Or does pedigree not matter as much by that point? I've heard UCL overall is a target for high finance, but I am not sure how it is for PE exits specifically vs. IB placements
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For IB specifically UCL isn’t the worst. They have solid pipelines at top BB’s, and place in the top 5 of UK every year. If you put in the work, the school will certainly not be a hindrance, and you do have a decent shot at any offer you choose.
That being said, your undergrad is really only important fot landing your first gig. If you’re planning on doing the standard; IB —> PE path, then the PE guys will scarcely be looking at your undergrad, and more at your experience and work in IB. And once again UCL will not make your life any worse here.
Another thing worth thinking about is if you’re trying to go straight into PE. It is possible, and UCL has a very decent alumni network to try and shoot some coffee chats.
In conclusion — think about it that way: UCL,in terms of quality, is about 70-80% of Oxbridge/LSE, but the name recognition is very decent and is still considered a target school. Whatever you’re trying to do — you will have to put an extra 20-30% of work compared to the super-target guys, but the name UCL will certainly not close any doors for you, which is something you can’t say about: City, Queen’s Mary, King’s etc.
What about Durham, bath, bristol , edi etc?
Depends on what exactly you’re asking me. You can check out some tier lists on the internet, and they are accurate for the most part. If you’re choosing between the uni’s you named, then i’d definitely go for Edinburgh. But i’ll lay it out for you here.
1. Durham — posh school for kids that didnt get to oxbridge. Very decent law and medicine, finance / econ is extremely mid. The only value i’d see here is that you’re hanging around rich kids, which gives obvious networking opportunities, but getting a BB/EB offer is a steep climb.
2. Bristol — Just an extremely average school. I believe they have slightly better pipelines that Durham. You’re gonna hear people say that it’s a school that excels academically for kids with burgeoning drive for knowledge, but really it’s bullshit. Unless you’re doing med school, Bristol is def not your top choice. But it’s def not the worst either. With enough work you’ll still land some offers.
3 Edinburgh — Interesting case here. It’s technically not that insane academically (though better than the other two you named here), but it’s got very good IB placements. Edinburgh as a city is a bit of a scottish London, and poses as a mini finance hub up north for whatever reason. You’ll see JPM, MS, Citi, UBS with pretty big offices there. This gives Edinburgh an obvious hand, and they tend to send an unproportional number of kids to those places. So if you’re looking for BB exp then that’s def your top choice outside of the supertargets.
Thanks!
Will going to any of these uni’s close the doors for PE? I managed to land a spot at an EB but want to switch.
Will doing a masters from LBS/LSE make up for it?
I don’t think it will. I did a very funny path to PE, and landed with some boutique buy&build wise guys, so i don’t exactly know how the recruitment process in the well structured funds works, but what I have heard from colleagues is — your uni hardly matters once you land your first gig. So I doubt you need to make up for anything. But def triangulate my words.
What would you say are the top banks to recruit from?
The thinking is bringing the cart before the horse imo. It’s not like the US where PE firms are super focused on a narrow set of undergrad unis and judging based on SAT scores because they hire way too early in analyst stints where analyst barely have half a deal rep and just came out of training. In London they start hiring after ~2 years into your analyst program so the action investment bank plus deal reps plus performance ranking plus investor mindset matter much more.
You should focus on getting into the best IB program first and foremost as that’s the bigger determinant and UCL is a target uni to recruit from, although probably the both below Oxbridge and LSE. By no means hampering you. Even if you don’t succeed out of UCL you can always do a masters and re-recruit.
If you said you went to a bottom of the Russell Group uni that would be a different story.
Think about workload requirements - I think this makes a bigger difference than people think. Oxbridge might have a slight edge in terms of “prestige”, but coming from an Oxbridge student the workload is tough here and gives you much less time to send off applications.
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