After reading endless amounts of threads comparing which target schools place best for Investment banking, figured it'd be worth starting a forum debating the best SEC schools out there (U of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas A&M).
Balancing education, post-grad placement, recruiting opps, networking/alum and the great social/fun aspects of attending a school in the SEC, this should be good for incoming undergrads looking for schools. Plus, would be fun to have a debate on this.
I've seen alot of good placement out of UF, coupled with an amazingly fun environment would make them very attractive. Know that Vandy places relatively well out of their MSF program but not sure how much that applies to undergraduate.
IMO: Georgia for ATL, A&M for Texas, Vandy for non-Georgia, non-Texas cities
True that you end up seeing more UGa grads in Atlanta and more A&M grads in Texas, but that doesn't mean a Vandy degree isn't more competitive for spots in those markets. You don't see a lot of Harvard alums in Atlanta either, but Harvard would beat out SEC schools if that's where they all applied.
Vandy is clearly the top dog for IB and MBB in this group. The rest are good state schools but not in the same league as UVA or UNC, UMich, UT, UC. Vandy is closer to Duke than the rest of the SEC but it still suffers from a southern reputation. Duke has a ton of kids from the NE.
You probably should of just not included Vandy on this list because it's light years ahead of all the others.
I'm pretty sure Vandy is the only good school on there. Everything else is jack shit
True, but coupled with being ass at all sports + a questionable social life compared to a UF, UGA, UT, UK....... I've seen growing placement in ib in all of those schools
Of course Vandy is far and away the best. You will see an occasional person from Florida, Georgia (probably easier to Atlanta as another person pointed out), or Texas A&M (mostly to Houston, though).
Average/ below average vandy kid beats out best uga no brainer
Vandy by far, it’s not even a comparison. I go to LSU and while I don’t know how it stacks up to the other SEC schools, there’s an IB group (TOTS) that puts people in contact with alumni and there are definitely some opportunities here for it being a non-target.
Only one I'd take seriously is Vandy unless somebody has a killer GPA and relevant work exp. Like if I glance at a resume with a 3.5 or lower from literally any of those other schools it's going straight in the trash.
^ voice of our generation! Agreed!
Ole Miss, Auburn, and Alabama have a decent presence on the street. MSU Arkansas and SC probably the worst (never seen any of these guys) but UGA and Vandy being the best without a doubt. Ole Miss and Bama have the old money big connections that can get them there.
Can anyone speak more on Vandy’s IBD placement in NY? Only know one guy and he’s S&T.
Bama alum, working in IB in NYC. Vanderbilt is by far the best school on this list and has the best placement. I'd say UGA and UF are tied at the #2 spot and TAMU/Bama being slightly behind them. Can't really speak fairly to how some of these schools place (personally haven't seen many kids from Arkansas, UK, MSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, in NYC at least) but doesn't mean they don't have placements.
To place from any of these schools besides Vandy you need a 3.7+ and solid internships. Each year at Bama was better than the last in terms of recruiting and placement, with BAML coming for an OCR visit my junior year (I was shocked too). Also id say about 80% of the kids that I know who placed in a BB, MM or EB from Bama also had a full scholarship and rejected top schools (UVA, Cornell, Columbia etc.) for the chance to go to school for free, a great talking point in an interview.
Robert Schleusner (head of wholesale credit) is a Bama alum, so that might be why
Funny, sooo many posters on College Confidential try to convince the world it doesn't matter where you attend college. Save money in undergrad. State flagships are great. They just don't get it. Amazing what they don't know that's not happening at their kid's school : OCR, peer network, alum. S is a freshman and attended his business frat weekly meeting the other day. A brother's dad (40 yrs in PE, 4th fund) visited and spent an hour teaching the group about PE and then schmoozed over cocktails. Wells was OCR three times in Feb alone.
These parents who think undergrad doesn't matter are just ignorant. Flagship may be great for the average bear, but not if you want to place in banking or consulting.
This comment needs more recognition
I know A&M has a few programs dedicated to investment banking/private equity for undergrads (Highly competitive) - you can go to their website and check it out if interested.
They also have a pretty successful networking program called Aggies on Wallstreet. Basically, a program that you go to NYC and network with a lot of the large firms. I believe it was started by Thomas Britton Harris IV (Bridgewater) and Mays continues to leverage those relationships on the street for networking/access.
Also, I'd say people from Texas typically like to stay in Texas so there isn't a huge contingent of students trying to get to New York (Texas mentality in general).
Edit Did a little research and the Titans of Investing is run by Britt, this link gives you an idea of the exits (may have to look a few classes down since the latest ones are still in school): http://www.titansofinvesting.org/titans-class-directory/
Just some insight into A&M B-School.
The beauties you see at UGA, UF are worth these mid-tier undergrad exit opps, just sayin
Georgia alum, but from a while back. The school seems to have built a small but substantial pipeline recently to ib based on LinkedIn profiles. Banks such as citi, Goldman, Deutsche, and others along with the more southern wells and SunTrust represented. And yes have confirmed these are legit summer and full time ib analysts.
Granted these are almost all 3.8+ gpa kids.
A&M has a pretty large (and growing) presence in Houston O&G IB and PE. 5+ years ago you would not have found a lot of A&M grads at top banks and there were very few in PE. A&M has made a big push in the last few years to prepare and place students in banking. The initiative is paying off and placement has increased considerably. OCR has ramped up in the last few years and most of the Houston banks recruit at A&M.
You can take a look at a bank like Simmons who is well respected in the space. A&M grads at the analyst level now represent a considerable percentage of each class. Outside of Houston and O&G, placement rates will be much lower, so if that's not of interest to you I would pass on A&M.
Outside of Vanderbilt, I can't think of very many people I've met in Houston IB that are from other SEC schools. The other schools that you will see in large quantities are UT, Rice, and SMU at the analyst level.
Vandy, Florida, Texas A&M (generally energy).
Other than that, it's an uphill battle, and becomes 100% up to the individual to hustle and prove their case, and sometimes that isn't even enough.
That having been said, there are guys from Bama, LSU, UGA, etc sprinkled all over across banking, HFs, PE, etc.
UF's MSF has placed very well in IB over the last several years (typically 30% BB/EB/MM, 40% in the typical southern debt shops (wells, strh) and the others placing well in Financial Leadership programs). If you're an ambitious guy that also wants to live the SEC college dream - I'd highly recommend looking into UF's MSF program.
Overall, Vandy is the most prestigious and well-known. However, the other "top" SEC schools continue to make strides into IB as banks realize the diamonds in the rough at these schools.
UF places pretty well just generally not in NYC. UF/UGA both do a good job getting placements in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Tampa I think.
Per a previous comment about Texans wanting to stay in Texas, Floridian largely want stay in FL. If you go on Linkedin alumni and see where they work, it is overwhelmingly FL based. Sure some in NY and NC but very large concentration in FL. The challenge for bankers, PE, HF, etc is there isn't much action in FL. There are deals for sure. But outside of RayJay, all there is is very small boutiques and satellite offices of banks. Tough when sunshine and tourism is the major industry. Tons of small businesses. Commercial banking (not corporate - too small) likely does well. Know tons of business banker types working for BofA and some regionals as well as lots of community banks. We just don't have a concentration of major employers. Not sure where all these FL based UF grads are working. I know some that run offices down here for national firms but most are in some private practice or boutique scenario.
Random question but are there any big banks that run Latin American coverage out of Miami?
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