2018 MBA Summer Associate Superday Results: BAML (M&A) vs. Lazard (Generalist M&A) vs. Credit Suisse (Retail/Consumer)

If this is NYC, Lazard is putting you into a group (or two groups with a major/minor), it's not going to be generalist M&A (unless they changed this after years of doing it differently). You need to figure that out because Lazard TMT is a mess ATM and still hasn't recovered from losing that whole team to PWP, whereas CR or Industrials are doing extremely well.

That said, Lazard is obviously the best bank of the three overall. But you need to consider how you liked the people at all three, do you want to do M&A only vs. Coverage vs. doing M&A with a coverage aspect (best of the 3, IMO), what are your long term goals, etc. Lazard can have a hit or miss culture, whereas BAML M&A is very bro-ey (i'm unsure about CS CR). Lazard also will likely be better pay than the other two (BAML M&A might come close, as Lazard pays closer to BB than EB pay). You'll be doing much more process oriented work at BAM:L M&A than you will be doing at the other two, so how much ambiguity do you like in your work? What is it you want to do after banking, or do you want to be a long term banker (coverage groups will give you more access too clients and more corporate opportunities)?

These are all questions you need to ask yourself and start answering. It's easy for us to say "Lazard", because it's the best bank of the 3, but you have to start getting a little deeper than that IMO.