ITAM vs Tec de Monterrey (CSF), advice from NYC finance professionals?
Hey everyone,
I'm an American student choosing between ITAM and Tec de Monterrey (Santa Fe campus) for undergrad in finance. Both are based in Mexico City.
ITAM has a strong reputation for placing graduates into investment banking and private equity in Mexico, but l'd like to work in NYC after graduation, not stay in Mexico long-term.
Tec CSF, while present yet not dominant locally for IB/PE, offers a visiting student opportunity at Columbia during the 3rd year, which I see as a way to build U.S. networks and improve my recruiting chances for a junior summer internship in New York.
For those working in NYC working in finance, do you recognize one of these schools more than the other? Does the Columbia visiting year make Tec a smarter choice long-term, or would ITAM's stronger technical/placement rep still carry more weight?
Any insight is appreciated, thanks!
I don't know what either of these schools are. I don't think anyone in NYC IB/PE will know them either. Any international school except maybe Oxbridge is a mega non-target and the marginal difference between the schools and a Columbia study abroad will not a make difference. Would suggest getting your remote search fund internships and building a profile for NYC recruiting ASAP.
Understand. You don’t think the visiting year at Columbia with their resources and network in the street along with the ability to work without any extra permits can land me anything in my time there ?
Unless you can do this in your freshman/first semester of sophomore year then it won't help NYC IB recruiting. It could help land something off-cycle but by then SA recruiting is long done and it won't help with FT recruiting without a top-tier SA.
I speak as an international student myself, it's just incredibly difficult to get seen if you don't go to an American target school. I've genuinely seen 5 kids from international schools get NYC IB offers (not including Ivey/Queens).
Understand, never thought it’d be easy. I appreciate your honesty though and I’ll keep your suggestions in mind. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get to Columbia until my junior year. By that time do you have any recommendations of what I should do to get my foot in the door, anywhere really ?
By then you should have multiple off cycle internships, leadership in campus organizations both in Columbia and in MX, and at 2 prestigious summer internships ideally at American brand name firms. You can look for MM IB or reputable boutiques that may be more accessible for international students. Corp fin/wm/strategy at an F500 freshman summer with grad date frauding is a very accessible strategy for international students at semi-targets in the US so could be worth looking into as well.
Network as hard you can for the MMs to get these summer internships. Many MM IBs in NYC have MBA associates that did their undergrad in LATAM so this could be a way in.
If you start with a sophomore or junior summer program during your freshman summer at a MM/Boutique/F500, you can definitely recruit up for your future summers and be in a decent position for FT recruiting.
Also understand that the most likely outcome you can only land in the US after an MBA, so look into optimizing for MBA outcomes from your school as well (deferred MBAs, Silver Scholars would be good in your situation).
Although hard, I don't think it's impossible. ITAM has the best placement in the Mexico City offices of BB banks and top PE funds. I've heard of people who were able to make the switch from the Mexico City office to the LATAM team in NY. That being said, being at ITAM doesn't guarantee a spot at BB or EB banks in Mexico City, teams are small (maybe 1–3 analysts per bank for the entire IB division). You still have to be in the top 1% of ITAM students to get in, and if you're already above the 99th percentile you can easily get into HBS/GSB, and in that case you might as well choose the MBA route as well. If your goal is to end up in NY, maybe an easier path is thourgh consulting, dozens of ITAM students end up at MBB consulting, and moving between countries is much easier in MBB than in a BB bank.
Okay thank you for the insight. What about tec? Have you heard anything about them and their placement in general? Either in Mexico City or NYC? Looking in LinkedIn I do see graduates from both with ITAM having a slight edge. Don’t know if it’s substantial though.
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