Uk semi-target uni, EUR Rotterdam or LUISS?
I would like to get into IB straight after bachelor, to gain some experience and then do a MBA in the US. In this moment, I have 3 options for my bachelor:
- semi-target uni in the UK (Bath, Manchester, royal holloway, city, queen Mary)
- Erasmus university Rotterdam/UVA
- LUISS (economics and business studied in English)
Coming from Rome, I’ll tend to almost exclude Luiss since I think an international experience would look great on my CV. My hugest doubt is which between a target NL uni (like EUR) and a semi-target UK uni would be better from a US IB job prospective. Indeed, in world rankings EUR overshadows all the UK universities I mentioned, but won’t studying in the UK be considered better in the US? And won’t be networking in IB easier when studying in London? In a nutshell, which is the easiest way to get into IB in the US, a target Netherland or a semi-target UK?
Bath and Royal Holloway are very different in terms of placement.
Is City University Cass or just normal City University?
I would say Erasmus or Bath or Manchester personally.
Thank you for your help, but what do you mean that bath and royal holloway are very different in terms of placement? And do you know anything about queen Mary?
as regards city, as far as I know CASS is the business school of the "city, university of London" which is the one I mean. Does this change anything? I know that CASS has a really good reputation, but I thought more in term of masters
Co-analyst went to Bayes/Cass, think he's MFin; we just were recruiting and ran into several Cass grads as well. From what I have heard, the selling point of Cass is quote having contacts in the city. I was told that prior to Covid, Cass was fairly successful at placing people, but most of the people on this site are looking at IB-tier work and getting into those roles to me isn't all that likely without networking/referrals. Cass' placements are stronger if you want to build into IB by basically doing 2 years elsewhere before going into IB. If you go look at their alumni, you'll see a lot of the landing happens at Big 4 (EY, Deloitte, PWC) or HSBC. And those that do land in IB, end up in Tier 2 (think City, UBS/CS, DB etc.) It is only once you start to roll back the graduation years that the top banks get headcount from Cass.
I will note that in your original post you refer to "better from a US IB job perspective" and I'm not sure what that means. If you are simply referring to working at a US BB then it's fine, but as Europeans we have a ~0% chance of getting our foot in through the door as it relates to work in the US. You'd need a visa sponsorship which are mainly offered by asset managers and hedge funds. If you read the application forms for US BBs/EBs you'll fairly quickly see sentences to the tune of "We do not sponsor" or something like that.
Thank you for your help, but what do you mean that bath and royal holloway are very different in terms of placement? And do you know anything about queen Mary?
as regards city, as far as I know CASS is the business school of the “city, university of London” which is the one I mean. Does this change anything? I know that CASS has a really good reputation, but I thought more in term of masters
W.r.t. Erasmus: good uni to get into IB in London, but most people that break in appear to be MSc students.
Dutch people usually find out what they want to do relatively late, so this puts you in a position with a pro and a con:
PM me if you have any specific questions about EUR, I'd be happy to help.
Thank you. Dunno why but WSO doesn’t let me PM you today so I reply here. I see in Europe is quite difficult to find a job straight after the bachelor, so also for this reason I was more orientated towards the US. Any idea of how is EUR considered there compared to a UK uni?
As regards EUR, do you know if they offer good internships during senior year or if they can help networking with banks etc?
Chiming in to provide some clarity on the US job market. Downright impossible to find an internship/job in the US if you come from Europe, mainly for two reasons:
- Visas in the US are almost impossible to get, even international students studying in the US have a hard time finding a firm willing to sponsor their visa etc.
- 99% of European universities (with the exception of Oxbridge maybe) are basically non-targets (i.e you won't making past the CV screening even if you have HEC/Bocconi/St. Gallen on your resume)
Just focus on London.
I get that you want to do an MBA in the US, but you'll need a few years of work experience before even being in the position of thinking of applying to an MBA. MBAs consider several factors (GPA, work experience, extracurriculars etc.) and you won't be rejected just because Bath>Cass or the opposite. Also consider that MBAs are not really that valued in Europe compared to the US so it might not be the smartest move if you're thinking of coming back to Europe right after.
