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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.