What are the best liberal arts colleges in terms of IBD OCR. I know Williams and Amherst are probably the best, and other NESCACs have some OCR, but I'm curious about people's thoughts or experiences regarding LACs.
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Colgate kills it
Williams = Amherst > Middlebury > Bowdoin >>> everything else. You'll have some oddball schools (like Hamilton, W&L, Macalester, Colgate) that place okay. It's not worth splitting hairs between Williams and Amherst imo, but Middlebury is better than people give it credit for. Bowdoin also punches above it's weight, for some reason. Any science-oriented college (like Tufts) or politic-y college (Swarthmore) will struggle more.
Didn't know that Middlebury had good OCR. That's interesting because it's in the middle of literally nowhere, but I did know it's a strong school. I was also aware that Hamilton did pretty well but honestly had no clue about Bowdoin having any real OCR. Thanks for the input.
Well, Williams is in the middle of nowhere. Location doesn't matter much. There's less actual "on campus" recruitment nowadays, a lot of it is just alumni pushing your resume through. Bowdoin and Midd happen to have more alums in IB than people give them credit for.
Bowdoin doesn't punch above its weight, it has long been considered a top 3-5 LAC with incredibly influential alumni.
OCR aside, Trinity is pretty well represented in IB for networking purposes. You can't go wrong with any of the NESCACs.
surprised no one mentions CMC
It’s not an LAC
How is CMC not a liberal arts college?
.
CMC is too far removed to recruit effectively for NY spots. They place well into SF and LA gigs, not as well in the Big Apple. Their students are also more business oriented as opposed to finance oriented (they'll work at F500s, but not IBs).
I've heard the same thing from people I know that go there. Same deal with the other Claremont colleges, too.
I'm at a liberty league college and it's great and all, but I feel like I could shoot for higher. If it came down to transfer what's better going to a semi target( big schools) or a NESCAC(if I can get in)?
I would think a top NESCAC would be better, but a large semi-target would probably be better than a lower-ranked NESCAC for OCR and alumni connections.
Could you define OCR? And give a few names of decent semi targets. Thanks
Washington and Lee is a very underrated option. This past year, GS did first round interviews on campus then pushed kids straight through to superdays, 3-4 received offers. JPM did all interviews on campus, gave offers to 4 without ever having to interview with anybody other than W&L alumni at the bank. DB and Wells did superdays on campus and gave out 6-8 offers each on the spot. BAML did phone interviews with alumni then pushed kids straight through to superdays. And then a ton of MM and Boutiques (Piper, SunTrust, Lincoln, Harris Williams, Leerink etc.) are doing on campus interviews/superdays in the fall. Odds are definitely in the students favor since only about 50 kids go through the process each year; there's a spot for everybody somewhere.
What about the school makes it so appealing to banks?
Nothing in particular about the school versus all the other top LACs mentioned other than maybe a southern culture for a lot of the student body that plays well into the MM banks located in CLT and ATL. Moreso a result of having many alumni get in as non-targets/through indivual connections over the years and slowly building up a network of 30-40 alums at each of the banks now which have turned it into at least a semi-target or a target for every bank. The HR team at each bank trusts the alumni to do the recruiting on their own and pick their best kids to come on board.
Not Carleton College - highly ranked in terms of U.S. News and whatnot, but definitely not a top 10 LAC feeder into finance.
Edit: I think BMO is the only bank that goes on campus, not even Piper, Houlihan, HW, Lazard MM, etc. all just ~40 min away in Minneapolis don’t do any visits.
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