TCU Neeley vs UVA A&S for Chicago/NY IB… McIntire lockout a dealbreaker?
TCU Neeley Honors (Finance + Accounting, 3.9 GPA). Got into UVA A&S Economics as a transfer. Target: Chicago/NY IB → PE → T10 MBA (hope!!)
Current profile: lots of on campus leadership and finance internship locked this summer. Exec roles on all of my on campus orgs, and one off campus larger org.
The UVA problem: As a transfer I’m locked out of McIntire entirely — it’s a 3-year program. MII and AIF, which drive 25-40% of UVA IB placements, are McIntire-affiliated. As an OOS transfer with zero existing network, cracking either seems unrealistic. That leaves me as a liberal arts econ major recruiting IB without the infrastructure that makes UVA actually work for this path.
Case for staying at TCU: Dedicated IB mentorship program with direct bank/PE placement, Finance + Accounting double major, structured recruiting, and momentum I’d be giving up. Programs like fellows and TIP.
Is UVA A&S genuinely better than TCU Neeley for MM IB given the McIntire situation, or is this a no-brainer stay?
Brotha you doxxed yourself with the username. Anyways I say stay at TCU for sure. UVA Econ will be hard to place + don’t have strong access to clubs that place as a transfer and non business major. Lowkey recruit Houston and just lateral after 2 years - very doable if you’re top TCU candidate. Also imo nobody cares if you founded a 501 c 3 in banking
At UVA Econ, placed into EB. Know plenty of others who’ve done the same. You’d be an idiot to choose TCU over UVA.
Same here brotha
This is bad advice. Plenty of Econ kids placed lights out & are in top clubs
Thanks for username thing 😭. The 501c3 thing has just helped me get more exposure on campus and get into more selective clubs, that’s the only reason I included it.
With regard to Huston, I don’t love Texas and am hoping to get out of here once I graduate. That’s why I initially looked at more schools
My two cents are to recruit Houston. It is certainly doable to place JPM/EVR/JEF or other great Houston shops out of TCU, but not so much so in NYC or Chicago. If you plan on doing PE but also are set on going to business school, just do Houston IB 1-2 years, lateral to NYC/Chicago IB 1-2 more years, biz school, then generalist PE recruiting or whatever. Even better if you like energy/infrastructure, and you can go straight from Houston IB to NYC infra PE. You don’t want to end up at a Lincoln Chicago (no hate to Lincoln) when you could’ve started you career at, say, a JPM Houston. It’s 1-2 years of your career in Houston, and having worked at a name brand shop in investment banking will ultimately carry a lot of weight throughout your career imo. Also you’ll live like a king in Houston
thought PE firms stopped hiring out of MBA if no previous direct investing experience?
Wouldn’t know bro. I made UVA Mcintire as a transfer this year. Hope to see you on campus tho.
Congrats! I’m a freshman and highest math I’ve taken is statistical analysis (after calc at tcu) and honestly thought I’d get rejected if I did mcintire. Hope to see you also
I transferred into uva as an Econ major and didn’t even get interviews at any of the clubs. Yet I ended up at bofa/barc and was super happy how things turned out. I got a lot of EB interviews too and some I didn’t even network at. I know another transfer who was in the same position as me and he also placed at a great bank without McIntire or any of the clubs. All you need are good social skills, sharp technicals, 3.8+ gpa, and a lot of effort. If you have all those you have a great chance at breaking in. Lowkey have seen a lot of kids in these investment clubs just not place because the candidate matters a lot more than whatever student club they’re a part of. You just have to get your foot in the door with networking. It’s not like the uva alumni won’t talk to you if you weren’t in their club lmao. In fact the guy who went to bat for me to get me my R1 at my bank was in all those clubs while I was not
Do not stay at TCU it will be very difficult to place. The UVA name will help for PE recruiting and for MBA applications
del outdated
Welcome to Charlottesville. You only need to be in AIF if you want to do HF, can be in any club or no club as an Econ major and get solid MM or BB offers in NYC
Transfer. I worked at two Houston banks before and TCU wasn’t even a target for one of them. Let alone NY. Bro is trying to lateral from Conference Spain to the NBA Finals.
Let’s not forget that TCU has babes! UVA girls aren’t close
TCU alum in Houston banking now. Ignore my title.
I think you should transfer. Say even if you do Houston for 2 years and then transfer to NYC, TCU’s alum network is useless for NYC scene, so you basically have to build your own network instead of relying on alumni.
If you want to do Houston then NYC, just know Houston offices tend to be sweatier than NYC offices. You’ll do a lot of energy related stuff. Just think if you can put up with 1-2 years of that.
Given you know tcu… would being in Neeley Fellows or TIP board rival UVA? I understand rival may not being the right word but I think socially it will be hard to leave.
Sure. I don’t want to dox myself but basically did all of whatever Neeley had to offer. Won quite a bit of recognition from the school.
I mean for NYC, eventually UVA will beat TCU, regardless of what you did at TCU. Again, TCU alum network will be weak in NYC so you can’t rely on them much.
You’re probably very familiar with TCU by now so it’s hard to leave. I totally get it. I still think you will have to fight tooth and nails from TCU to place into NYC. Why not make it easier by going to UVA? But again, assuming you got into Fellows/TIP by now, you’re probably good and thus will be successful wherever you go. Tbh I never liked TCU much; nicest people but academic programs are much weaker than other schools so I got most of my learning elsewhere. I did recruit for NYC and got a decent offer but declined because the BB offers I got from houston are just better for brand name.
Again, Fellows/TIP won’t help much with NYC recruiting unless you’re diversity. You just have to grind extra hard coming from TCU and need quite a bit of luck.
FWIW AIF and MII being McIntire affiliated doesn’t matter. Something like 40% of AIF and 20% of MII isn’t in McIntire due to the amount of busywork McIntire has
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