Imperial or Warwick
Imperial is obviously the harder school to get into. But for finance apparently Warwick is more ‘target’ is this true? If so, why?!
I know around 30 people from my cohort who got in to Warwick and only 5 into imperial. Why would recruiters target the former.
I have an offer for Imperial Masters in Design Engineering and Warwick Bachelors in Engineering&Business. Which do I take if I want to work in finance.
Go Warwick
Y tho
Neither will give you an advantage over the other. Recruiters don't really "target" these schools in the sense that they want to prioritise one over the other. There are just too many applicants now and banks want diversity in their classes. When you get to the level of Warwick, Imperial, LSE etc (and increasingly schools like Durham and Nottingham) you just tick a box on the academic side of the application which suggests you are intelligent. They're not going to actually be impressed by what you do or where, its just the bare minimum so you don't get extra credit. Obviously, outside of like T10/T15 schools this drops off, but only like 5-10% of applicants from targets will get good offers.
Neither is objectively better than the other, you'll see some people comment that WW is only targeted for maths and econ but this is a retarded take because no recruiter is going to be pedantic enough to figure out what subjects are more prestigious at some random university. WW and ICL have a lot of representation in traditional finance, for quant finance imperial is much more respected, however. Although I'm not too sure how your degree would be viewed as they tend to prefer maths/CS/Physics etc.
You should decide based on these factors:
EDIT: WW definitely has more finance hardos there so the societies and social circles may be more helpful.
🙏🏻thanks, this is v insightful. Any advice on how to differentiate myself assuming I ‘tick the academic box’? Are they looking for people who have learnt a lot of finance independently.
for spring weeks not really. They want to see that you know what the role is (i.e IBD or S&T), and have some commercial awareness. The main things that stand out is your extracurriculars, online tests/hirevue, and then how you come across in interviews.
U tried to sneak in Notts lmaoo.. Not a single non-diversity candidate has made it from Notts since the dawn of time cmon now..
I wouldn't know... I don't dissect university placement but I assumed it was a decent school for finance due to overall numbers. I have definitely seen non-diversity if Asians don't count as diversity though.
How do you know that I was going to Notts?
Do you know if there are just as many on campus recruiters for finance at imperial as there are at Warwick, given it’s more of a tech school?
On-campus recruiting isn't a thing in the UK. Some PE firms and small boutiques do them but typically only at like LSE/Oxbridge and ig maybe imperial. They're not signifcant though and maybe 1-2 people will get them so you probably won't regardless.
BBs and most EBs don't really do them.
I went to Warwick, had a tonne of fun. Leamington Spa is a great place, when you first do the classic Jug and Jester (think it’s called the Old Library now) —> Kelsey’s —> Shades route you’ll find your eyes opened. I also really enjoy London, however you’ll have time to explore London when you’re older as I imagine most of your career will be here. For what it’s worth according to my headhunter gf Warwick is consistently one of the top three uni backgrounds for people who place into London PE, so wouldn’t say it particularly disadvantages you.
I knew Warwick was respected but never knew it was this much in terms of finances. I really thought imperial would be more so.
Can you intro me to your headhunter gf?
Julian Salisbury went to Loughborough. Don’t let your dreams be dreams!
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