Penn State Finance Club
Anyone heard of leveraged lion capital, thoughts on placement and org overall? How does it compare to other school orgs?
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Leveraged Lion Capital at Penn State is a well-regarded finance organization. According to insights from WSO, it has a strong placement record, particularly in investment banking and related fields. For example, their 2020 full-time and summer internship placement data highlights their effectiveness in preparing students for high-level finance roles.
When compared to other school organizations, Penn State's Leveraged Lion Capital and the Nittany Lion Fund (NLF) stand out due to their structured programs and strong feeder systems. The NLF, for instance, is noted for its large feeder program (PSIA) and its reputation as the oldest finance club at PSU, established in 2005. Both clubs are recognized for their ability to place students into top firms and provide hands-on experience managing real funds.
In terms of comparison to other schools, clubs like Columbia's Lion Fund and CFIG (Columbia Financial Investment Group) are also highly respected. These clubs are known for their strong alumni networks, training programs, and consistent placement into top firms like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Blackstone. However, PSU's finance clubs, particularly Leveraged Lion Capital and NLF, hold their own due to their unique focus on practical fund management and strong placement pipelines.
Sources: Penn State Reputation, Columbia Freshman Looking for Advice - Best Clubs?, How hard is it to get into The Nittany Lion Fund?, Imperial MSc Finance and Accounting vs LSE MSc Accounting and Finance, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/school/admitted-to-imperial-college-business-school-msc-finance-and-lse-msc-finance-for-2019?customgpt=1
Seems interesting especially with the whole credit angle, never would have thought a school like penn state would have these type of placements but seems like they only get looks from BB's
bump
The Nittany Lion Fund has historically placed better than whatever Leveraged Lion Capital is. I would try to get in there. They handle real money 16m$ while leveraged lion is a paper portfolio and that doesn’t help when networking. the NLF has placed kids to blackstone while idt llc has anyone except maybe one go to PE right out of college.
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No way a student-ran credit fund would ever get real money because of lack of institutional support and average debt tranche sizes so wouldn't dock them for this. Also realistically which buy-side shops are ever gonna recruit PENN STATE to their analyst program?
LLC offers a unique edge when it comes to networking — we’re one of the only student-run high-yield credit portfolios in the country. That distinction stands out. In fact, bulge brackets are hiring just as many, if not more, students from LLC each year compared to other top organizations at Penn State
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Bump. Current senior in hs admitted to PSU, interested in learning more about placements from LLC/PSU. Seems like a good feeder for LevFin/Rx positions but looking more for opinions/info
Bump as a senior in hs is insane work
Thoughts on iu kelley????
Solid placement is possible for a select few, but overall it's mid and overrated imo
Where?
As a current senior at Penn State, I’ve had the chance to see both organizations up close — and while both offer great experiences, I genuinely believe Leveraged Lion Capital (LLC) has developed a far superior recruiting model in recent years.
LLC’s executive board and senior members are incredibly hands-on with underclassmen, especially during recruiting season. That level of mentorship makes a huge difference. While the Nittany Lion Fund (NLF) has historically placed very well, that hasn’t been the case lately. From what I’ve seen, only about 50–60% of their sophomore class landed investment banking offers this year. A noticeable number are pivoting into other fields like asset management, lower middle-market private equity, or consulting.
In contrast, LLC has a 95% placement rate this cycle, with members landing at elite boutiques and top bulge brackets across the Street.
Yes — NLF is technically a fund, and that’s great for experience. But when it comes to recruiting outcomes, LLC is leading the way. I can’t say for certain whether the shift is due to changing market conditions, leadership differences, or something else. But it’s clear that banks are starting to realize LLC members are just as technically strong — and often come across better behaviorally during interviews. That so-called “special treatment” that NLF once had is no longer guaranteed.
At the end of the day, if you're coming to Penn State, visit both orgs. Talk to the people. See where you feel more supported and aligned. Don’t just look at where people placed — also pay attention to how many didn’t get offers.
