esp Evercore and MS/GS/JPM (that is assuming group placement is strong as well).
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BX didn’t recruit corp pe this year lmao - honestly tac ops mandate is glowingly encroaching on it as well so that. In any case BCPE hiring lots of heads from silver lake made them not recruit for that group
co 25 placed 1 BCP. and they have been consistently placing into tac opps for 3 years now
del
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For Fordham being a non-target, placements from Smart Women Securities are nuts (JPM, GS mostly). Besides that diversity bs, 50+% of Finance Scholars place lights out in lower BBs (think Barclays, Citi, BofA) IB or S&T, 30% go to random MMs for something (usually IB/ER), and then the remaining 20% go to GS/MS/JPM for various roles. So far I've seen 2 top EB SA placements (and a few who did SA at MM and landed EB FT), but nothing really besides that. Maybe 1 kid goes to Buyside each year
For the University of Notre Dame, the Wall Street Club and SIBC (Student International Business Council) has some solid placements for a school that exists as a semi-target for some, and target for other banks. We have students placing all across the street, ranging from EBs (Moelis, PWP, PJT, LAZ, EVR) and BBs (BofA, MS, GS) to MMs (WF, HSBC, BMO, Macquarie, Blair, Baird, Lincoln) to regional boutiques (AGC, etc.).
Columbia?
Lion Fund, 116 & Partners, Columbia Alpha Partners (CAP), Columbia Financial Investment Group (CFIG)
Not as old as the other student run funds but have had excellent placement so far
Recruiting at Columbia has nothing to do with clubs. Other than a few students at Lion Fund, all are pretty mediocre. Columbia probably has the most underprepared finance wannabes. Recruiting nowadays at Columbia and at many other schools depends on whether you are diversity or not. This is coming from someone heading to an EB from Columbia.
Lion Fund and CFIG historically have the best placements. Think BX, Citadel, Evercore, PJT RSSG, all the top BBs, etc. From what I've heard, recent placements have been ever better with people landing top PE summer internships
At georgetown, GPS (which is also at other schools) has a pipeline to PJT RSSG. GUSIF is the school sanctioned fund. Zeeba places really well on the buyside. Everything else is noise, but people place well from a lot of different backgrounds at georgetown, recruiting is strong overall so don't worry too much.
Don't forget about the Investment Office. Have a friend there and they have super good placements across IB, PE, HF + cool experiences from what I hear. Seconding GPS as another club that has superb placements but don't know too much. Also Zeeba "specializing" in buy-side is not true they are just more hardo lmao
UNC PE fund
These clubs seem kinda cringe ngl. Any NESCAC lacrosse or hockey team can match these placements while not calling themselves "Managing Director of Student Investment Club"
Not wrong at all. However, these teams are essentially generational wealth clubs, so not surprising that membership is quite helpful for banking recruiting.
At Emory it is GIMG(Goizueta investment management) it was formed by Rick Rieder the CIO of Blackrock and an alumni of Emory. AKPSI and Algory Capital are pretty good too
Lmao I wish this was true, unfortunately none of these clubs really place that well (source: I'm in one)
what's the best club in harvard? mit?
Always heard about black diamond
fwiw I go to a lower ivy and I'm not in any of the finance clubs on campus, and I've still gotten good offers. Name of school holds more weight than a random club on your resume in my experience
This. Go to the best school possible, have a good GPA, grind technicals, network, and you’re golden.
Any word on Boston College (BC) - anywhere on anyone's radar?? Semi-target??
Great school but clubs don't make much of a difference. Stellar placements from their IBA but that's mostly self-selection and people outside it also get equal or better offers.
Some kids here might wanna know the top clubs in the UK:
Cambridge: CIBS, CUFIS (now mostly defunct), CAMSIF
Oxford: OAF (dominate the hedge fund space), OFS, Capitox (now mostly defunct)
LSE: BIG, AIC, M&A Group, GPS (dominate the hedge fund space), and MBP Capital
Imperial: Queen's Tower Capital
UCL: UCL M&A Group, UCLEFS (but they've fallen off recently)
KCL: KCLEFS
Warwick: WFS
If you aren't Partner / Senior MD at your college's finance society by Sophomore year then the boat for breaking into IB has already sailed. Maybe just join a book club and shoot for Big4
BYU IBA places decently well, and there's no application process; anyone can join.
what about ut austin wsfm?
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UT Austin WSFM is extremely good, led by school faculty (prob best)
Other student-led orgs incl. Investment Banking Association, Texas Equity Group
Notable mentions inc. TUIT, Texas Energy Capital (energy focused)
- TUIT has decent generalist placements
- Texas Energy Capital is catered towards Hou, but have heard they've been placing in ny & sf
Duke Investment Club. 15 people a year most outcomes are bb/eb/buyside
Slipping flyers under freshmen dorms definitely helps!
Replying because I went to Duke and personally had friends involved in the club…
Investment Club was basically Scale and Coin’s 2nd club where the board was mainly just members in this organization. I’m sure it could help you if u were involved but don’t feel like u definitely need to be in this club (let alone any weird exClUsivE finance organization) to place into IB. People I knew not involved in the traditional finance clubs actually placed even better than most of these people, which probably speaks to the character and personality of some of these individuals in these clubs, but that’s a whole other story…
Northwestern NUIBC. If you go to NU and want to do finance, that's the only club that matters
Carnegie Mellon - Tartan Student Fund is the general student investment fund. Other clubs include Investment Banking Academy, Sales & Trading Academy, and the Research & Asset Management Academy, and smart women securities. All of them are good to have on the resume, with a small but growing alumni base to connect with in recruiting. Especially if you’re non diversity, being in some of these clubs is essential for recruiting successfully at all, CMU isn’t a strong target for traditional banking jobs (it’s much stronger for S&T) but people who hustle and are in the right clubs will get offers.
Banking recruiting are heavily dependent on diversity status (female / black / latinx people consistently get the most / best / earliest banking offers). Most but not all of the handful of JPM / GS/ MS placements from the past few years have been diversity. Decently strong and growing placements at Evercore and Lazard. For non diversity kids, most typically end up with decent banks at best and some suspect ones at worst (BofA/Barc/DB/Citi/WF/BNP/Nomura/RBC/RJ/TD/MUFG). MUFG is the only bank that actively targets CMU kids for banking - no other bank really gives a shit about us compared to their real targets.
S&T recruiting outcomes are much more certain - CMU is a target for trading. Once again most of the BBs should give you looks. Barclays + BofA + DB + MUFG in particular have an affinity for CMU kids.
Investment management outcomes seem more evenly spread out and meritocratic. There have been a handful of people who’ve gone to P72 and Citadel’s CAP. More common to see people going to large family offices e.g. Rockefeller or Soros or the investment management / research side of a bank. Private equity recruiting out of CMU is nearly unheard of but some have made it happen - 2~ people in 4 years have got MF offers and 1 MM.
To be honest, if you have dreams of going to MFs or top IB groups after college, look at a different school because you’re likely not going to get those opportunities here. If you’re content with any high finance job, it’s a half decent place to be. If you want to be in trading, it’s pretty good.
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