Why School Prestige Is Important
I'm currently a banking analyst who is signed at a MF. People don't tell you this, but PE firms (especially MF) are way more prestige heavy than Investment banks are and can tell you first-hand that school is extremely important for getting a Megafund/UMM PE offer.
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.
I work at a top 3 bank in a very strong group, and the kids who went to less reputable but still good schools (UNC for example) had worse exits/received less interview requests than top targets like Harvard and Princeton. It is not impossible to break into a MF as a non-target, just will be harder.
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.
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...
are you referring to the person in the video?
Wtf lmao? The CFO of Blackstone went to Harvard / Yale Law
Did Ross kids place well MF wise at your firm?
They placed well. I'd say HYPSW are the top tier, rest of the ivies/duke/chicago are next, then Michigan/ND/Georgetown/Stern
Damn I thought they would be in the second tier, by sheer quantity on LinkedIn it looks like Ross (not Michigan) this year placed better than like Cornell Dartmouth and stern, but appreciate the response
There's no such thing as prestige. Let me hear you say it, there is no such thing as prestige. There is merit and there is perception of merit. Prestige is nothing more than a group psychological behavior phenomena rather than anything else.Why should I choose you for the position? "Well, if you look at my resume I've got a shit ton of prestige from the previous institutions I've been a part of"Jokes aside though, I will concede unfortunately that the name of the prior institutions do matter. But why do they matter? Is it “prestige.” Or is it a representation of merit and the work it took to achieve those prior milestones? We shouldn’t ever forget that it’s actually the work and the results that really are the heart of the decision. The prior schooling or work institution is a representation of that. It holds weight in the reasoning, as it should. But let’s not get caught in this fairy make believe prestige land as if that’s even something tangible at all
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