PSU/NLF Alum here. The above appears to be a very biased post that is overstating the LLC and understating the Nittany Lion Fund. The NLF is substantially more competitive to get into, has outstanding placement, and has a very strong alumni network. I'm 8-12 years removed from graduation, and today, about half my NLF peers are at multi billion dollar hedge funds (some are PMs), 2-3 are at reputable MM PE Funds, 1-2 are still in banking, and 1-2 are at all known startups. Everyone is either in a highly competitive role, or has kids and has taken a "chiller", but still good, role.
To be clear, I am not bashing the LLC, it's a good organization with some very unique attributes. I support it. It's great for those interested in credit. But my guess is this post was written by someone who is pretty biased.
It's worth noting that the fund has effectively doubled the amount of people they let in from a decade ago, and still has outstanding placement, suggesting it's working well. Lots of good kids getting jobs on wall street.
Appreciate you sharing your perspective — it’s great that we’re getting multiple viewpoints in here.
That said, I want to clarify a few points based on what I’ve seen firsthand as someone who’s been closely involved with both organizations.
First, I don’t believe I’m inherently biased. I’m around both LLC and NLF regularly and have seen these recruiting outcomes up close. While NLF has an incredible legacy and alumni base, the results from this most recent cycle speak volumes — LLC had a materially higher placement rate despite taking a similar, if not slightly larger, class size.
Regarding your point about long-term outcomes — no doubt, NLF alums from 6–10 years ago are doing amazing things. But that’s largely a function of time. NLF’s been around since 2002. LLC wasn’t founded until 2017, yet we already have alumni at the VP level and in other highly competitive roles. The PM gap you mentioned is more about seniority than caliber — and over time, I’m confident you’ll see more LLC alums in those seats too.
On the “difficulty of entrance” piece — this cycle, LLC’s feeder organization had significantly (almost 2x) higher turnout than NLF’s, and we still took roughly the same number of candidates. There were also multiple cases of students who didn’t make it into the fall semester LLC trying to interview for NLF afterward. So, the competitiveness narrative isn’t as one-sided as it may have been in the past.
Again, this isn’t about knocking anyone or taking away from what NLF has accomplished. But I do think students — and increasingly, firms on the Street — have noticed a real shift in where top talent is coming from. And that’s something worth acknowledging.
Saying that the Fund has had a weak recruiting class is an extreme overstatement and misleading. While LLC is great, its extremely specialized, only sending kids to banks. The fund opens doors that LLC doesn't, if more kids recruited IB that 50%-60% BS statistic would be higher. Instead they have kids going to PE, hedge funds, and even quant. Pretending that the fund's placements were weaker this year is BS, but as you said everyone should visit both orgs since it all depends on fit.
Name the last quant placement that the fund has had bud. NLF just didnt do well this year lol
I mean, a quick website surf and LinkedIn search shows that LLC has ~ 20 placements compared to NLF's ~7. (Not to be a prestige-whore, but the quality of LLC’s placements seems way more ‘elite’ and competitive) I didn’t go to PSU, but I have family who currently attend, and even they were surprised by LLC’s crazy cycle this year. Besides IB, they also dominated the S&T spots, so they clearly prep kids well for all sell-side roles across banks.
They haven’t heard of any NLF kid landing a ‘big-name’ buyside analyst role (MF/UMM PE, HF, Quant) this year, so I’m not sure where you're getting that info from.
Maybe this year was lights out for LLC, or maybe it was an off-year for NLF—who knows? But the fact is, LLC blew Penn State out of the water this year.
Totally understand where you’re coming from — and to be clear, I have a lot of respect for what NLF has accomplished historically. That said, when we talk about “what doors are being opened,” I’m referring specifically to placement into top-tier investment banking roles — and in that respect, the numbers speak for themselves.
This past cycle, LLC placed significantly more members into top bulge brackets and elite boutiques (M&A | RX) than NLF — and this has been a consistent trend for the past few years. If there’s a firm or type of offer that NLF placed into recently that LLC hasn’t matched or exceeded, I’d genuinely be curious to hear it. Because from what I’ve seen, LLC has covered the full spectrum and done so at scale.
Regarding the 50–60% statistic, I stand by it. It’s not a guess — it’s based on publicly available information. Anyone can go to the NLF website, count the current sophomore class, and cross-reference with LinkedIn or personal connections to see who landed offers. That number is very real, and it's something even NLF alumni and seniors have quietly acknowledged as a point of concern this year.
