Updated IB Tier listing 2023/2024

High Target- Harvard, Stanford, PENN, MIT

Target- Yale, Princeton, NYU, Georgetown, ND, Columbia, Umich,

Low Target- Duke, UVA, U Chicago, Dartmouth, Cornell

High Semi- Northwestern, Brown, Emory, Williams, Amherst, UCB 

Semi Target- UTA, SMU, Vandy, BC, IU, UNC, USC, BYU

Low Semi- UCLA, Rice, Midd, CMC, WashU, CMU, Colgate

Respectable Non-Target- JHU, Gatech, UGA, BU, Mcgill, Fordham, Swarthmore, Wake 

Any Changes? And why? 

64 Comments
 

I can see an argument for why ND/GU>Non-Dyson Cornell/Chicago, but everyone knows Dartmouth places lights out

 

I don't know that WashU should be 2 full tiers below Emory and below SMU, Vandy, USC, and BYU

 
Atlcalling

WashUs placement is horrible when compared to its rank.

Had a buddy who went there and the impression he gave me was that it was great for consulting recruiting but a bit disappointing for IB outside of a select few banks. 

 

Low semi to target is all one group. No one differentiates those in reality. High target and below low semi are separate. Should be 3 groups.

Princeton is a high target—it’s the #1 school in the country don’t know how it could be anything but a high target. Even if fewer kids go into finance, a Princeton or Yale kid is getting an interview.

 

This is far from true, the High semis could easily be Targets in their region. Emory is a southern target, probably just as good as Duke if not better. Northwestern is obviously a target for Chicago, and Berkeley for the west coast. Low semis aren't  targets anywhere.

 

3.9 from washu with a 34 act who isn’t a freak and knows technicals will get hired 9/10 times. No one is biasing against them because they didn’t go to Cornell.

Do some schools send more kids to IB than others? For sure. But that’s not a ranking that’s just representation. The broader point is does it make it that much harder recruiting coming from a school with lower representation? Eh, not really. Might be harder to get your foot in the door and know how to study because you know less people, but once you land an interview it’s in your hands. Targets are only targets because a high proportion of good candidates come from there. The reality is less kids are interested in IB from washu so you see lower representation. But, the good kids from those schools find a way and are very obvious when you interview.

Only caveat I will say is some places will do on-campus interviews for undergrads for firms that frequently send people. Still, don’t that makes them “ranked” higher.

 

Everyone time that these lists get posted they have the same issue… placement does not equal ease of placement.

Everyone knows UMich or Stern place more kids in IB than Yale or Brown. That doesn’t mean that they are better schools to go into IB from given class size and finance interest.

I went to an Ivy that “doesn’t place well” but placement was great, kids just mostly don’t want to do banking. Compare that with stern where you need to have a 4.0 and average 19 networking calls a week to get a job at Baird but, because everyone there is an insane hardo, there ends up being good placement.

So just don’t conflate “we placed X at y banks last year” with “we could place a kid at any bank”. Ivies and other top schools need to be higher on this list. Random semi targets that “place well” because they’re huge and filled with hardos need to be lower

 

There's no sure fire way to measure ease of placement. However the more alumni in IB the easier it is for others to get recruited.  Maybe more students from Princeton actually want IB but didn't get it. How would we know otherwise? You're making too many assumptions,  cause you're biased. 

 

I mean, I worked at a big bank with kids from nearly every school on this list and know plenty of people in banking / PE from all sorts of backgrounds.

Whenever you talk to someone from a non-target / semi target vs an Ivy / other top school, it’s not that hard to figure out the differences.

I don’t know a single semi target kid who “stumbled into” banking, whereas I know plenty of target kids who did. I define this as someone who had no idea what they wanted to do, randomly applied to a job online or through OCR, and got the job. That just doesn’t happen from a place like umich or stern. It happens plenty from Princeton or Yale

 

Many Ivy schools have "low" placement rates because their kids don't want to do banking and are not really putting efforts into it. Then you have NYU and all the bunch of mid-tier schools where kids are using 200% of their efforts to squeeze into banking. Cannot say the latter is more target than the former, that’s just selection bias.

 

SMU on the same level as UTA, Vandy, UNC, USC and ahead of UCLA, Rice, WashU?? Lol 

Most of the SMU kids who place into banking are able to do so because they're born into generational wealth and have family connections to get them a job. Good school though if you are born into money/want to attend a party school with hot chicks/couldn't get into a better school

 

Sunt praesentium dolorem totam sit eum ut nostrum. Laborum ullam consequatur quas. Nisi cumque aliquam cum nostrum et provident a. Magnam rerum magnam et.

Dignissimos aperiam reiciendis cupiditate fuga. Aperiam itaque error laudantium doloribus facilis sed. Officia est autem rerum autem reprehenderit incidunt nam.

Paul Allen's card.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”