No worries.
I'm quite sure none of the universities you listed will make it easy to get your foot in the door in the US. In Europe maybe only LSE and Oxbridge would help somewhat. On top of that there are obvious visa issues, which you will also run into if you decide to do an MBA in the US (especially if it's not a STEM-designated program).
With regards to recruiting or networking from EUR; there are some events organized through the FSA and FSR (London Banking Tour, International Banking Cycle) which can be very helpful, but you'll be competing with older students, and for a lot of the events Dutch is a requirement to participate.
Very tough (albeit not impossible) to break into IB in London if you study in Continental Europe, given the abundance of more qualified MSc students.
Can't speak for the other Unis you mentioned but I would definitively avoid Luiss, almost unheard of outside of Italy, and the few alumni that made it into IB all had a master's degree either from Bocconi or another target.
Out of all the UK unis you mentioned, only Bath is a semi-target. The rest are non-targets.
What are your thoughts on UWE Bristol?
I'd be very surprised to see anyone from UWE in front office finance
And what do you think of someone breaking into IBD of Rothschild, GS, Lazard ( London offices) from UWE Bristol and at the same time being an Indian(i.e. an international student on a Tier 4 visa)?
As I just said... I would be incredibly surprised if that happened
I think you're misinterpreting, it's not a matter of the single kid being smart or qualified for the job; I think the other user is mostly referring to odds (it's a numbers game after all). The way I see it, if out of 100 LSE students 20 got into IB, that's a 20%. If 1 kid from UWE out of 100 gets in IB, that 1%. i.e you have a much better shot at getting into IB if you go to LSE rather than UWE. That's simple math and that's why 99% of the people would consider UWE a non-target, just like any other uni on this planet that sends just one kid to IB every couple of years.
Now is it possible to get into IB from UWE? I guess so. Do you need to be in the 1%? Yes. Would kid number 2 out of 100 at UWE that didn't get in have had better shots if he/she went to LSE? Yes.
Thank you so much, buddy! Now I got the whole saga of Target and Non-Target. I see where I was misinterpreting the point, and excuse me for being annoying as I haven't seen much clear-cut answers and opinions on this Target vs Non-target until you've made it so.
To further extrapolate the point, how does the resume( and other intangible things such as networking) of that 1 out of 100 kids from UWE Bristol who made it to GS IBD differ from those 99 out 100 kids from UWE who haven't made it to GS IBD?
So what if I add the plot: that the kid from UWE Bristol is Bangladeshi ( i.e. that is Indian Subcontinental) in this from UWE to GS IBD saga? Will it make things even more difficult for the kid, or will things remain constant in London?
Can you please stop talking about yourself in third person?
Here’s the reality.
You’ve got two distinctions: those that require sponsoring for a job and those that don’t.
I’ve got no clue of the specifics of each, but if you need sponsoring then you are put into a bucket with all the other nationalities who do too. Bangladeshi, Indian, Chinese… whatever… it doesn’t matter. I’m just picking examples of nationalities I know need sponsorship for an example.
Even so, sponsorship aside - who cares where you’re from? 99.99999% of banks don’t give a fuck as long as you’re the best candidate
This has to be Erasmus University and by far. I would directly exclude LUISS as you already did your bachelor in Italy. Then, Erasmus is way better than any UK semi-target. Only LSE or LBS (and Oxbridge of course) would be worth the 30k tuition fees.
Good luck :)
Just thought I'd chime in here as I went to a semi-target (Durham, Bristol, Manchester) and now work for a BB / EB.
You can break in through the standard spring -> summer -> FT path from a semi-target or from Rotterdam / LUISS if you're switched on early and apply widely. If you would prefer to study in the UK then do so, but a semi-target won't offer you any additional networking advantages over the other European unis (it didn't for me).
Also, I wouldn't really worry about competing with older students in Europe. It is true that they are mainly older but most don't / can't apply for spring weeks. For reference, I did an off-cycle and was the only bachelor student there, but as long as you do well at interview they don't care about BSc / MSc.
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