ACTUAL Target School Tier List 2024

Since college application season is coming around, I figured I'd make a list to help out those who are dead set on recruiting for IB/finance and want to cater their application list towards it. 

This is ranked based on everything I've gathered from multiple websites and opinion on the street. It has everything in the mix from # of hires, per capita hires, and overall prestige. Some schools don't send as many kids in numbers, but if you attend and want a job, you most likely will get a pretty good one. Some school's kids focus on consulting or tech or something else, so they don't send very many numbers. Take this all with a few grains of salt as there is no perfect school. 

YOU CAN GO TO ANY SCHOOL AND GET A GOOD JOB. PICK A SCHOOL BASED ON YOUR GOALS AND PERSONALITY/ FIT. 

Tier 1 (Best of the Best)

Harvard / Yale / Princeton / Stanford / MIT - HYPSM
UPenn Wharton 

Huge networks, lots of on campus recruiting. First rounds from basically every bank with a bit of networking. Prepare well and it's your offer to lose. If you get into one of these, it is almost a guaranteed decision to go, unless it's a matter of money. Then of course you look elsewhere. But IMO, not bad to graduate with some debt and an amazing job. 

Tier 1.5 (High Targets)

UChicago / Duke - Equivalent to some ivies. Very good networks and are constantly improving. Both are very very different culture wise from each other, but place very well. 

UPenn / Dartmouth / Columbia / Cornell Dyson - Also Ivies. Non-Wharton UPenn is easily still a target school. Can't go wrong with any of these schools ever, just a culture fit. 

Of course these are all insanely competitive, I would recommend applying to multiple/all if you're competitive enough. 
 

Tier 2 (Target)
UMich Ross / NYU Stern / UVA McIntire - All send huge numbers of kids to banks, insane competition as well. UMich is great college experience, if not the best. NYU is most unique in terms of experience. UVA is greek life heavy, kind of a southern school appeal. Can argue for either of the 3 and you won't be wrong. 
Cornell / Brown -  Non-Dyson Cornell is still a target school. Brown as well, just not as many kids there want to be bankers. Cornell is a bigger school while Brown is a smaller/more unique environment. 
 

Again, all very competitive. The first 3 listed are easier to get into, but not by much. They are good ED II options or even ED I (especially Cornell). 

Tier 2.5 (Target as well, just a teeny tiny bit below tier 2). A distinction had to be made somewhere. 

Georgetown McDonough/ UCB Haas - Similar to Ross and Stern. Bigger populations with stiff competition. But send a lot of people to banks. Both amazing school environments with UCB being a huge state school experience
Notre Dame Mendoza - Great recruiting, more regional, but also country-wide. Great school culture and balance between work and play. 
Northwestern - Similar to UChicago, sends less numbers though. Definitely a lot of motivated + unique people. 
Amherst/ Williams - Great LACs if that is your cup of tea. Don't have much to say on these except that not everyone fits into a small liberal arts college. If you thrive in small environment, don't be afraid to check these out

These are more unique schools. Not everyone just has them on their lists. Competitiveness is still same as tier above. Aside from Gtown and UCB, investment banking isn't a hugely preferred career path at any of them. 

Tier 3 (Semi-Target). These are all pretty equal. What changes is population size and finance hardo culture. Some could be argued in the category above, but a lot of these place more regionally. Also some of their huge populations bring down their investment banker per capita down. 

Vanderbilt/ WashU Olin/ USC Marshall - Have great presence regionally (ex. USC recruiting for west coast banks) but also fare well across the board. Good private schools with good cultures. Pretty competitive though. 

UNC KF/ UT Austin McCombs/ UCLA - Good public schools with good recruiting. A step below the UVA/ UCB/ UMich though for recruiting. Again amazing amazing cultures. 

Emory Goizueta - Good school. Definitely smaller and it's not a great fit for every kid so keep that in mind. 
JHU - Fewer want to be bankers but it is very possible
Rice - Often goes overlooked but great placement to Houston banks
Indiana Kelley - Feeds well into Chicago offices. Amazing school culture. Due to huge school population, they send a decent amount of kids to banking. 
BC - Small-mid sized population. Nice culture but more unique I believe. Don't have much input on this.  
 

Let me know if I missed anything. I'm not looking down on any school or anything like that. It is just an objective ranking. You can get an IB offer at any one of these schools. Of course some make it easier and are more prestigious. But you can and will have an amazing college experience at any one of them. If you didn't get into the college you wanted, it is not at the end of the world. Trust me, I didn't expect my journey at all either. You can accomplish anything if you are smart and motivated. It might take more work, but it's not impossible. Work hard, join clubs, and see if your goals are possible. If not, you can always transfer or even stay then MBA later then go into IB.