Actual thoughts on college advice to consider...
First of all, WSO mods, Don't you fucking dare move this to Business School and GMAT forums like you've been doing to other similar posts because its for undergrad institutions.
Anyways, for my background, I went to a traditional "target" HYPSW school. However, I just wanted to make this to give some advice based on my own perceptions on high-schoolers making decisions on what colleges to attend. In essence, after my thinking, there are 3 things that matter when applying to colleges for high finance. Career Placement, Business School Prestige, and Alumni Network.
Traditionally, WSO just goes off of simple "undergraduate prestige" to suggest colleges. HYPSW. Then other Ivies. Continuing on. I think "Prestige" is an easy way to lump all three of the above together in a simple format. I'm not saying any of the previous college suggestions on this website are wrong. On the contrary, I'm trying to give a better explanation of why they are correct. Therefore, I think the three things above are most important when trying to make an educated decision of what colleges to apply to or attend.
Career Placement: So this is basically straight-out-of-college job placement. It can be affected by your alumni network, but it really is more than that. In essence, it is how firms with entry-level positions see your University for recruiting. I saw the following list the other day. The methodology may be flawed. Remember, firms are not trying to recruit the absolute best of bankers. Rather, they are trying to recruit many good bankers quickly and easily. That's why you cannot use "Career Placement" or this list alone to make a decision on what college you want to attend.
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/files/inline-images/TargetSchools_0.png
Business School Prestige: So what do I mean by this? I mean how business schools admissions officers view your undergraduate institution. This is probably the time when your undergraduate institution will matter most after your first job. To see this, look at top feeder colleges to top B-Schools. I'll post the list for HBS last year below. However, what I want you guys to take note here is that it differs from career placement significantly. NYU, UMich, and to a lesser extent, Berkeley and UT Austin are right at the top in career placement. However, none of them sent more than 10 to HBS. Duke, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Cornell, Georgetown, and Columbia all sent more.
An argument can be made that this situation occurs because B-Schools take more than bankers. They take people from all industries, and top private schools might have better students in other areas of academics while business-focused students might be roughly at the same level. Yes, this may be true. However, banking and finance is vastly overrepresented in B-school. Furthermore, tech is the other huge feeder to B-school and UMich, Berkeley, and UT Austin are extremely well-regarded in Engineering, arguably even more than the ivies. Not to mention most state schools are several times the size of private undergrad institutions.
https://poetsandquants.com/2019/11/21/feeder-colleges-companies-to-harvard-business-school/
Alumni Network: I think this matters most for your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and tenth jobs. Alumni can be extremely helpful and passionate in landing jobs. Realistically, any private school you're looking at (most top private schools) have extremely strong and passionate alumni networks due to their size. So, I wouldn't necessarily choose Dartmouth or Notre Dame over any other school because of their crazy alumni network alone. however, this is just another reason to consider small private schools over large state schools. Odds are, the alumni will be much more receptive and much more willing to help you out. One of the funniest things I've read on this forum was someone arguing about UMich vs. Notre Dame. Guy was like, "choose ND, Alumni network's way more tight. UMich guys don't stay close unless they were in the same frat." And to some level that's true.
