Is WUSTL a target school by top I-banks?

Hi everyone. I am a junior currently thinking of transferring to the engineering college of WUSTL from a midwest liberal arts school that no bank targets. Downside is I would have to stay in undergrad for one more year. I am just curious if WUSTL is a target school by top I-banks. If yes, does it matter if I am engineering student or b-school student? Would you recommend this transfer or finance-related grad school? Many thanks!

27 Comments
 

banks do recruit there, so yes, technically it is a target however recruiting there is a little bit difficult, because it's not close to anywhere major (except chicago), so if you have to transfer, try going to a school a bit closer to new york

 

Although WUSTL is a great school overall, for business it is not heavily recruited and not seen as that great. Olin is decent, but not great. I know this becasue I applied there myself.

 

Wash U is a good school but doesn't place well in i-banking. They don't even rep very hard in Chicago. Seems strange as it's one of the best schools in the country. But they do have a New York week where you can go out to NYC and network with banks. I had some friends there and apparently there are hardly any on-campus interviews. Just some resume drops.

 

Just as a data point, I looked at the summer roster at my BB and I don't recall seeing a single person from Wash U in any office. I could be wrong.

My impression is that Wash U is one of the most under-recruited schools relative to the perceived quality of its students.

 
Best Response

Here's the deal on wustl recruiting; if you are roughly a top 20% finance student you can get an IB job. About half of the 20 will go to NYC for BBs and the other half will do more regional work (Stifel, AG Edwards etc). I know atleast 2 guys are going to JPM from wustl, and on average they will place 1-2 at any major BB. The bottom line is unless you have a 3.8+, you better have some connections to get an interview.

The better idea would be to do 1 or 2 years at Wash U, do really well and try and transfer to a more recognized IB school. For transfers, Wash U has amazing acceptance rates; comparable transfer schools (i.e. schools that you could possibly get into with say a 3.5+) would be Columbia, Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan, or NYU. Of course if you do well (3.7+) you can transfer into any of the best schools (HYPS). Others on the board may scoff but Wash U definitely is held in much higher regard in academic circles than in professional ones.

 

It's generally not.

Period in that place is intentional.

But also keep in mind that the general culture of IB is that they aren't going to consider anything other than Harvard/Columbia/Stanford/Princeton as a positive, alumni excepted.

 

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