2024 TARGET SCHOOL RANKINGS - OFFICIAL
This list is adjusted for per capita placements, buyside potential, and difficulty to break in.
Tier S++
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Wharton
Tier S+
MIT, UPenn, Columbia, Dartmouth
Tier S
Brown, Cornell, Duke, UChicago, Northwestern, Williams
Tier A
NYU Stern, Georgetown, Michigan, UVa, Amherst
Tier B
Notre Dame, Berkeley, WashU, Emory, UT, USC
Tier C
UNC, IU, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Boston College
Stern kids are useless
I actively seek out Stern inters/first year analysts for my staffings because I’ve found they’re typically very solid and I haven’t had a bad experience with any Stern grads yet. So while I can’t comment on placement statistics, the ones placed at my bank are equal to or better analysts than some of the higher “ranked” schools on this list
Same experience here. Only good things. Very hard workers
Why am I getting MS? Literally just my opinion lol. I did not attend
Stern should be in at least S tier. This cycle they sent 4 kids to PJT Rx and a dozens to top BBs and EBs. I don't even go there, but they definitely get too much shade here
Per capita placement is taken into account. Tons of Stern kids end up at horrible banks and strike out, but you only hear about the successful ones (most of which are ultra hardos). I would recommend the vast majority of these schools over Stern for a high schooler wanting to pursue IB.
Stern has 700 kids per class. In comparison, Wharton has like 625. I know tons of people at Wharton who strike out, and the majority of people there try recruiting IB, so I don't think that's necessarily unique.
I think if you know you want to pursue IB, then Stern is better than places like Brown and Cornell. The top clubs at Stern place consistently very well, and if you know you want to do IB and you can join those clubs, I think it's a much more conducive place for landing a top offer
Stern is full of backstabbing hardos
I hear this a lot but what does this even mean? Your Stern peers aren’t in a position to back stab you because recruiting isn’t a fucking group project lmao.
Definitely not. There are some diamonds but a vast majority of the kids are not what we want.
That’s a fair take. There are a shit ton of Stern kids at GS healthcare.
From what I have seen, Georgetown and Michigan, especially Ross, place well, and both are strong enough to be in the S tier. I’m not saying that they’re on the same level as Duke or UChicago, but at most, maybe about Cornell/slightly below it. Grouping them with UVA and Stern is a little low in my opinion.
Duke and Uchicago to S+, place equal rly show schools and considerably stronger than S.
I also argue that any undergrad b school is worse than an ivy/T-10. The amount of stern/Wharton kids I know who strike out is high.
Wharton, Cornell Dyson, and UMich Ross, from what I have seen, place extremely well, as do their respective universities, making them worth attending overall. Totally agree with you once you reach the NYU Stern, UT-Austin McCombs level, and don’t get me started on IU Kelley.
IUK placement is crazy. I had so many superdays ranging from MO to IB and there were at least 1-2 IUK kids at all of them. My internship and FT program each had/have 2 IU kids there. From the ones I met they always strike a strong balance between having the works of a good workshop program with the hunger to prove themselves that non-target kids get when they have a shot.
I didn't even go to IUK but I don't know why people struggle to accept the fact that a BIG10 school that isn't Ross can actually do well in a very short period of time.
del
Duke sure. But if you move uChicago up, you gotta move Cornell (maybe even Brown) up too, which defeats the purpose.
nah dog, if this considers buyside uchicago clears those schools. probably has the most balanced placement across all areas of finance (quant, buyside, ib). Duke has insane IB numbers, but more uchicago kids to buyside/investing roles. I'd make an argument for dartmouth over these schools too.
MIT to S++, without a doubt. Not a lot of people there select for finance, but the ones that do almost always secure incredibly impressive jobs out of undergrad. If that’s the basis we’re using in this conversation, MIT is absolutely above Yale and Stanford.
Ngl, if we are including quantatitive finance in this list, MIT is S++++++++++++++++.
Thoughts on the MFin at MIT?
bump
Northwestern is too high, probably more tier A
How is Georgetown A? Should be S considering 1) basically everyone who wants to do IB gets IB 2) clubs/orgs can help you get that BB/EB (GUSIF placed 5+ into GS for example, GPS/Investment Office has pipeline to PJTRX) but is not needed 3) chill vibes in a great city
amherst has similar numbers but larger per capita. gtown still should be higher imo
What about Bowdoin and other NESCAC?
