What if you are not at a target school?

IU is a target. Most of the banks recruit there, at least for their Chicago offices. However, if you're not in the investment banking workshop, you're fucked.

If they don't come to you, then you will have to go to them. Indiana may not be a target for NY, but like drexelalum said, check out the Chicago offices. Network, network, network. Get involved in the finance clubs. Is there an investment banking club? If not, start one. Reach out to alumni. Target your networking, and be realistic; if you cold call / cold email, you'll have much more success reaching out to MMs and boutiques. Land an internship with one of them and continue your networking.

I know a Kelley grad who was a summer analyst at a second tier BB IBD, but that was for a regional office. He had a solid GPA and was heavily involved in the investment banking recruitment program they have there.

Banks do go there.

agree with olafenizer. be proactive - go out there and call people. in my experience, banks like to see that kind of drive in their applicants. who knows - you might end up setting yourself apart from some target school applicants who expect their meals to be served to them.

Just because you're not at a target does not mean you can't go into IB. You will need to really get the GPA up and focus on making sure you can gather as much experience as possible. You need to convince the banks that you're as good, if not better than the Ivy kids.

aem2011I know target schools for bulge bracket banks are the ivys, but what about a school like the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University? It has a highly ranked undergraduate finance program, but none of the big investment banks seem to go there to recruit. Do you have a shot coming out of a school like that as an undergraduate looking to get an analyst position at a large investment bank? How do you get an interview?

For SA positions this summer at big banks, IU placed 8 at BAML, 1 at Citi, 2 at DB, 4 at Goldman, 7 at JPM, 1 at Lazard, 2 at MS, 1 at Nomura, 1 at HSBC, and 5 at UBS.

For all banks, IU placed 38 IBD internships, 7 PWM, 5 research, and 5 S&T.

And actually, NY was a more popular destination than Chicago. 23 SAs went to NY, 18 to Chicago.

I thought they had a pretty decent IB program there. As one person said, you'd better get in that program or you'll have no chance. The program looked to be pretty competitive when I read about it. Many schools don't have something that serious so you're lucky.

While the workshop boasted a 100% internship placement (not sure about FT), I think ~4 kids who weren't in the program got an internship in IBD this summer. But 4/1375 is about a 0.3% chance.