School Prestige Matters Way Less Than People Think Now
If you’re at a school with a legit IB/finance workshop, upperclassmen who’ve already gone through the process, and alumni who will actually go to bat for you, you are probably in a better spot than a lot of kids at “targets,” and people on here hate admitting that. At a lot of semi-targets, the pipeline is tighter, the alumni base is hungrier. People act like slapping a “target” name on your LinkedIn is some golden ticket, when in reality being a big fish at a semi-target with a real pipeline and people who genuinely want to see you win can be way more valuable than being just another replaceable resume.
Congrats on Mendoza! He went to Haas btw, you couldn’t catch him dead at your shitty b-school
wait until u on-cycle lol
Yes because racist white crackers want to preserve whiteness in banking than allow meritocracy to happen.
If banking was truly meritocratic it'd look like big tech. Go hire a dumb fck white idiot from university of south Carolina instead of a brown harvard kid. Classic kkk move white crackers
Thank you, come again
Yea that’s just not true at all, but keep copeing brother. School prestige isn’t just about impressing the sluts in the West Village bars, there’s a lot more.
1) it is a filtering mechanism. When you hire a Harvard kid, you assume Harvard “did their diligence” to determine if you are smart. There is no doubt to be had, vs when you hire a random college and have to dig into their story a ton. Similarly to how a PE firm will primarily recruit from BB/EB because they assume they did their diligence interviewing you, and will also have good analyst training programs / experience. When you to apply to any job or business school, your undergrad is the first thing readers see and analyze.
2) it’s a clean stamp of credibility, especially in an industry dealing with money, full stop. When you’re pitching for an IB, raising money in PE, or winning any kind of deal - your school matters. It is literally a huge reason PE firms send their associates to business school before the VP promo (even tho 2 more years of experience at the firm is obviously more valuable from a skills standpoint than drinking with ur MBA friends every day). It is a stamp of legitimacy. They want the Ivy League stamps when raising billions of dollars.
3) IB’s don’t have unlimited time to recruit that’s why target schools even exist. The idea that you’ll magically find a prodigy from recruiting out of 100 undergrad b school schools vs just taking Wharton/Ross/Stern/Sloan is literally 0.000001%. It saves them time. Good luck finding ur alumni across the world of finance from a shit school, it’s incredibly rare in high finance. Undergrad presige is PARAMOUNT. It will carry with you forever. People make quick decisions on first impressions whether you like it or not. A good school is an immediate highlight of legitimacy.
Congrats on Rutgers bro.
Congrats on 400k Ivy League degree
400 is chump change for the potential lifetime earnings going to a target could get you closer to. Squid.
Anyone disagreeing here is either years removed from UG recruiting or coping about wasting their college years slaving away at an Ivy. Nobody held me going to a “non-target” as an issue, and most of my referrals came from non alumni cold conversations. Cope all you want, but that won’t change the truth — being lucky enough to have a certain situation in high school or parents pulling for you to go to an Ivy is no longer seen as a qualification, and why should it be? If it’s true that school prestige matters so much, then how shitty of a candidate must you be to lose to as many non-targets that place nowadays?
Second this as someone who went to a non target laughed at on here - get along really well with my Ivy League colleagues where this disparity never comes up. This forum exaggerates the difference massively.
Yes, definitely some disparity in perceived “qualification” in terms of raising money / at certain funds, HH outreach (although I know several people that get UMM/MF looks at top groups with similar school hindrance), but this forum acts like it’s a death sentence.
Congrats on Ross/Stern
Spot on.
wish ts was true...
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/investment-banking/cracked-non-ta…
This is becoming true. For ex, heard Vandy got crushed this year with only a single PJT offer across the entire SA26 class.
Underrated comment. Kudos chimp
This just isn’t true and the only reason people believe it is because they don’t “know how the other half lives” and/or are limiting their universe of analysis to, like, getting an IB gig out of college
Else equal, the Harvard kid is raising capital for his startup over the nontarget kid. That core idea drives all decision making in investment management.
Love seeing posts like this hahahaha. Makes me feel great about going to a target!!! Cold app to EB and got the offer. I'm sure that would've happened coming from ASU!!!
the one non target ASO in my group himself laughs at the non targets' networking emails they're so insecure "Fellow Non-Target Trying to Break in"
Omfg 😭
This is a terrible mindset and how you get hated on in the workplace and in life. You just weren’t good enough to get into an Ivy and that’s completely fine. Over time, you’ve made up for it in other ways - hard work, passion, or whatever else you’re good at instead. Non-target grads who think this way are way more loved than anyone telling themselves some stupid bullshit.
Coping doesn’t do anything for anyone.
This is mostly true. A kid at a strong semi-target with an actual workshop, good upperclassmen, and alumni who will push their resume can absolutely be in a better practical spot than some random student at a target who is competing with 100 equally polished kids for the same seats.
People overrate labels and underrate pipeline quality. “Target” matters, but a real ecosystem matters more than just the name. Being a big fish at a place that consistently gets a handful of kids to good outcomes can be a huge advantage, especially if the alumni base is scrappy and actually responsive.
Ea sapiente maiores deleniti ut quia. Ducimus voluptatem animi distinctio ut. Saepe iusto cupiditate sit occaecati ullam. Amet aut est beatae numquam tempore ea sed.
Dolor quasi vel est voluptas. Dolorem quia voluptatem excepturi libero est odio aut. Consequatur enim suscipit consequuntur omnis voluptas incidunt quia. Facilis ut et expedita sed. Aliquid nam nihil dolore beatae numquam.
Sequi autem aspernatur quod ut numquam et debitis et. Aut neque soluta rerum aut voluptatem. Consectetur sint consequatur velit et quia non. Et eum maxime id dolores a.
Consequatur asperiores qui molestias sed sit. Deleniti autem et voluptatem quos rerum. Illo dolor quis iusto quaerat quod. Vel nihil illum quis quia. Corporis consequatur ad ducimus officiis provident ut omnis vitae.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Explicabo voluptate cupiditate sapiente iure dolor. Qui iure fugit id.
Repellendus repellat deserunt repellat aut aperiam quibusdam. Consequatur sapiente nesciunt ea totam veniam deleniti dolor. Voluptas fugit corporis tempora neque sit voluptatibus.
Sint suscipit rem et architecto. Consectetur ratione perspiciatis quidem sed blanditiis omnis. Aperiam nisi amet beatae vel saepe alias quia officia. Omnis non consequatur assumenda veniam.
Qui autem explicabo qui consequatur cum. Et dolores consectetur quis sed itaque. In et velit iusto sit sapiente.