B-School Placement from good funds - why do some analysts not make it to top b-schools?
I've been looking at the B-school placement of a few MM funds I've considering (e.g. Berkshire, New Mountain, Sycamore, etc). For the most part, they seem to have excellent placement, with most landing up in GSB or HBS. However, I notice that some end up in Wharton (Not dissing Wharton at all, don't get me wrong - but I'm sure most would have a preference for HBS or GSB). These guys don't seem to have anything wrong with them - they usually were at a top IB previously (e.g. MS), and went to good schools (eg Duke). Some of them also seem to have good undergrad records (e.g. summa/magna, phi beta kappa, etc)
Does anyone have any hypotheses on what might have went wrong? Why would the top b-schools not take these analysts?
There is a lot more to a business school application than where you worked before. And there are countless reasons - financial, personal, location, culture, post-MBA goals - why someone would choose Wharton over GSB/HBS.
Oh yes, I completely understand that someone may choose not to go to GSB/HBS. If that’s the case, I totally understand. But if they didn’t get in, I find it a little disheartening - I don’t see what else one could have done. These guys have great undergrads too, presumably good GPAs and GMATs, and would have put a good amount of effort into their application. What else could they possibly have done (or what else could one possibly do?)
It’s a huge assumption to make that attending Wharton means you did not get into GSB/HBS. And like I mentioned, there’s a lot more to getting into business school than just the data points you mentioned. Volunteer experience, strength of recommendations, performance in their interviews are just a few things that come to mind. Business schools seek to create diverse classes. That doesn’t just mean race and gender but differentiated backgrounds and experiences. It is a way more holistic process than undergraduate admissions.
There's a finite amount of spots that will be allocated to PE / finance professionals. AdComs are trying to build a diverse group of students in each class and that means that at some point MS / Upper MM PE stops being a differentiator when compared to other similar candidates.
AdComms will never admit they have "quotas" but realistically they have a target makeup of backgrounds for each class and it's isn't all finance.
Admissions to Harvard / Stanford are tough and they'll intentionally avoid hiring more than a handful of folks from any given fund. Couple that with associate classes getting larger and funds launching all sorts of new strategies (e.g. the megafund growth or infrastructure arms) and you've got a larger supply of elite PE talent competing for the same number of slots (maybe even fewer).
There's definitely an undercurrent of selection bias here as well. It's not that each fund has 6 associates apply to business school in a given year, 5 of whom get into H/S and one odd person out being forced to go to Wharton. Instead, it may go something like this for a class of 6 associates:
You're only seeing the 3 that got into H/S + the 1 at Wharton which would imply a 75% acceptance rate, but in reality it's closer to 50% at these firms (or possibly lower). B school placement has actually trended meaningfully downward over the past few years at the top funds (including MFs like KKR/TPG/Carlyle) and it's not unusual to see people even get rejected or waitlisted at Wharton. Most of these people will wait to reapply the next year, lateral to another fund, or accept admission to a school like Kellogg or Booth.
On a separate note, IMO H/S are further apart from Wharton than Wharton is from Kellogg and Booth. I don't know anyone that's turned down H/S for Wharton but I know plenty who have turned down Wharton for Booth or Kellogg, even without scholarship money. There's an element of Megafund OCR at Wharton that helps, but if you're running your own MM PE process, there isn't a meaningful difference between them, especially outside of NYC. At that point your actual experience matters a lot more.
Do you know the reasons for people turning down Wharton for Booth and Kellogg? Location, culture, etc? Is Sloan also interchangeable with Booth and Kellogg or is it seen as a tad below in finance?
Culture is the biggest factor I've seen. For whatever reason, I know a lot of people who were turned off by the vibe at Wharton. I'm sure it's overblown and there are great people at Wharton, but Booth and Kellogg seem to be a lot more intentional in shaping their cultures (which are both quite distinctive IMO). Sloan is just not as well represented in PE as the other three schools so I can't say anything about them with confidence.
This website is the most tone deaf website ever created. Do you really think that those who go to Wharton are just people who got dinged from HBS or GSB? You guys do not think of life in terms beyond work and school prestige. Maybe their gf/bf lives in XYZ city, maybe their parents. Maybe they like XYZ city, maybe they would like to work there after. Maybe they got a scholarship, maybe they liked the campus better, the list goes on.
Not every single human makes their decisions solely based on "exit opps."
I think all of the points you mention are valid. However, do you know anyone in PE that has turned down HBS or GSB for Wharton?
Yes, I do. I know multiple people that turned down GSB for Wharton. A lot for reasons mentioned above... wanted to stay on the East Coast.
As mentioned above, and you can see this in other chance me posts, but a lot of finance people don’t see themselves on the west coast and don’t even apply to stanford.
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