PE straight out of undergrad

I just went through the SA 2025 recruiting process and landed a MF/UMM PE role so I’m providing perspective just based off my personal experience:

I went through 4 PE processes and 3 IB superdays before I could land an offer. Like someone mentioned in one of the other comments, I too had a high gpa and SAT score, target school, relevant experience, etc.

I think the key difference I noticed between my PE and IB processes was that PE firms generally laid a larger emphasis on “fit”. Obviously, you need a strong technical base and a good understanding of the role from a technical standpoint. That was tested, with varying levels of difficulty across firms. But regardless, each PE firm emphasized meeting a bunch of people on the team through the interview process (even the more senior people on the team like senior MDs, etc.), and they were a lot more interested in my personal background, pedigree, experiences growing up etc. rather than just asking me a bunch of pre-written “tell me about a time” questions. They also just generally cared more about the way I thought about certain things (finance or non finance related), how I formed and expressed opinions, etc.

IB, on the other hand, was a lot more cookie cutter. The technicals are largely similar across firms, the behavorial portions are also taken from the same question bank I’m assuming, with the “tell me about XYZ time” theme being consistent. The interviews felt a lot more “one-way”, and I didn’t really get to the know the people on the team the way I did through my PE processes. Also, don’t get me wrong, IB firms definitely care about fit, but imo, they care more about “does this kid fit the general banker mold”, as opposed to “is this kid a good match for our specific team and firm”. And the fact that I went through 3 IB superdays and didn’t get an offer from any of them likely shows that I’m just not a good fit for IB overall.

I’m sorry if this was unnecessarily long, but to answer your question: I think to make it into PE from undergrad, aside from resume, stats and technicals, focus on being an interesting person who can make conversation across a spectrum of personalities, have opinions, showcase your thought process, develop a niche that you can speak about for a long period of time (ideally this is something directly related to the team you’re applying to), and learn how to sell your background in a unique way.