Fordham on Wall street?

I'm seriously considering going to Fordham for my finance undergrad; I hear it has a great growing presence on the street. My second choice is Indiana Kelley, but I'm more hesitant to go there (even with its top 20 business school status) due to the fact that breaking into the IBW or other specialized clubs is extremely difficult, and if you don't get into them, you'd be better off at Fordham or some other semi-target.

What's your opinion on Fordham's Gabelli, and would it be better for IB than Kelley if I didn't get into the IBW or another one of the difficult clubs?

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I spent my freshman year at Fordham before transferring to a different school — still keep up with a lot of my friends there (who placed). Worked in IB and a top Growth Equity firm, and will be going to a EB.

It will be a huge grind coming from Fordham to place into a decent firm. There are clubs (SWS, Fordham Alt Investments, VCM, SoF) that help provide context into the landscape, techs, and initial connections, but the grunt work at the end is still up to you.

Placement is a handful each year and is spread between mainly lower end BB and UMM (Barclays, SocGen, BofA (previously, before the Fordham MD was pushed out), TD, RBC, Stifel, etc...). Over the past few years, there have been anomalies (evr, gs, moelis etc...) but those people placed from diversity programs or are diversity. 

What I will say is the industry doesn't favor Fordham the most. When the BofA Fordham FIG MD left, so did 2-3 Fordham analysts. Someone I know who worked at an EB from the school, didn't exit to the best firm. You will have a hard time with headhunters if PE is what you're after. The same cannot be said about IU-Kelley.

I would say non-IBW Kelley places at a very similar rate to Fordham, maybe slightly less. Know a few folks there too.

But what I will say is Fordham has an amazing student culture, and theres nothing bad I can say about my experience there. It'll just be a grind if you're looking to place (not impossible), but if you're looking for an enjoyable 4 years while getting a very good education in the city, it's the place for you.

 

Thank you very much. Would you say it is that much better to transfer to a target school? I'm worried that I could end up sacrificing a lot of time my freshman year trying to transfer to a target and not get in, only to have wasted potential networking or study hours on that.

 

Idt you're going to be spending a lot of time on transfer apps — you'll have a clear sense of whether its feasible or not by the end of your freshman fall (3.95 gpa +), and at most you spend 2-3 days of your winter break on writing the apps. You should spend all of your freshman year grinding techs, especially since Gabelli curriculum is relatively light your first year.

In terms of whether a target is worth it, it really depends. Lets say someone from Fordham and target really grinded, and put their heart into it — Fordham person will most likely land a Lower BB (BofA, Barclays, etc..) while a target student could go land BXPE or like a CVP with the same effort. However, you can choose to "cruise" at a target and still land somewhere thats okay (DB, Citi, BoFA, Barclays, etc...).
 

 

I transferred from Fordham to target and had a much much easier time recruiting.As helpiamstuck mentioned, it’s important to keep your GPA up, which honestly shouldn’t be an issue.

If you want some school recs or have any questions feel free to dm.

 

+1 to this. If I did college again (had slightly above average HS stats), I would have definitely gone to Baruch as a local New Yorker. I stupidly attended an average pricey private school out of state.

~$32K tuition total without scholarships. Know at least 1 HS classmate who made it to a Wall Street bank in a IB / ER role with scholarships and commuted to school. Potential 6 figure jobs at graduation while spending $50K in NYC is hard to beat.

 

completely agree. tons of baruch kids getting FO jobs. also location is such an important factor imo because students do off-cycle/part-time internships to get their feet wet in the business

 

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