MF/UMM chances from nontarget

With how much on cycle is pushed up each year it seems like target status is mattering more and more. I am from a nontarget flagship state school and interning with a top group at (gs tmt/ evr m&a). I am looking at mf/umm funds in preparation for on cycle but Idk if I have a chance over ivy kids. 1550+ sat, non diversity if that matters for on cycle.

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Non-target + Mid-tier BB (bottom tier group) + Average-to-Mediocre SAT and made it to a MF.

Got pretty far with a couple MF during on-cycle, but didn’t make the cut. Ended up getting my current role off cycle.

If you network, interview prep, and have decent interpersonal skills you’ll be fine coming from a top-tier bank/group with scores like that.

 
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You get off-cycle interviews the same as on cycle, a recruiter sends an email titled "City Mega Fund Opportunity 20XX" and you indicate interest. If you pass the recruiter/fund resume screen, then they reach out and invite you to interview. That's where the process starts to differ. Off-cyle is substantially more drawn out, so subsequent rounds could be multiple days (and even weeks) apart. 

The majority of seats are filled during on-cycle, but not all of them. Some seats are set aside intentionally for off-cycle, some come about from increased deal flow, and others crop up from people who reneged. On-cycle was ridiculously early pre-COVID (think September/October of your first year), so most first-years were still ramping on to their first live deals. It's hard to assess the quality of analysts after only a couple of months on the desk so some funds opted to set aside extra seats for off-cycle when they could better assess the candidate quality.

 

Should not have a problem as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into and put in the work. Most non-target friendly can definitely be found with research. If you made it to top bb, you can definitely grind out pe, just a matter of grit/understanding buy-side recruitment from undergrad/and a little bit of luck. Pm if you have any specific q’s

 

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