Why Undergrad Prestige Is Important
Currently a banking analyst who is signed for a MF. For all of you kids deciding between schools, when in doubt, choose the more prestigious school if you want PE after 2 years in IB.
I can tell you first-hand that school is extremely important for getting a Megafund/UMM PE offer. PE firms (especially MF) are way more prestige heavy than Investment banks are. I'd still say bank matters a bit more than school, but school is still very important to PE headhunters. Non-target kids, even at GS will unfortunately have trouble getting looks at some of the more prestige heavy firms like KKR/Apollo/Silver Lake
if you go to 4:20 of this video, the Peak Frameworks guy said even coming from Evercore M&A tech, he got way less interviews than Ivy League kids. His criteria for on-cycle PE is this, which I'd agree with:
Firms that don’t optimize for human capital/ fund performance and instead jerks off kids who got in to good schools as legacies or from parents donation for the “prestige” are missing out on some good talent. Granted, it is a decent filter for merit but I think performance/deal experience/ banking group prestige is a better litmus test. Probably a good self selection mechanism anyways as a nontarget would likely not fit in as well at these shops anyways.
I think the reason why is because since bank timelines nowadays are so messed up, headhunters need to use other criteria to determine strong candidates.
For example, a kid may have signed at Credit Suisse but not had the opportunity to interview at GS due to GS recruiting a month later.
Because of this, headhunters need to use other datapoints, like SAT, GPA, and school rather than just bank.
Cry me a river, everyone in a target is a legacy?
How about you realise some people didn't jerk off their entire lives and actually put in effort and excelled at every stage, that is very telling
Non-target students suck about 99% of the time
Please enlighten me as to how many people at your target you know that aren't one of the following 1.) Diversity 2.) From a super wealthy legacy family 3.) non diversity but from a top private highschool where the college admissions has relationships with ivys and fills slots each year. I highly doubt many people at your target are non-diverse white guys from a middle class background and an average town and highschool no matter how much they excelled at each stage of their adolescent life. Also, a lot of people at my nontarget had offers at Stanford, Penn, Harvard etc. but didn’t want to go 300K in debt and daddy wasn’t paying their tuition.
jokes on you, I fucked around in high school and enjoyed my youth and still work at a BB. You're clearly coping lmao
I was curious so I looked it up, 36% of Harvard's class of 22 were legacies. That is insane.
Aunt Becky probably got you into school, I understand that you’re probably insecure about it.
Underrated comment.
- non-target VP
Based on reaction WSO split seems 1:2 on target / non-target.
based
Agreed. No one hustles harder than a non-target hardo who realizes how lucky he is to have been given a shot. So dumb
lmfao
Can you stop? You are clearly a butthurt analyst who went to a great school but worked for a shitty bank.
Do you go to IU Kelley? I think I know who you are lol
Would semi-agree off of personal experience. I am at a non-EB/BB (think next tier below) and had interviews at some great funds and landed a UMM offer, and I went to a top target. Friends from my bank had way less interview invites if they were non-targets.
I’m not going to agree that school > bank or an ivy kid beats a GS non-target, but I think the whole “I chose to work at MM bank because of geography/culture/etc” just comes off as more genuine when you’re from a target vs them just assuming you couldn’t land a better job.
PE recruiting is a full package of bank, college, deal experience, test scores, etc - college is one leg and it can definitely help if other aspects are weaker but it also isn’t the end all be all
Yea, I mean it's better to be a non-target at GS TMT than a target at Stifel. Just wanted to point out that school is indeed a big factor in PE recruiting.
Congrats on the offer btw!
congrats!!
Hey, saw your recent post about working at a bank below the non-EB/BB level and still landing an UMM offer. First off, congrats on the offer!
I was just wondering if you could provide me with some more details about your experience and what you think you did that allowed you to land the UMM offer. I am currently a rising junior likely going to sign at a bank that is what most would consider a non-EB/BB. Oh, and coming from a target by the way, but only discovered IB in the middle of April - had no idea about career stuff until hearing peers at school talking about it as I come from a mid/lower class background and am the first in the fam to go to college.
Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope this message finds your week off to a swell start!
I can tell you firsthand that I was responsible for a joint venture between Citadel and Blackstone, and I currently work with ex CEOs of Goldman.
That type of person is very good at processing work. However, that same person is mostly useless as they get more senior, as they are mostly trapped within that prestige complex. They need the problem framed for them, because that is how they succeed in academia. I can tell you firsthand working with Harvard undergrad / Yale Law types they don't contribute very much...
Lol
.
Is there any purpose to this thread other than flexing that your prestigious undergrad helped you get a MF offer? No 18 year old in high school is choosing between UPenn and Ole Miss, and suddenly makes a list minute pivot to maximize their chances of landing KKR two years out of college. I really struggle between deciding whether these type of threads are jokes, or people are just so egotistical and out of touch that they think posting this is a good idea.
this site is full of anxious weirdos desperate for validation from anonymous strangers
Every time a prestige obsessed weirdos says something on this site, I’m going to quote this post!!
I'm not trying to be a dick or flex on anyone. The point of this thread is to shed some light on the private equity recruiting process, especially for UMM/MF.
Before and during college, I had no idea that college was even a factor for on-cycle PE recruiting. If the criteria that headhunters use becomes more transparent, isn't that a good thing?
