Comparing Wake forest, Bucknell, Colgate, Villanova and Hamilton for investment banking

Here is the placement for just investment banking for the schools below. I took them directly from the 2019 first destination report provided by each school so they are accurate. Pretty interesting to see Bucknell beat out the rest of them. Definitely has improved over the years and will continue to do so with their amazing alumni. 

Keep in mind the number of students at each undergrad school:


Hamilton=8 (1,924)
Colgate=10 (2,980)
Bucknell= 18 (3,627)
Wake forest=11 (5,287)
Villanova=17 (6,865)

 

I don’t think there’s a big difference between these schools, as your numbers demonstrate assuming they’re accurate. Anecdotally have seen more Nova grads on the street than any other school on that list but that’s likely a result of their larger class size.

 

Is bucknell or Colgate actually target how? No wonder I have a few people from there in my office

 

They're semi-targets. Good schools with great alumni networks and some on-campus BB recruiting.

 
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Not sure about these numbers. Wake Forest has way more kids than you report land in IB each yr. The have a very detailed report (only through 2018 btw) on their website which actually lists the company, location and role of every graduate (based on their survey replies - has a ~90% report rate) broken down by major. Each yr they place over 50 kids in banking (not all in IB, but somewhere around half).

As an example, just in 2018, they had 31 finance majors (out of 100ish) start in IB at a variety of banks in NYC and Charlotte. They had several other fin majors start in PB, ER, and Corp Banking. I'm only counting the ones listed that categorize as "Investment Banking" with an analyst position. That's just Fin. They have more when you include Econ and other Business majors. Now it's possible some (no idea how many) are actually in S&T as I know some are and they're not listed that way in the First Destination report. I guess you could do a Linkedin search for that particular yr and see what their exact job title is. In any event, it's way more than 11 kids per class. 

Don't know anything about the other school's numbers. I suspect Villanova has lots more too as they are pretty well recruited. Bucknell is similar to Lehigh which has a lot of kids on the street (for its size).

 

Wake Forest seems to do a solid job placing, but since you mentioned Nova, Bucknell, Lehigh, I'd honestly say the latter places better just to location and continued alumni tending to stay in NYC. Wake Forest alum are pretty southern and drift more south with cities like CLT, ATL, and even cities in TX, etc. Not to say students don't place into NYC, but it's just a southern school with southern alum (not comparing quality of schools between any of them). Nova and Lehigh are not even that small of schools if I remember right and was pretty surprised to see a big presence from both schools combined across different types of banks on the street. Think Bucknell does solid too, but like Colgate/Hamilton it's just a small school so relatively its a smaller number of kids placing in.

 

When checking for wake forest its important to not search up "investment banking" but rather "investment banking analyst" as this will sure a more accurate representation of placement, which is why your number is perceived as higher(which would drive the numbers up higher for the others).

 

Wake forest is the best school of the bunch, but it’s called work forest for grade deflation and tough academic environment. have heard mixed feedback from alumni.

nova only places hot girls or students with connections from what I’ve seen for FO roles. Ton of MO roles they claim are IB, but aren’t. 
 

bucknell, Hamilton, Colgate aren’t very good schools full stop, especially for IB placement. Sure they have fancy reputations and price tags, but wouldn’t recommend it for IB. My former EB has never taken a student from any of the schools you listed. 

have you looked at Vanderbilt or trying to transfer in after a year?

 

Have a friend that goes to Wake who just went through recruiting, so I'll try and provide some info he relayed to me. Sounds like they're a target for Wells and BofA, which makes sense given their presence in CLT. Also heard Jefferies comes on campus. Maybe Stephens as well as some other MM's. Have heard that a lot of the kids that get the IB and S&T positions tend to have a lot of VERY strong connections, but take that with a grain of salt. Seems like a very fun school if you're into frat scene as well. Overall, I'd say it's very possible to get BB IB/S&T from Wake with a lot of hard work based on what I've heard.  

 

Not at Bucknell, but two of the richest people I know (one billionaire, other head of an F100) sent their kids to Bucknell. My only extrapolation is that the Bucknell network is probably pretty thick as you're able to network with both alums & parents/family of friends. 

 

Not at Bucknell, but two of the richest people I know (one billionaire, other head of an F100) sent their kids to Bucknell. My only extrapolation is that the Bucknell network is probably pretty thick as you're able to network with both alums & parents/family of friends. 

Having rich friends won’t get you into IB unless your parents are clients of the banks. There were zero Bucknell guys at my bank and I never met any at friends banks 

 

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