SMU OR UMIAMI
SMU or UMiami for investment banking (ideally in nyc)? I know people at SMU who placed well in Texas and NYC but I don’t know much about UMiami. From what I’ve seen online, SMU does significantly better. I know I will enjoy the social life at both schools since they are kind of similar in terms of Greek Life. But from an academic level, is SMU better and more prestigious in the business world? I’m also a BBA scholar at SMU and will try to get into the Alts program there. It also seems like the alumni network, especially for investment banking, is stronger at SMU. Which college do you see more in investment banking and is also more impressive?
edit: I also have scholarships at both schools so the tuition is basically the same.
UMiami has decent placement because the student population has largely loaded parents, and usually have better established placement through connections.
SMU placement from what I’ve gathered has alright placement, but it’s one of the schools where you have to really work for it, but the opportunity is there. Can’t speak much on programs at SMU.
SMU might be even more so. Greek life alumni cyclically helping each other. In Texas UT and Rice are going to do better per capita. I know Rice isn’t a huge finance school, but they have a new program, the kids place well in Houston, and the bankers go OCR there. Both definitely have more prestige than SMU. SMU is largely known for being a bunch of rich kids from what I've seen. If you're not in that crowd, that's when you have to grind
IMO UT BHP > SMU Alts > Rice. Also your per capita statement is statistically false.
I went to UMiami and most of the girls I was friends with were from Fairfield County, CT or Long Island and all their dads were either MDs at large banks or owned their own boutique firms or other businesses. Took full advantage of that to get my foot in the door and get introduced to people.
you're that one trust fund kid
SMU gets a lot of hate around here for the rep of being a "rich kid's" school. This isn't wrong, but reality is the socioeconomic demographic of students isn't that different from many other private schools out there. Notwithstanding this, their placement is actually really good and difficult to refute with hard data (as opposed to unbased ad hominem attacks).
Through the alts program, kids regularly place at every bank on the street. Best/easiest pipeline into Houston, but have alumni in almost every bank in NYC now (GS, MS, CVP, EVR, JPM, Moelis, etc.). As banking placements have improved year-over-year, so too have PE placements. Some recent SMU PE placements: Advent, Warburg, Bain Cap, Stonepeak, Clearlake, TA Associates, New Mountain, Madison Dearborn -- all non energy -- plus have alums in Blackstone Energy and Apollo NR. From personal experience, I know that the majority of these placements are by kids who worked hard to be the top of the top (not all, but some female-related diversity placements and near impossible to attribute impact of this here), not nepotistic hires.
Is the school Wharton? Definitely not. Is the school low key actually competitive on the street for IB? Yes.
UMiami has less of an established presence / pipeline. If you are comfortable with the price tag and social environments of each, go with SMU in this head-to-head comparison.
Thank you so much for your insight on SMU!
+1 to this. If you want NYC you need to be a standout, and ideally have a NYC internship freshman or sophomore summer, but the school has come way up in recruiting might in the last decade or so. If you are doing Greek life you have plenty of connections too.
Came here to add this data to the list. Quite interesting and supports above comment on SMU
Per capita placement actually better than a number of top schools
Oh wow that’s very impressive!
Miami is shit for IB placement.
zero respect in NYC market - party school for dumb kids from the northeast
Neither SMU or Miami is viewed as prestigious/elite, both have acceptance rates on par with your average Big 10 school. SMU does however have connections across Wall Street due to rich parents...fwiw my firm has had three analysts from SMU since I've worked here and all three were born into generational wealth (two of whom were borderline retarded). It's definitely a great option though if you want to go to a party school with hot chicks and can't get into a higher ranked school.
Grad of another Texas school but have friends that went to SMU and have worked with a few alums in my banking days. Agreed on lack of prestige / elite status and on acceptance rates (factual) but to attribute pipeline to rich parents is inaccurate.
As for the student body -- this is a mixed bag, there are definitely a ton of dumbasses out there (and a good number), but would put the top xx% of the SMU student body against the corresponding cohort at most other schools. Cannot generalize based on personal experience. If you are smart, work hard and grind you will get where you want to be. GL OP.
SMU and it's not close. You do have to work to get into Alts, and to stay in, but virtually everyone who goes lands in IB. The placement rate in NY is also significantly higher than people on here say. You're not relegated to Houston IB if you go there...Everyone who wants to go to NY has more than enough opportunities to do so that it's squarely on them if they don't wind up there.
Miami has many programs that are direct pipelines into NYC investment banks. Cannot speak on SMU behalf but Miami has placed well especially with EB/BB firms in recent years. It would be challenging to find an investment bank on the street that doesn’t have at least a few Miami grads.
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