What School makes Columbia So Good

This is what you learn as an MBA that a lot of undergrads don't get. The academic institutions at any given school, while fine and great, really don't offer marginal benefit over any other comparable school. What moves the needle is traditional recruiting relationships with specific firms/industries. These relationships are self-perpetuating because when you hire a bunch of-to use your example- Columbia grads, those Columbia grads push their firms to hire more people from Columbia. While HR manages recruiting, the decisions to advance people in the process and hire them are ultimately made by the FO team.

That's why Wharton is such a brick shit house on wall street, it's why NYU punches way above its weight in investment banking, and it's why Columbia has a massive presence at Morgan Stanley.

To add - so to your question, the past 2 years Columbia Business School has sent more associates to IB than any other school (a function of class size, student interest, and those recruiting relationships I mentioned). This then also benefits the UG analyst recruits as well, Also, at columbia (and NYU) one can easily land coffee chats because its so easy to just go meet with bankers, so even students who struggle with standard recruiting can find ways back into recruiting processes .