The funniest thing about these posts is that it’s always students waffling about their own school even though they don’t know anything about recruitment outside of their school.
I’ve literally never met people from some of the schools people rant and rave about on WSO.
lmao true, since I've seen choose Dartmouth over Upenn Huntsman, I can resonate this
Brown S tier when Stern only A tier is wild lol
Such a low caliber talent exercise
WashU does not belong up there, switch it with Vanderbilt. UT should go 1 down as well. I would change it to this..
Tier S++
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Upenn
Tier S+
MIT, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, UChicago
Tier S
Brown, Cornell, Williams, Georgetown
Tier A
NYU, Michigan, UVa, Amherst, Northwestern
Tier B
Notre Dame, Berkeley, Emory, USC, Vanderbilt
Tier C
UNC, IU, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, Boston College, WashU, UT
Washu per capital is up there, Emory grad.
Hi guys help me deciding between WashU and unc for bsba. I am international student and please suggest what second major should I take to become STEM designate. I am looking for a carrier in IB and where can I have the opportunity for maximum internship
Further should I stick to one of these or try for transfer at target school
Hi guys help me deciding between WashU and unc for bsba. I am international student and please suggest what second major should I take to become STEM designate. I am looking for a carrier in IB and where can I have the opportunity for maximum internship
Further should I stick to one of these are try for transfer at target school
I would bump Northwestern and Michigan, especially Ross up. No MS, or “congrats on Michigan,” nonsense, just stating my placement observations. I think that both are objectively more prestigious/better schools than UVA, Amherst, and NYU.
Michigan more prestigious than Amherst??? I don’t even know how to respond to that. Utter hogwash
Congrats on Williams
From personal experience, easier to recruit out of here than any of the S schools.
There was a list last year that was pretty good too:
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forum/school/investment-banking-target-…
Tbh the following is the real rank of target schools: weight (prestige 0.4, volume 0.3, per capita 0.3)
S++: (Super Super Target)
Harvard, Wharton (Basically excellent in all three criteria)
S+: (Super Target)
Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Columbia (The first four are weaker in terms of volume than S++ schools, Columbia has S++ volume and per-capita but weak in prestige than HYPSM+W)
S: (Target)
Non-Wharton Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, UChicago, Duke (eg, all of which have less prestige than the ones above, but either strong in volume or per capita)
Tier A:
Georgetown, Northwestern, Stern, Michigan, UVA, Northwestern (Less prestige than tier S and thus weaker in per-capita, volume is up there)
- Rest
I would bump Georgetown, Northwestern, and Michigan up a tier. While they definitely aren’t as strong as Penn, UChicago, and Duke, from where I’m from, they were always perceived at about Cornell level, maybe slightly lower. All three do place well, and on the whole, I think they are better schools than NYU and UVA. The rest of this list is solid.
NU equal prestige wise than S tier school, but weak in both volume and per capita than most tier S school. ggt similar volume and per capita than Tier S, but weak in prestige due to its admissions. E.g. rich legacy kids from Deerfield or any prep schools basically >70% accept to ggt, they are not as intellectually competitive than those go to Tier S schools. Hence, weaker prestige. For UMich, strong with EB boutique placement, but for top 3 BB banks, placement and presence are weaker than Tier S schools, prestige is weaker too.
Generally agree with your edits, except I do think Dartmouth is an S+ target, and, from my perspective, is a better target than Yale/MIT (hot take?)
I agree. Dartmouth is indeed impressive. However, it lacks prestige than the ones in S+ and much less volume than Columbia. per capita perhaps on par
Georgetown should be S. If its per-capital/volume, Georgetown is a T3/5 school. Literally a sell-side machine where kids are sweats to get IB. Prestige is less, which I agree on (but would say similar to Cornell).
Real ones know but Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford and Columbia absolutely do not place lights-out in your typical IB jobs post-undergrad, especially in NY, mostly because no one wants to do IB anymore and the pipeline has weakened due to a lack of volume over the last few years. I’d feel comfortable putting S+ and S together.
I rarely see MIT and Stanford kids at my BB in NYC. Yale a bit more, and then Princeton and Columbia I see after that.
