Stanford undergrad for PE?
Hello, I am a student who was recently accepted to Stanford and I was wondering what placement is like for private equity. Is the school generally pretty easy to break into a firm like silverlake or is it more like trying to break into IB from a non target. Also, is there any comprehensive steps I should take to have a better chance at breaking in? Thanks all
It’s not easy anywhere to break into a firm like Silverlake. You’re still going to have to grind for it, and it’s much harder than landing an IB gig. However, Stanford is generally one of the best places you can be so you shouldn’t be sweating about if it’s good enough!
Silver Lake stopped their analyst program anyway.
Since when??
Since they didn’t return any of the summer analysts. Apparently the incoming analyst class is their last one.
if you generally try really hard you probably have a good shot at MMPE analyst programs. most stanford grads who end up at MFPE analyst programs are extremely well connected via family.
as for IB, if you want to place at a top shop, you really really have to start grinding starting freshman winter/spring. it’s going to be extremely hard getting interviews as a lot of mid-BB’s don’t want to interview stanford students (Barclays/Citi/“CS”) and ironically you probably only have a true shot at BofA / PWP / CVP (SF/PA) / some EVR if you’re nondiversity.
Keep in mind that yeah if you’re diversity you can quite literally land anything you want (something on the level of silver lake) if you have just some will
Jesus so many things wrong with this answer. Don't listen to rising sophomores. Stanford is a great place to be, you are still going to put some work into preparation and some networking but you will get a lot of looks everywhere including MF PE. You don't need to be diversity or be well connected, that prospect commenting is just a loser.
lol okay go ahead and do a quick linkedin search of stanford alum who went to MFPE. And then tell me how many of them did not go to a big name private high school. it’s just not realistic for someone with a normal upbringing to achieve those programs
Lol, what? I went to Stanford. It’s true that there isn’t much finance culture, but pretty much any top place will take you seriously. People go to GS, MS, PE all the time without nepotism. MBB is also extremely common and another route into PE
What OP said about diversity is absolutely 100% true though. Do a quick LinkedIn search on who’s at places like GS and MS. The diversity funnel is very strong, so if you fall in the category you will be fine as long as you can interview. Non-diverse have a harder time landing interviews
Bro if you’re at stanford and can’t break in cause you’re not diversity its a you problem.
Sure, things are way easier with diversity. But it doesn’t mean that Stanford kids have it any harder than any other top school… if you couldn’t get the job you want from Stanford, the problem is likely you — not the school
PE is generally very difficult to land no matter what - there are so few spots at those top firms and a lot of them are set aside for diversity. I would not be set on it, keep your options open with IB as well.
That said, Stanford is not the issue, the very limited spots are. You will have every opportunity in the world to land those roles from Stanford.
As for comprehensive steps, try to have at least a freshman summer internship as many of these PE firms hire interns for sophomore summer with the expectation they do banking junior year and then come back FT; others just hire for junior summer and then return their class for FT, which is becoming more common. So it really starts quite early - be prepared and getting work experience right off the bat.
Feel free to DM — couple of thoughts:
Unlike many target schools, finance recruiting culture does not exist at Stanford. You don’t know when the process starts or when applications drop because, unlike most target schools, there is no large, visible mass of students recruiting. You are often left feeling in the dark and, and there’s fewer students a couple years older that you can lean on for advice as an underclassman simply because fewer students are interested in/pursued finance. For a lot of my friends who recruited from target schools, the expectations around recruiting felt a lot clearer than they did for me.
This also affected things from a networking perspective—it often feels as though there maybe fewer alumni at certain UMM firms you can reach out to. That said, still are a non-trivial mass of stanford alums (practically) everywhere.
Yes, it might be arguably more difficult to recruit from Stanford because of 1, but name gets you far. Your recruiting experience will be infinitely easier than 99% of applicants, but remember that these firms only take the top 0.0001% of the applicant pool. You will have to be a little more proactive about the recruiting process than most people at target schools, but it can pay off.
To;dr: Rarely (if ever) will you won’t get an offer because of your school, but you will have to be more pro-active about your recruiting process.
Not to detract anything from your post because I agree but 0.0001% sounds a bit extreme haha, maybe like 1% of applicants
Current Stanford student. While it’s true that there’s not as big of a finance culture at Stanford compared to other top targets, Stanford still places extremely well. Most of the finance recruiting culture goes through the main student finance club (called Stanford Finance), and between this year and last year there have been multiple top PE placements including BX, KKR, Vista, etc. There are also routinely great placements for IB as well including GS TMT, MS Menlo, CVP, EVR, etc. And people outside of the club also get these kinds of placements, albeit a bit less frequently.
That said, it is mostly on you to prepare for recruiting, learning technicals, networking, etc. - but probably the same as any other school.
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