OFFICIAL 2023 TARGET SCHOOL RANKINGS FOR FINANCE
List made with competition, buyside opportunities, and per capita placement taken into account.
Tier 1 - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton, Stanford
Tier 2 - MIT, UChicago, Dartmouth
Tier 3 - Columbia, UPenn CAS, Duke
Tier 4 - Cornell, Brown, Northwestern
Tier 5 - NYU Stern, Williams, Amherst, Georgetown
Tier 6 - Michigan, UC Berkeley, UVA, WashU, Emory
Tier 7 - Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon, Notre Dame, USC
Tier 8 - Rice, Johns Hopkins, UT Austin, UCLA, IU Kelley, UNC KF
WashU / Emory down a tier, UNC, UCLA, Notre Dame up a tier
Pretty accurate besides that
WashU and Emory are there because of per capita placement. UNC and UCLA are lower because this is for NYC opportunities and not regional banks, and Notre Dame is low because I despise the school.
Emory down 1 tier imo.
Also, I’d put BYU in this list in either Tier 7 or 8, they put a ton of students into EB/BB every year (I am still trying to figure out how they place so well across the US). Also have representation at Apollo, KKR, Carlyle, etc. along with Tiger, P72, TwoSigma, Citadel, etc. and they place incredibly well into HBS, GSB, and other M7 programs.
I say this as an Ivy League grad. BYU people are like there own secret society within high finance lol.
I think that list list depends also on City placement because obviously UT and Rice are going to feed hard into Houston same with USC and LA/SF, whereas ivies won’t touch Houston/Charlotte/Chicago/etc. (for the most part)
Other than that though I think taking it all into account this is pretty solid
ASU gotta be at least tier 2 smh it's a mega target
UT Austin on the come up
I went to BC now at a top HF. Don’t believe everything on wso.
You know how some people peak in high school/college?
This is peaked in college activity.
Cope and seethe non targeter
Unbelievably corny.
And I still broke in. I wouldn't trade my non-target struggle for the world. I'm way better off for it
Stop coping, you'd have given your left nut to go to a T10 / Ivy. Living in delusion about your non target making you better off for finance than a target school is corny.
I said 'better off'. I never said 'better off in finance'. I would say I learned personal lessons from being at a non-target more than anything else.
Funny enough, the biggest one was that finance isn't everything. It seems that your T10 / Ivy failed to teach you that
In my time in IB and knowing kids from several of these schools I would say this list is surprisingly accurate taking into all the variables that exist. Only change would be to put WashU one tier down, Northwestern one tier down, and Notre Dame one/two up. Everything else looks solid. Some people here are saying that Emory should be moved a tier down but I actually think it should stay in the same place because it places very well given the competition and size and has some influential people at the top.
Del
Ross places much, much better than Williams, Amherst, Georgetown, Northwestern, Brown, etc.
Go blue baby. If you disagree, just check LinkedIn.
Northwestern down three tiers for sure
Can we stop making these rankings? They serve zero purpose. Once you’re at a target or even semi-target, you’re good to go from an IB perspective as long as you know your shit and network well. Once you’re in a solid group at a solid bank, you’re set for buyside recruiting.
There’s no need to have like 10 tiers. There are literally schools in tier six and seven that place about as well as schools in tier two - ND vs UChicago for example. If you actually wanted to make a useful ranking, combine tiers two through four and then tiers five through seven. Or have tier two through tier seven split into three different tiers if you really want to be “nuanced”.