Prestige is an devastating drug after all, as it will have you wondering why you are addicted in the first place. Threads like this give some people meaning, as sad as it sounds
Seriously though. This guy is such a loser. I doubt he is at MF, probably some shit MM.
It's the dork ranking system
You should work hard and aim for the highest level (target schools). If you fall short, use whatever resources are at your disposal and start working towards that same goal from a different angle (Non targets).
In the end, be grounded and realize that all of this is just one aspect of your life. This whole thing leads straight to the grave eventually, just like any other career.
You get maybe 60 good years on this planet, and these cotton candy cinderallas spend half of it arguing on school choices, and firm prestige.
I'm not trying to be a dick or flex on anyone. The point of this thread is to shed some light on the private equity recruiting process, especially for UMM/MF.
Before and during college, I had no idea that college was even a factor for on-cycle PE recruiting. If the criteria that headhunters use becomes more transparent, isn't that a good thing?
And this is why I didn’t pursue finance. What an absolute stupid measure to go off of. Imagine the rest of your life being determined by how you were when you were like 16. Not to mention how broken undergrad admissions is, I mean we all know it’s one of the least meritocratic things out there.
So glad there are other industries that give you a 2nd chance outside of college to work and prove yourself. I was a complete fuckwit growing up and I know I’m not the only one.
Just to be clear, it still absolutely is possible to break into a MF from a non-targ. It's just harder.
Get a life loser lol
The original post was dumb but some of you will say anything to avoid taking responsibility for your shortcomings during high school. Not every top 10-20 school is entirely filled with diversity, legacies, etc.
Bank recruiting is even less meritocratic and that’s coming from someone who worked at a decent bank (GS/MS/JPM). There is no good way to properly screen for human capital so everyone is using the few datapoints they have, which includes school and standardized tests (even if they were from half a decade ago).
Salty non-targets are coping lol
L prospect, probably high school or freshman.
This is facts, did not do as well as I should have in high school. Doesn’t matter tho cause I transferred to a top 5 engineering school, have a 3.7, and got an s&t offer for next year. I don’t think it matters where you start, just where you’re willing to go!
At the end of the day, there is still a very good chance your wife will be ugly OP. So, enjoy your work bc it’ll be all you got bud. Good chat.
Ok "Managing Director in PE"
Ok intern bitch
OP is 100% a virgin
Salty non-targets are coping lol
Hahaha dude I don't think anyone is "coping". It's just a bizarre thing to care this much about. It's very cringe and boring.
I genuinely hope you don’t walk around talking like that in real life because you won’t make it very far with that attitude.
How about you go out and get some bitches?
Damn am I fucked cause I’m going to UChicago and not HYPSM?? Guess I better say goodbye to working at Citadel😔
Aren’t they moving to Miami anyways?
Damn dude... I didn't know this... I went to UVA/IU/OSU/UT and had fun for 4 years instead of shilling on WSO, am I fucked now? I hope NWM apps are still open! You're coping, I'd imagine, with the fact a few "non-targets" at your firm have relatively similar offers to you and are far superior socially. People probably don't like you at work given your false sense of superiority b/c your great grandpa went to Wharton and you got in w/ legacy. At large, no one is THAT impressive in undergrad, excluding the Harvard varsity team captain who graduated w/ a 4.0... we're all going to be pretty similar intellectually. I'd also venture a majority of people wouldn't enjoy working for firms who use 6-8 year old data (i.e. college acceptances) as a proxy for good talent, not to mention not everyone wants to slave away at MFPE. You wouldn't know this though, because you simply follow what everyone else is doing with zero thought as to what you personally desire. I hope you fix this, could do you well and MAYBE even get you laid. Probably not though
You clearly went to a shitty school, why are you so mad?
Just admit that some people didn't spend their entire youths jerking off and actually put in hard work throughout high school, that's very telling
I went to a top prep school (non-NY), played 3 sports in high school, multiple attractive girlfriends, had a 33 on my ACT, and went to one of the 4 schools I listed... all of which have finance programs in the top 11 of U.S. news rankings. I've noticed in my analyst class the kids who were most behind on getting up to speed were actually those at LAC's because they've never taken a fucking accounting course and struggle w/ FIFO calculations lmao. I'd argue you're better off at a top school w/ finance and IB club than other LAC studying eastern european history. I am at an excellent bank and will have a plethora of exit opportunities. So no, I'm not mad, it's just amazing to me the amount of pompous fucks on this site like yourself who then have the audacity to question why they have no friends and 0 prospects of getting laid. You're just upset people who went to state schools are better bankers than you... and probably more enjoyable to be around as a whole.
Lmk when you officially ink an offer though, prospect!
Would doing a MSF at a target school after doing your undergrad at an undergrad help?
OP def uses they/them
God you are such an entitled loser. I’d wager that you worked so hard only to end up at a semi-target and worse, a bad bank too. No need to bring others down.
Keep crying salty nontarget lmfao
All of these kids are absolute incels. Type of guys who are 5'7" like 130 pounds and punch their childhood stuffed animals when girls won't fuck them after they sit there and tell you how important being a banker is. Amazing how frequent an occurrence it is on this site, and anyone who talks like this I automatically assume is miserable in every other aspect of life lmao. Congrats you went to Harvard! Any other aspects of your personality? No? Okay I'll see you later buddy
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