MBB LA (i.e. student at MBB target school applying to offices in opposite coast?)

I'm a junior at an east coast target school (3.8 GPA, think Princeton/Columbia/Penn) but am looking at offices on the west coast (have just always wanted to try living in the west coast)! I know my school is a target for east coast offices like NY - but I'm struggling to see alumni from my school at some of the MBB LA offices that I could potentially network with/talk to.

Is this going to negatively impact my chances of being accepted/at least called back for a first interview? Do LA offices prefer to recruit from schools like UCB and Stanford as opposed to Ivies? Any advice?

Thanks so much :)

9 Comments
 

Others probably have a better idea of the specifics, but from what I've seen typically half of the incoming MBB undergrads come from Ivies while the other half are from local schools for SF/LA offices.

 

Thanks! Do you have any tips with networking with those offices? I was worried that there'd be a disadvantage because I literally can't find any alumni on LinkedIn in the office and I only just decided I'm going to be putting LA as my first choice this week, 3 weeks til apps are due so I haven't talked to anyone in those offices yet. 

 

There's lots of Ivy kids in the west coast offices (Seattle/SF/LA), honestly as much or more than the Stanford's/UCs so I'd definitely apply. There is a large skew towards Ivy+ kids in MBB in general regardless of office.

 

Thanks! Do you have any tips with networking with those offices? I was worried that there'd be a disadvantage because I literally can't find any alumni on LinkedIn in the office and I only just decided I'm going to be putting LA as my first choice this week, 3 weeks til apps are due so I haven't talked to anyone in those offices yet. 

 

Go on your university's alumni database (if they have one) and cross-reference from LinkedIn. I had no problem finding alum in west coast offices from my Ivy using this technique, don't know if your Ivy has the same resources/network but definitely take a look. Also: networking for MBB's holds very little weight in general (in comparison to finance especially), so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Your GPA and resume (if strong) can carry you to the first round at which point it becomes all about how well you can case/get along with the interviewer.

 

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