Hawkinson Investment Banking Underrated?
Current sophomore here who grew up in Iowa. Decided towards the end of my junior year that I knew I wanted to do IB, so I factored it into my decision and ended up at a semi target state school with a pretty well-known Investment Banking program. While it's been great, I've been hearing a lot of things from a hometown friend who went to Iowa. Apparently, their small investment banking program has had some insane placements this year. Last I heard from him was CVP, PWP, PJT, HL Rx, GS, and BofA.
Honestly, I wish I would have known more about this program when factoring in my decision. Being able to payless would have been much better for me and my family then what I'm paying now. Can anyone provide more color on the UIowa IB workshop. I think it's called Hawkinson? Would love to hear from anybody who's currently in it or has worked with an alumnus.
Wouldn’t call sending 5 kids (mostly DEI kids) to a BB a strong program.
agreed.
Currently an analyst at a top-tier BB (think GS, JPM, MS) working alongside a former Hawkinson Iowa student. They are undoubtedly the top analyst in our group and are constantly getting staffed on projects because they're simply the best. I went to a semi-target and we've talked about the differences in the recruiting process between colleges; sounds like this isn't an anomaly either with students in that group. Apparently the program is integrated with their required course curriculum, so each student is relatively better prepared when it comes to interviews and prepping for the internship.
I didn't really consider how a strong candidate at a non-target school could get the same looks as a target, but it makes sense if you think about it. For example, a 98%-quartile student at a state school might be a 60%-quartile student at an Ivy. If there is an integrated banking program with legitimate connections, the non-target will stick out relative to looking "average" with Ivy peers. On top of the fact that students from more humble backgrounds tend to come off less pretentious in interviews, and its clear they had to put in a significant amount of work to get the interview (obviously not the case for everyone, but tends to be my experience).
Placements for the top ~15ish students look comparable to "stronger" finance programs for someone considering out of state tuition at a school like Indiana or Wisconsin (~50k/yr), vs. in-state (~15k) at a program like this. If you look at prior placements from this program on LinkedIn you'll see people at every BB on the street, UMM funds out of UG, and apparently CVP, PWP, HL Rx, and PJT. Seems like a no brainer to me.
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