Tulane vs CU Boulder vs TCU

I am a current student at TCU and will be joining a top IB coverage group this upcoming summer as an intern and can add my perspective: 

I would say it's one of the better schools to go to if you didn't get into other targets or semi-targets. If you are in the TIP Board Program and the Neeley Fellows program (if you are in Neeley Fellows, then you will, without fail, get into TIP), it is pretty easy to get an IBD position at a good bank. While getting into Fellows seems tough if you are at TCU (they take the top 30 students of the business school), the criteria are close to what IB criteria is. you need a 3.5++ GPA (the average first-year GPA for students is around 3.85, but almost everyone in IB will have somewhere close to that in the first year), there are multiple interviews, with current fellows and alumni, and it's helpful to network with fellows. So, you need to be good on paper and then have some interpersonal skills. In Fellows, you usually go on a trip to NY where you can meet alumni and other connections who work in IB and otherwise, and then there's a trip extension with TIP during that trip itself, where you have an option to concentrate solely on banks. There is also a trip with the TIP board that goes to Houston. If you do get into Fellows, then I would say it's easy to get to a BB, top MM, or even an EB (we sent two people to Evercore last year, and one person is going to Lazard this year, with at least two others who superdayed with other EBs, have multiple alumni at Moelis), also have someone who went to Vista Equity Partners in their Analyst program.

We have OCR/strong pipelines with Citi Houston (sent 3 people here last year, very strong pipeline), Truist Houston, Jefferies Houston (send at least one every year), BofA Houston, HL Dallas (send multiple people each year), DCF - Dallas (Send someone every year), Baird, Scotiabank Houston (send two every year), Goldman Sachs SSG - Dallas (send 3 people almost every year), BofA Chicago, BofA NY, CS FIG NY and CS in general, Stephens Dallas, JPM NY. 

in TIP, you have about 30-35 students, out of which 15-20 are very serious about their prep and do everything diligently. These folks get a good-to-excellent IBD position almost every year and there's also a high amount for SA-to-FT rate (averaging around 91-95%).

The only caveat is that many of the pipelines are going to Houston so we have seen a slight reduction in placement there, in line with overall Houston recruiting. Luckily, we have seen an uptick in placement in CHI and NY to cover-up that deficit. I think that most of the alumni are very close-knit. I have been introduced to some high-up folks because of the networking I have done with the alumni who aren't even in IB anymore. I am joining a top group where I beat out some other folks from the usual targets. I think the number of people gunning for IB isn't very high so you are able to make the most of all the opportunities there are at TCU (which, on a per-capita basis, is pretty high). I have loved my experience here so far and would do it again in a heart-beat.

Happy to jump on a call if you would like to discuss further.