$200,000 in College Debt
I got into Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business as a transfer for my sophomore year. However, the cost of this would total $266,000 for 3 years, no scholarship. I would probably have $200,000 of debt out of college if I went to Georgetown, but I currently have a full ride to my current institution. My goal is to go straight to PE from undergrad, so ideally BX or KKR, but I would also be very happy with Bain Capital, Vista, or Silverlake. I am very confident that I can place at a top firm in IB from my current school but I am not sure about my placement into PE. Essentially my decision comes down to this large amount of debt that I would undertake. There is no certainty even at Georgetown that I would place into PE from undergrad, so I don’t want to spend a quarter of a million to end up in a similar shop as my current school.
Would like to hear what people on this forum have to say about this.
If your main measure of success is placing into one of those 6 shops then don’t do it. The chance of a top performer at from any school landing at one of those spots is slim.
If you want to go to a better school with more reach and take advantage of the network of students at Georgetown then go for it. I think work experience is becoming more important than the school you go to as time goes on. Especially post-covid as firms recruit earlier and earlier.
I think either way is fine. Don’t know your financial situation but 266k is a lot to pay back post grad, but very manageable for someone in in/pe. At the same time if you work in pe for the next decade you won’t blink at having taken on 200k of debt at 20.
Above comment is right on. The number of kids that place into those 5 PE shops out of undergrad is a rounding error, and the vast majority are from top targets or diversity. Some of those top firms have sophomore interns through top target OCR who are told to go elsewhere junior summer and then come back FT, so you are competing for an incredibly small, or even close to zero, number of spots between existing soph interns, target school OCR, and diversity getting just about every seat. Georgetown is a great school but you will not have the same recruiting reach as Harvard or Wharton etc which is where these top firms focus.
$200k of debt is insane and will likely follow you until you're 35 - even working in PE, it's a lot of money to pay back and you can do really well from a non-target these days. I would stay where you are. Your odds for those seats would maybe go from 0.000000000003% to 0.0000008%... if you are on the IB path already just let it ride.
You’re not thinking this through very well.
1) Go to LinkedIn and search Blackstone/KKR etc. Analyst and Georgetown. Very few names are going to pop up. And double check those names that pop up because the vast majority of Blackstone Analysts are not in PE. So you’re looking at spending $200K for something that is extremely unlikely, especially if you’re not well-connected or diversity.
2) If you’re confident you can get into a top bank, which is the top feeder to the majority of PE jobs, why spend $200K to go straight into PE? You’re not making any more money as a PE Analyst and your odds of breaking in are higher from IB than undergrad and you have way more firms to choose from. Even if you were to land the BX analyst role, that’s not any better than going in as an Associate and you’d have $200K in your pocket
3) You have a weak understanding of the landscape PE if you’re targeting BX, KKR, Bain, Vista and Silverlake. These funds have little in common besides being prestigious
So my takeaway is if you’re willing to live in any city for any “prestigious” PE job, you should be willing to tough it out at a top IB group for 2 years given how similar the work is. However, if you think it’d be worth $200K to up your chances of landing BX/KKR/Bain/Silverlake/Vista, it makes me worry that you have a weak understanding of how likely you actually are to land a top IB job out of college. But if you’re 100% sure that you will, then obviously stay put and don’t waste money to make literally no more incremental money.
I appreciate the insight. Your perspective makes sense. The firms I chose were based on my understanding of the strength of their analyst programs. From LinkedIn and through conversations with PE interns, I gathered that these shops actually take more than a couple interns from schools other than HYP. I could be wrong, but a lot of other UMM or MF just do not take undergraduates. I also am interested in tech investing, so Vista, Bain, and Silver lake would be great shops for that while Bx and KKR provide me with the optionality to break into the tech investing space.
You're right in that most PE firms don't take summer interns - that's the point against spending $200K to break into PE straight out of undergrad when from a top bank/group, you will be able to interview at all the firms. And that $200K again will likely not get you there (it's not only HW kids, but do your research on how many a year from Georgetown got true PE Analysts seats at these funds last year). The only prize for going undergrad -> buyside is skipping oncycle, which isn't worth 200K. But again, this only makes sense if you are 100% certain you can get a top banking seats - if not, Georgetown may be a huge advantage.
Also, if you want to do tech, why BX/KKR over Silverlake? Do you want to exclusively do B2B SaaS and if not, why chase Vista now? Why Bain (they make you do rotations in dif groups or at least used to)?
If you’re confident you can land a job in IB / PE (regardless if it’s one of the top firms), I would transfer. As someone that’s had this opportunity and passed up on it, I regret it. It ultimately worked out fine for me as I landed top IB and PE jobs from a non-target, but I regret the lack of long term network in the industry. The $200K tuition doesn’t really matter if you go into IB / PE / HF.
the only people that go to traditional buyout PE from georgetown are in global platinum securities
Agree with the general sentiment in the thread. Wanted to add that I made the same transition and am happy to chat if you have any specific questions about the program at Gtown.
You have 0.001% chance to even get an interview at the funds you mentioned coming out of Georgetown U. Not a great bet.
Stick with what you have.. you have a good pipeline of VC internship and MM IB internship. Use those as a ladder to get a top BB or EB offer at a bank or UMM PE shop for FT (if possible)..
FTLOG don't go $200K in debt for undergrad ESPECIALLY when you've got a full ride where you currently are.
Aliquid sed et natus cupiditate sunt molestiae. Veniam placeat et dolorem atque culpa ab.
Aut ut eligendi voluptas et. Omnis dolor est quo fugit sint doloribus earum consequatur.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...