I’m a prospective investment banker entering my freshman year in the fall of 24’. I wish to work in a Houston bank and I’m aware that Smu’s alt program is a target for Houston banks. With all of my scholarships I would have to pay 38.5K per year without support from my parents accumulating to 154K over 4 years. Is SMU a smart financial decision assuming I work in IB in Houston straight after college? For perspective I’ve also been accepted into TAMU (Mays).
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Yes if you want Houston or Dallas. Otherwise go to a north east school
Sm Cox, read that quickly and thought what the fuck haha
SMU is great, especially if you get into the Alts program. After Alts, I felt a lot more prepared and confident when I hit the desk than a lot of my peers. We also have a solid network of alumni on the east coast if you decide Houston is not the move. Also a really fun school, but really easy to lose focus and end up selling insurance if you're not careful.
I went to SMU and ended up in NYC so I can provide a little perspective here. If your goal is Houston and SMU is going to net you ~$150k in student loans, I would personally go to TAMU. They also have a strong pipeline to Houston and you won't have to deal with the heavy burden of student loans.
That being said, you're not even a freshman yet so I'm curious as to why you're settled on Houston. If you're just saying that because you think it's the easiest route to IB, then I would urge you to go to SMU with an open mind and use the alumni network and brand name to look for internships in NYC or Chicago (either would open the door to way more opportunities than Houston IMO). Yes, you will have a lot of student loans, but you'll have the flexibility to work in industries other than O&G which will make it easier for you to transition to PE / Corp Dev / Startups / Growth Equity / literally anything else if you decide IB is not the right path for you.
Currently a student at TAMU right now. If you join the right programs like Aggies on Wallstreet and the Horizons program then you should have no trouble landing an IB job in Houston. If you go to the TAMU Horizons website you can see each classes placement through the years. I’d say a good 60-70% stay in Texas and place well but there definitely are kids that go to NYC or Chicago. However, these programs are pretty competitive so you have to keep a near perfect GPA freshman and sophomore year. Without being in these programs IB would be pretty tough to break into from TAMU.
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