Yes. I agree. I gave prestige 0.4 in this ranking tho given everyone doing finance cares prestige so much. So Yale, Princeton, Stanford are in S+ cuz even they have similar prestige as H, W in finance, the presence isn't comparable
Curious if not IB then what do those kids do instead? Especially the Econ majors
knock down brown and cornell from tier S. I don't know anyone who takes those over upenn CAS/duke/dartmouth/uchicago. brown has insanely low alumni in finance and cornell has ass per-capita placement
You’re on something. Neither Brown nor Cornell has a particularly big finance focus. Brown students are more focused on consulting and medicine. Cornell is generally more known as a STEM school (strong CS and engineering relative to other top schools). Both place as well as the rest of the S tier and better than the A tier schools despite schools like Georgetown, NYU/Stern and UVA being mostly finance-focused schools with maybe one other decent major (politics for Georgetown/UVA).
Why is Williams is above Stern? Also, the only place that hires en masse from Dartmouth is Jefferies lol. If you want to include difficulty to break in, remember that Stern is in NYC and in person coffee chats go such a long way. Stern has consistent pipelines to JPM, Gugg, Barc, EVR, GHL, Citi and have had a good presence in RSSG. Stern kids get an undeserving rep of being backstabbing hardos but if your recruiting process gets fucked by someone else, you’re either ass at choosing who to trust or your gpa would have been fucked at any other school too. In fact, people here have acted selflessly and helped me way more than I could have imagined— even people I was interviewing with. MS me all you want but most of this hate is from people who haven’t gone to the school
Hey man,
Hope this message finds you well. I’m a freshman at NYU and am glad to find other loyal alumni on the site. I would like to discuss your wealth of experience (GHL/WF/SVB) over coffee sometime. I live in Gramercy Green but am happy to find a place more convenient for you. Go Bobcats!
Agree. People shit on Stern way too much here
gonna say, even I don't go to both schools NYU and Williams, I would take NYU stern everyday over Williams lmao.
Because everyone here gets an offer if they make a reasonable degree of effort. Meanwhile at stern you guys have got hundreds of hardos with 1550s and 3 internships striking out. Half the kids here are total freaks and the others aren’t recruiting for IB. It’s just a different game
sooo who's gonna make an EU list?
Pairing up IU with 2 T20s and calling them all C-tier institutions is wild 🤣
J curious, where do small schools like bentley or babson place on this list, a few go to BBs and EBs but they are tiny and it doesnt seem like anyone cares about them
Definitely solid schools for other fields of finance but frankly they’re non-targets for IB. They lack the prestige and specialization necessary for placement.
Ok I’m sorry but get WashU out of tier B. Doesn’t even belong in tier C imo
amherst should be w williams, they're about the same plus feeder for various grad schools like gsb and hbs
X Tier
MIT, CalTech
S Tier
Harvard, Princeton, Wharton
A Tier
UChicago, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Williams, Stern
B Tier
USC, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Flagship publics (UCLA, Berkeley, UI, UNC, UVA, etc)
C Tier
Basically everything at this point is a wash.
Notes
(1) As always, a math/physics major from any tier is going to be automatically taken more seriously than a history major from almost any school.
(2) Schools are basically a combination of perceived prestige, student networking opportunities, and alumni support.
Ex. Notre Dame is one of the best schools to recruit from because the alumni will go to bat for you.
Pretty much all the state flagships except like Michigan Ross and maybe UVA are worse than the privates you put in B tier except USC. What about Vanderbilt, Emory, WashU
People know public school kids earned their grades/place, it's a toss up with private schools and finance because so many kids in the industry are nepo babies. This really matters if you went to private highschool, less if public.
Why USC that strong?
Just based off what I've seen with ppl I know going through the process UChicago and Duke should be moved up a tier, Northwestern and Williams down one.
UChicago goes in S+. Equal or beats every school in that group except Penn (Wharton).
Context: led recruiting at top banking team (GS TMT / MS M&A) + MF PE
There’s really no shame in being in that S tier lol. This exercise is usually pointless because you can have a wildly successful career in finance from basically all of the schools that were listed.
I have a similar background and it’s entirely firm/group dependent. UChicago is obviously great but it’s basically the most finance-focused school in the top four tiers (aside from Wharton obviously) and doesn’t really stand out from a numbers perspective whereas you’ll have groups that are 60%+ Stern, Ross, Georgetown, etc. alum. Does that mean those schools should be moved up? Probably not.
UChicago also places a lot of people in Chicago, which is objectively a shittier city than NYC. The Ivies primarily place in NYC.
#doubt
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