How is Northwestern?

I'm at Northwestern and had a few questions about how the school is for IB/PE recruiting.

How much of a 'target' is Northwestern, and how difficult is it to get interviews at BB/EBs (given that the student networks and has a solid resume)

  1. What are placements like at Northwestern, and is it possible for a nondiverse student from Northwestern to place into the top BB/EBs?

Thanks!

30 Comments
 

First and foremost - chill. Enjoy your senior year of HS. I didn't have mine.

To answer your question - of course. Northwestern is a solid school with a great presence. You're joking if you think that you have to be diverse to break in. I would recommend you join the standard finance clubs and the fraternities, and watch the connections fly. 

Also, there's an easier answer to this question - go on the LinkedIn pages for these firms and type in Northwestern. You can then even organize by location. That should be more than enough. 

Best of luck. 

 

Seconding this. Join IMG/NCM, IBC EIP and then IBC, maybe AKPsi/DSP, traditional greek life, network with upperclassmen, do Chicago Field studies, and it will all work out. Best of luck. 

 
Controversial

Placement for c/o 2025 (does not include students who were not in Investment Banking Club): 

Audax Group - Private Equity
Baird - Investment Banking 
Baird - Restructuring 
Barclays - Investment Banking
Bank of America - Investment Banking (10x)
Blackstone - Credit & Insurance (2x)
Blackstone - Real Estate Asset Management (2x)​
Blackstone - Real Estate Debt Strategies (3x)
Blackstone - Real Estate Private Equity 
Blackstone - Tactical Opportunities
Centerview - Investment Banking
Citigroup - Investment Banking
Deutsche Bank - Sales & Trading
Evercore - Investment Banking (3x)
Evercore - Restructuring
Goldman Sachs - Alternative Investments
Goldman Sachs - Investment Banking (2x)
Goldman Sachs - Sales & Trading
Greenhill - Investment Banking (3x)
GTCR - Private Equity
Guggenheim ​- Investment Banking (2x)
JP Morgan - Investment Banking (2x)
KKR - Infrastructure
KKR - Private Equity (2x)
Lazard - Investment Banking (3x)
LionTree - Investment Banking
Morgan Stanley - Investment Banking (2x)
Northwestern University Endowment Office - Analyst
Palm Tree 
PJT Partners - Investment Banking (2x)
PWP - Investment Banking
Rothschild & Co - Investment Banking
Silicon Valley Bank - Investment Banking
Solomon Partners - Investment Banking
Stifel - Investment Banking
Union Square Advisors - Investment Banking
William Blair - Investment Banking (3x)

Non-IBC placement includes BofA, Barclays, Centerview, and more. 
 

 

northwestern absolutely cracked placement. How much of this is ny/chi/sf?

 

This is all you need to know. If you go to Northwestern and don't place well, it wasn't Northwestern that ruined it for you...

 

It’s so interesting that racist DE&I propaganda has fettered the mind of people so badly that incoming target school students think their only shot at Wall Street is being LGBTQ or a minority…

 
Most Helpful

NU student here. What surprised me the most about recruiting here was how willing everyone was to help each other (especially upperclassmen), and this uniquely collaborative culture around recruiting has resulted in very strong placements in recent years. Honestly I'd argue NU is one of the best schools to recruit out of period (obv I'm biased tho). NU is a hard school and getting a 3.7/3.8+ here is no joke and def tougher than at most of the ivies, and this is important to keep in mind when coming here. That said, if you can manage to get a high GPA here, you are in great shape to land wherever you want if you put the work in. When networking with non-NU alums, one person told me their firm "likes NU students because they have all the brains of the kids at HYPSM but without any of the ego." Think this is a result of the midwestern values that NU admissions looks for when admitting students. Obv every school has its pros and cons, but I really to feel like there's something in the water in Evanston cuz we have been placing lights fricken out and will continue to do so. 

 

Not true regarding your point about NU being hard. For IB/PE recruiting, only grades in your first 4 quarters matter, so it's definitely not too difficult to maintain a 3.85+ if you're smart with class selection. You can just take foundational disciplines/writing seminars/intro classes your first 3 quarters, drop or pass/fail if needed to protect GPA, and do Chicago Field Studies in sophomore fall for 4 easy As. Definitely tougher to maintain a high gpa if you take calculus/econ/engineering/chem classes in freshman year though.

 

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