Updated 2021 Target School Tier List

Updated the list based on what people were saying / my own thoughts

Tier S++ (Super Target)

Harvard / Yale / Princeton - HYP
Wharton - UPenn's undergrad business school - 4yrs

Stanford - The most prestigious western school

Tier S+ (Target)
UPenn / Dartmouth / Columbia - Mid-tier Ivies. Non-Wharton UPenn is still a target school.               

MIT                
Duke - The most prestigious southern school
UChicago - The most prestigious midwestern school                                                                 

Georgetown  - Undergrad business school but also SFS & CAS - 4yrs                                                            

Cornell Dyson - Part of the Ivy League. Undergrad business school - 4yrs

Tier S (Target)
NYU Stern - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
Cornell / Brown - Part of the Ivy League. Non-Dyson Cornell is still a target school.
UMich Ross - Public School. Undergrad business school - 4yrs
UVA McIntire - Public School. Undergrad business school - 2yrs

Tier A+ (Low Target to Top Semi-Target)

Williams - The most prestigious LAC
Notre Dame Mendoza - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
UCB Haas - Public School. Undergrad business school - 2yrs
Amherst - A great LAC
Northwestern

Tier A (Semi-Target)

Vanderbilt
WashU Olin - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
Middlebury - A great LAC - not as well known as Williams/Amherst
UNC KF - Public School. Undergrad business school - 3yrs
Indiana Kelley IBW - Public School. Undergrad business school - 4yrs
USC Marshall - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
UT Austin McCombs - Public School. Undergrad business school - 4yrs
UCLA - Public School
CMC - A great LAC - not as well known as Williams/Amherst
Emory Goizueta - Undergrad business school - 2yrs
BC Carrol - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
CMU Tepper - Undergrad business school - 4yrs
Rice

Tier A-/B+ (Low Semi-Target to Non-Target)

Bowdoin - A great LAC - more recognizable than the LACs listed below
JHU
Tufts
Wake Forest
Washington & Lee / Colgate / Hamilton / Wesleyan - Great LACs

Tier B (Non-Target but still recognizable) Not in order

Colby / Bates / Davidson - Good LACs
Georgia Tech Scheller
Villanova
BU Questrom
College of William and Mary Mason
Northeastern D'amore McKim
UW-Madison
U of Illinois Gies
Lehigh
Ohio State Fisher
Penn State Smeal
U of Florida
SMU Cox
U of Maryland Smith
U of Minnesota Carlson
Miami of Ohio
Rutgers
U of SC Darla Moore
Baruch Zicklin
U of Georgia Terry
Babson
Fordham Gabelli

 

Stern and Ross place better than MIT/Duke/Georgetown/Chicago are in the top 3-4 schools in term placement every year with hard data to back that up

Penn CAS while still great is not better than many of the top undergrad b schools

Stanford is a tech feeder school but not great for IB (obviously can still make it but talked to many folks from here who said they had a hard time recruiting into some finance roles). Likewise MIT is excellent for Quant finance but you won't see many in front office roles like IB / ER etc. These kids are too smart for that and on a different level. 

 

Lot of Ross/Stern on in all areas including buyside and lot of UVA especially in HFs. The sheer networks of these schools are huge and a lot of recruiting is a numbers game

I went through PE/VC/GE recruiting several years ago - nobody cares about whatever presumed prestige you think those schools have

 

Wharton and Harvard stand notably above Yale/Princeton in terms of both IB and MBB placement in terms of both raw numbers as well as adjusted for school size. Not trying to rank one over other but if purpose is to identify programs with highest rate of opportunities then this is true. It may be self selecting as W/H population may be more IB/consulting centric but that wasnt a qualifier in the original post

 

This kid literally made a post about target schools as a high school sophomore 3 years ago. Holy shit. Imagine being that much of a hardo and only getting into Georgetown.

 

Cali kid who grew up in upper middle class background going to a good public cali high school focusing on finance since soph year. Yeah, if you put in any effort in HS and can distinguish yourself in any manner, not too hard to get into a few T20’s. The fact that you still feel insecure about it is the reason you responded the way that you did, listing every school you got into and joking about killing yourself and calling yourself a failure. $20 you have Asian parents. But seriously, have fun in college. GT is a great school. Well, GU is too.

 
Funniest

Bruh, you posted 4 times to reply and deleted one of them. Who's the insecure one?

 

Hahahaha. Respect for the semi-target listing for Vandy since this forum continually takes a dump on it. Yeah, it’s in Nashville (which is electric, by the way) and that isn’t a top destination for firms to fly out and spend time recruiting at. Placement is phenomenal for the people gunning for it if you’d take a look. 

 

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