Do these schools recruit well with Wall Street?

Hi, I'm a senior and I'm looking to apply to the following schools: Reaches Barnard College Colgate University Boston College Lehigh University Lafayette College Carleton College University of Richmond Vassar College Smith College

Matches Union College College of the Holy Cross University of Indiana (Bloomington) Villanova University Dickinson College

I need help trimming down the list to 6 reaches 4 matches or 5 reaches and keep the 5 matches. I see myself at a liberal arts college and will major in economics and minor in biology or statistics, depending on the course interests. I know these schools aren't "business" focused, but many LACs are underrated for recruiting for Wall street. I'm a URM and fairly decent grades (would range from the 25-50% percentiles for stats of the reach schools) and 75%+ percentiles for stats for the matches. I read on another thread that Vassar and Carleton doen't do well because the students are "save the world" types, even though they are academically ranked higher than other schools. There were many mentions of NESCAC and Patriot league schools, so that accounts for Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette. But what about Barnard College and Smith College? I'm applying ED to Barnard and EDII to Colgate, but if Barnard isn't a good idea, I'm applying ED to Colgate! Also can anyone confirm the statements about Carleton and Vassar?

Thank you! PS I know Williams and Amherst are amazing but I don't have the stats.

26 Comments
 

Barnard does surprisingly well due to its nyc location, though you also need to take advantage of that (networking, internships, etc)

Purely from a recruiting perspective, if probably take Vassar and Smith off the reaches list. From the match column, I've only actually ever run into people from Indiana, though they also do surprisingly well.

Honestly, as a URM female, get good grades and you should be able to get front office finance interviews from more or less any of the "reach" list.

 

From my experience, the schools on your list ranked for recruiting:

  1. Barnard College (depending on how well you leverage the location/"columbia" connection)
  2. Indiana University (especially if you get into Banking Workshop, 99% placement in IB)
  3. Boston College
  4. Never heard of the rest

Since you see yourself as more liberal artsy and don't intend on business school, it's hard to rank schools as it is, but narrow down your list and look at the career services office to see which employers recruit actively on campus. For most of those schools, very few banks would do OCR so your chances would be based on alumni connection.

 

I'm pretty sure Ivey is considered a Canadian target and places decently well, especially on the West Coast.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 
Best Response

Obtaining a job on Wall Street is difficult no matter where you go. If you aren't connected you need to go to a target, and how you perform will be equally as important as how your school is viewed (a 3.5 at Harvard is still just a 3.5. A 4.0 from Nipissing is still only from Nipissing).

That being said, Ivey is one of if not the top target in Canada for Wall Street banks (for undergrad, I don't know anything about grad schools). I've not heard of anyone else in Canada getting the kind of placements my classmates and I did. These placements include GS New York, LA, SF and Toronto; GSIP New York and HK; JPM New York and SF; Credit Suisse New York, LA, and Toronto; Barclays all over; Moelis NY and LA; Evercore NY; Morgan Stanley New York and Toronto; Greenhill NY; Houlihan Lokey LA; UBS New York and Toronto; and Qatalyst Partners SF. All of these firms send Ivey alumni back to recruit actively from the school. Those are just the kids I know and talk to, most of these offices listed above had multiple from Ivey (more than two usually) and there were also a tonne who placed Canadian BB.

If you're in Canada, picking undergrad schools, want to stay in Canada, and go to Wall Street, go to Ivey.

 

I don't know of the Canadian schools, but I will say that my experience here in the US has not led me to a single graduate -- take from that what you will...maybe I'm just failing.

"They are all former investment bankers that were laid off in the economic collapse that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have no marketable skills, but by God they work hard."
 

Never heard of it, but after a little research it seems legit. I would stick to bay street because I'd wager that ~60% of people in NY don't know what the hell it is. However, if you have killer stats/ personal characteristics you might have a chance. Good luck regardless.

 

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