Again — none of this is meant to be disrespectful. It’s just an honest reflection of current outcomes. Both orgs have their strengths, but students deserve transparency when deciding where to spend their time and effort. And right now, from a pure recruiting standpoint, LLC is delivering.
Curious to hear more about placements — I’m assuming that because Penn State is considered a non-target, it’s mostly just LLC taking a bigger share of the limited spots that banks allot to PSU. Do you think this trend will continue moving forward?
Also, it seems like there are little-to-none EB placements, which I guess is always an uphill battle coming from a school like PSU. It looks like it's all in rx too. (2 LAZ, 1 EVR). How do kids who want to do M&A at EBs even have a shot?
Penn State places in EB Cap Markets, but less so M&A
My understanding might be wrong and extremely naive, but it seems like NLF is way more intensive with their work—just by nature of having millions in real dollars and acting as a pseudo-equities hedge fund. But from their reports, they've been underperforming (which is a hard task for these big-name funds anyway so wouldn't ding them for this), doing all this work, and it seems like they're struggling with recruiting despite all the “hands-on, real-experience” work they do—which supposedly should give them a leg up?
Can anyone provide more color on this?
I graduated PSU in 2018. At the time NLF placement was way stronger. That program is very established with a lot of alumni on the street. From the sounds of this forum, perhaps the tides have shifted. But at least when I was there, NLF would have been the best.
Go through the process with both. Either one is better than nothing
it's true that this year's NLF class wasn't great. this is a function of a weak class though everyone strong got offers. if you're willing to put in the work both clubs will land you offers.
a) many people don't know wtf the fund is. having the ability to say "we manage $15m of real money" is always going to create a better impression than "we manage a paper portfolio" - LLC can't manage real capital for obvious reasons
BUT
b) LLC will give you a comparative advantage. there's nothing like it, and unless you are gunning for RX you will blow your competitors away w/ credit mkt knowledge. Every school has an equity investments club
The LLC club has been on the come up and certainly has great placements. NLF has been around for a while and generally has more consistency than the LLC.
If you take a look at LLC's placements through LinkedIn search, they are performing better this year, but you'll see many of them are on the financing side. Although they may struggle getting into coverage groups, their placements are strong and targeted towards LevFin/Rx roles.
If you are interested in credit, LLC is the way to go, but both clubs are great options.
Would rather financing than McDonald’s
Congrats on financing!!! Would recommend Wall Street Prep or Training The Street to learn how to model
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Seems like these guys only do cap markets/financing roles... which is great—unless you want to exit to buy-side. Still, extremely remarkable for a non-target like Penn State, and even more so for those who place into M&A and coverage.
I will say, though, they seem to be a great feeder for rx (2 LAZ, 1 EVR, 1 HL, 1 GUGG), which make sense considering the work they do with high-yield and their foundational understanding of credit. This is actually extremely impressive, considering how hard it already is to break into EB from a non-target—and then to join one of the most hardo, competitive groups like rx
Nobody from wall st tryna hear about PENN STATE LMAOOOO, mich and osu are your daddies
Great work in the nd game btw, an absolute james franklin masterpiece
Congrats on being an OSU student!!! What an awesome school with a great culture!!!
Here come all the butthurt penn state kids rushing in to defend their non-child-friendly school
I didn't go to ohio state, but I'd 100% rather go to the natty champs than some school that always fail to deliver. Good luck with getting the return-offer, Intern, and with buy-side recruiting from PSU!
Graduating senior here - this thread has gotten out of hand... Seems like each org is in the comments glazing themselves :)
If you're an incoming freshman looking to break into wall street, the NLF and LLC at Penn State have pipelines to IB and S&T roles (mostly BB, some EB/MM). If you're DEI and in either org, it's basically a guaranteed superday at Goldman. If you're not DEI, Goldman is off the table and it's going to be harder to get an offer at other firms, so I would research the orgs to determine which one gives you a better shot at what you're interested in. At the end of the day though, getting a job on wall street from Penn State is up to you and the differences between the experiences in the orgs is minimal. Best of luck!
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