I can only speak for my bank (Houston BB) but we don't look at SMU candidates at all lol. My VP shot it straight down. At other banks in Houston I don't see a lot of SMU kids but the ones that are in IB almost always come from that SMU Alternative Asset program. Might be their Business Honors program or something I am not sure. Also they seem to do well at HL in Dallas given the proximity. Believe HL Dallas likes TCU as well.

If you want the easiest time recruiting, go to UT no doubt. Strong pipeline to NY nowadays as well.

 

lol @ all the salty SMU kids slinging MS. The truth sucks but I am just reporting exactly what goes on my bank. The VP in charge of recruiting wouldn’t even consider SMU and that was the end of it. To the Rice comparison going on below, Rice > SMU in terms of both proximity and perception don’t kid yourselves. But I will say the same VP wasn’t particularly sold on Rice kids either (possible fit issues). That said, we have quite a bunch of Rice alumni here. No SMU kids though lol

 

I am from SMU/TCU and I agree with the comment above. Many Texas banks don't look at us lol. I think the way it goes in terms of schools for Houston is (note, personal opinion and happy to hear from others):

UT (high sheer number of placements) > Rice (high per capita placement)> SMU (alternatives program sends students to HOU/NYC every year)> TCU / Texas A&M (both send roughly 15-20 people to IB each year)>Baylor > rest. 

I believe you are correct in that their Alternative Asset program is the one that places most of the IB kids from SMU. Even at TCU, their IB prep program is the one that only places people into IB. If you are not in one of them, it becomes much more difficult to get into IB. I think SMU also places into GS RE Financing IB group in Dallas.

If you want optionality then going Rice and UT is the best. They have pipelines at almost all the banks in Houston. All the other schools selectively place well at some banks and have almost no placements at other banks. I personally am going to one of the best banks in Houston but my school doesn't have a pipeline at all schools. 

 

Recent SMU Alum now on the buyside - disagree with some of the above points. SMU places fairly well into banking, but as mentioned, materially all of the placements come from the Alternative Assets program.

Outside of the program, I would agree - banks don't look at the general pool of SMU applicants; but the Alternative Assets program places kids in literally every Houston bank, every year and is gaining more traction in NYC

Recent placements from Alternative Assets classes include: Goldman (HOU/NYC), MS (HOU/NYC), JPM (HOU), Citi (HOU/NYC), Evercore (HOU/NYC), Moelis (HOU/NYC), Centerview (NYC), PJT (NYC), and most of the other BBs/EBs/MMs.

In short: if you want to break into IB, SMU is a good choice but only if you are a part of the Alternative Assets program. Relative to other programs in Texas, I would say UT > SMU > Rice > A&M > TCU. 

Obviously a lot of this is personal opinion but the placement data is hard to argue against. Happy to answer any questions on the above/my experience though.

 

No doubt Rice is a great program and places very well in Houston, but they don't have an undergrad business school and have less reach outside of O&G banking.  

 

SMU is solid if you do Alts and want to be in Dallas - this second part is key. I meet people every day in buyside or banking who went there, and the network in Dallas is excellent, I’d argue rivaling UT’s. The value drops off precipitously once you leave Dallas - even the other major TX cities tend to overlook it. If you want to be in NYC or Houston, it can certainly be done, but OCR will be much more limited.

I will say that the value of being in a city with a decent buyside presence and the ability to network in person or do school-year internships is huge - if you could swing early internships with local banks or PE funds it’d be a massive leg up

 

Rice kids have less difficulty (still not easy) placing outside of TX. None of the others get any “respect” in NYC barring some BSD alum
 

really don’t see a difference between the Texas school placements outside of UT BHP. UT has a ton of kids who have to a do a 5th year masters in accounting to have a competitive resume for whatever reason. 
 

some banks (WF? and Simmons...neither of which are relevant anymore) have more aggies than other but most banks have a mix of everybody. 

 

I didn't go to SMU but I weirdly have a bunch of friends from banking who went to SMU - I was NYC IB M&A. If banking is your goal you shouldn't target it as your first or even second choice but if you do happen to go there, there appears to be a surprisingly tight alumni network which does help driven and hustling kids (ie those who put forth the effort to network etc) get into banking

 
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