University of Manchester

I met several people from the University of Manchester in BO positions during my internships but I cannot remember anyone from that university in FO positions.

It's definitely not a target. Only real targets are Oxbridge / LSE / Imperial / maybe UCL. Then semi-targets are Warwick, Bristol, UCL, maybe Exeter and Bath. Manchester is a semi-target at best and it lacks a lot of the recruitment opportunities. If you have the grades for Manchester I would recommend one of the others I suggested (Warwick, Bristol, Exeter, a good London one).

friend of mine at tier 1 (GS/JPM/MS) ER from Manchester. wouldn't go running to the bank with that (literally or metaphorically)

From what I have seen, the University of Manchester is at the least a Semi Target. Almost all of the banks show up for a presentation, and there is a HUGE alumni base in Investment Banking. They recently hooked me with their recruitment emails. I've been talking with one of their recruiters,and it sounds like I'm pretty shoe in. If I fail the GRE, I have an amazing safety school for next year at the minimum lol. I would suggest going, the only down fall is that its not actually in the city of london. There are a few firms in Manchester it seems, but you would have to move out to london to make it work.

(hell they even have black rock show up for events I guess)

Manchester is a non-target.

Before getting to Manchester you have (in no particular order):

Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, UCL, Imperial, Bristol, Edinburgh, KCL, St. Andrews, Durham, Nottingham, Bath, and Newcastle.

Good Uni, good rep in general in the UK. Not on the same level as LSE/Imperial/Oxbridge in terms of placement but nothing to be frowned at. Really middle ground kind of uni in terms of how it does in finance, in my opinion. Could do worse, could do better.

That said entry is usually pretty steep, so if you're in the process of applying, there are better universities with similar grade requirements.