What happened to UCL?

Hardly seeing any IB FO Placements from UCL in the past few years. What has happened to the quality of candidates/HR perception of the uni? Seems to have fallen far behind Imperial, Warwick and even Durham for placements.

11 Comments
 

Seems to be doing fine? UCL's a big school, not everyone that gets in there is gonna be competitive for FO positions given the entry requirement ranges but definitely see a lot of UCL kids on summers

edit: Just had a quick look at your post history and don't think you've recruited for anything yet as not in uni so I'm assuming you're looking via LinkedIn search? Not always the best tool to gauge what's happening in the last 1-2 years, you get a better perception by being "tapped in" when you're actively recruiting and see who's getting offers in groupchats etc.

 

Yeah, using Linkedin search makes me concerned about UCL for placements as hardly anyone is getting springs at BBs or even MMs.

 
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Bro I remember I used to religiously care about this sort of thing. I constantly got worried after checking linkedin placement numbers for my semi. Then I grinded recruitment and landed 6 springs. I firmly believe the stronger causation with different placement numbers is how motivated people are applying and not specifics of the uni. Like there was 2-3x as many people from LSE vs oxbridge on one EB spring I did. Does that mean HR prefers LSE? No, there's just way more people tapped in and applying come start of uni. Contrast that with my semi where there's very little finance culture. As long as you have a good enough uni you can recruit. All they are used for is passing screening anyway.

 

We must be living in 2 different worlds. There are lots of UCL candidates filling up many spaces on EB's and top BB's FT, SW, and SA roles every year. Funny enough UCL graduates place exceptionally well. UCL is a huge school and most people there do not care about IB in comparison with schools like LSE where everyone mostly cares about IB, so therefore you are obviously going to have less people applying. Anyone who want to pursue IB at UCL and has a strong CV/experiences/motivation like every other candidate, will place extremely well. 

 

Not really true, it varies year to year at my MM firm UCL was the most represented firm of the year in M&A alongside Warwick for my year but no one from UCL the next year

 

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