Vandy vs ND
I am a rising senior in HS and am debating applying ED to Vanderbilt because I love the campus and student life but am a little concerned about how hard it would be to recruit for jobs in finance in NYC considering it not having a biz school and it’s location compared to schools like Notre Dame. Since I have legacy to ND and good academic profile I think I would have a strong chance to get in but don’t know if the student life is a good fit for me and if I ED to Vandy and get in then I can’t change my mind obviously. If anyone has any insight on how much harder it is to recruit from Vandy than other target schools it would be greatly appreciated!
If Vandy is where you want to be then just go there if you get in
Made the same choice and ended up picking Vandy. Looking back, I’d honestly lean toward Notre Dame, unless you already know exactly how IB recruiting works, how to prep, and you’re ready to hit the ground running from day one at Vandy. (Which is possible if you’re already on WSO).
For context, I just graduated from Vanderbilt. I was involved in all the feeder clubs and business frats (which for context have 5% acceptance rates, which is another headache “recruiting” for freshman year) and still barely landed an offer (from a middle market bank that doesn’t even typically recruit from our school). A good amount of my friends completely struck out my cycle and ended up doing other things. At least when I went through the process (two cycles ago), we had around 6-7 banks that came on campus to recruit: BofA, Raymond James, Rothschild, Wells Fargo, Nomura, Goldman, and Evercore. Even then, each would maybe give out 1–2 offers (>70% woman/diversity).
If you’re diversity, I’d say you’ll probably be fine at either school. But if not, I’d strongly recommend ND in hindsight. Outside of those few target banks, you basically have to do all the heavy lifting yourself—essentially recruiting as a non-target. It’s doable, especially with the vandy name but way harder. From what I’ve seen, Notre Dame has a much broader and stronger pipeline across more banks. It also has the benefit of being in Chicago with lots of alumni/boutique bank options if you strike out during the main wave.
That being said, I absolutely loved my time at vandy and if you are ready to grind early and have more of an uphill battle, any bank would be in your reach.
Very insightful response. In hindsight is there anything you would’ve done differently at Vandy to land a more prestigious offer or do you like anything specific led to you/your friends not being able to land top offers? I am a non diversity male btw
Not the guy who went to Vandy - but their students tend to be very weak on technicals bc they have no finance courses or business school
Would agree ND is the better choice given placement
OP here, 100% agree. I wish I would’ve prepped my technicals a lot more as I was very undeprepped, ended up only getting the hang of it mid-recruiting which was kinda late. Would definitely recommend mastering the IB 400 over your freshman summer.mI think the on campus banks understand this and had lower standards for technicals and hence I made it to a handful of superdays. But having gone through the full-time process, I realized I had no idea what I was doing for SA recruiting. I would’ve been cooked if I recruited for tougher banks. Apart from that, I wish I networked with more of the stronger MMs. I only focused on the BBs and on campus banks, and spoke to 8-10 ppl at each one which was a little overkill. Instead I would recommend applying to a bunch of the RayJs, Houlihans, Blairs of the world. Having seen how many kids struck out my year because they only focused on the BBs/OCRs I would 100% recommend spreading as wide of a net as possible. I felt like the advice I got from the seniors (as a freshman) barely applied to me and many kids in my year as the market was much better and most of them placed into OCR banks which hired more ppl in the past from vandy. Also when networking, I would also be a little cognizant on the alumni at the bank. Are they all diversity? Could be a slight indication of your odds at that firm. A lot of banks only take diversity/woman from vandy since we’re technically non-targets for them. Additionally, it’s important to remember that A LOT of kids at vandy and other T20s are very well connected. Many kids who placed at EBs & BBs my year (which didn’t recruit on campus) had family or family friends in the industry at MD/Partner level if not higher. Personally know a good amount of ppl who were connected to Bank heads, IB division heads, etc. if I’m being completely transparent I think we only had 5- 10 kids who placed into MMs + without family connections/diversity and they were on top of it from day one.
All things considered, I think I could’ve placed at a tier or two higher bank if I chose Notre Dame over Vandy (mainly from being more technically prepared but also from having more on campus opportunities) But that would’ve 100-% also been possible if I just had my shit together earlier with expectations/technical prep. I feel like I slacked a little because I saw the placements of the clubs I was in at good BB/EBs and assumed that was the norm instead of considering how many of them were diversity/well-connected/“cracked”
If I had to do it again, I feel like I would’ve still picked vandy because i absolutely loved the experience, the friends, study abroad, and the culture. Alumni are also super willing to help. But I just wanted to shine as much light on this as possible.
If you do pick vandy I would highly recommend joining a business frat, FDP & investment club. They don’t have pipelines to banks or anything like that but it helps to have those club alumni to reach out to during recruiting.
Vandy is the most fun school in the country and places pretty well in IB with a very strong rep overall. Plenty of people get great IB or buyside looks, don’t let one guy who struck out influence your decision.
ND might have a better alumni base but it’s not worth compromising your undergrad experience to go to a marginally better school for IB recruiting.
Clark Lea chose Vandy over ND and you should too.
Assuming this was directed at me. I quite frankly was just trying to give an objective opinion on the placements of the school from my year and reflect on my decision btwn the two schools as I was also picking btwn those very same schools. Having been in all the “feeder clubs” at vandy, I feel like I personally knew most of the kids who ended up in IB from my year and wanted to shine light on some of the things that an alumni or current student at vandy wont (ie. Reality of diversity placements/well-connected kids).
I also wouldn’t say I struck out by any means, I’m very happy at the bank that I placed at and truly loved the culture. I recruited full-time as I was admittedly still in that “prestige-whorey” mindset coming out of the summer and ended up turning down the bank that I got the offer from for culture reasons even though it was a “better” MM. I also mentioned in my recent comment I absolutely loved my time at vandy and would pick it again 100% and that every bank is in reach from the school but you should be ready to hit the ground running and stay on top of things.
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