Harvard MBA's and PE Shops why so many???

I dont know about most PE shops, but Bain Capital is probably littered with Harvard MBAs because it's in Boston and was founded by Mitt Romney who has strong Harvard ties, so naturally all the firms' current big whigs are going to be Harvard buddies/cronies of his. It's all about who travels in the same circle more than anything.

The other thing, especially now, is that most top shops are 2 and out pre-mba. Most of those guys go to HBS, and also those guys almost always go back into PE skewing the numbers. It's become a point now where very few post MBA PE associates didnt do PE prior to getting their MBA.

harvard actively recruits PE analysts (or rather, give preference to).

honestly its like literally 7 or 8/10 guys in PE that have Harvard MBAs with the occasional Wharton and Columbia grad, based on the company sites.

working in PE and seeing these guys on a daily basis, it's not like so. and nobody gives a damn about your school.

Anyone has the figure to show how many PE associates from top funds get into HBS?

At that point I feel like you have to fuck it up to not get into HBS, if you're a pre-MBA assoc. at a large shop. If I had to venture a guess of what the admit rate to HBS would be from a KKR/BX/TPG/Carlyle, would probably say >90%. Besides the actual PE experience to contribute to the b-school resume, keep in mind what it would take to get the PE job in the first place.

Wow you are totally off.  It is definitely not anwhere close to 90%.  Think about how big those shops are and how many slots they would take up at HBS if your assumption was correct.

Umm... there aren't that many employees at these shops. Blackstone has around 770 employees and KKR has 400 (worldwide... not just in the States - and its not as conventional to need an MBA abroad as it is here). Keep in mind that maybe half of this number is made up of support staff (secretaries, assistants, etc.) as opposed to professionals. Furthermore, a good portion is made up of senior management. It would be generous to say that 20-30 employees are leaving each fund each year for bschool. HBS' typical class size is around 900 students.

PE mega-funds, similar to MBB, are more or less shoo-ins for HBS

I've heard figures for even the largest shops having pre-MBA assoc classes of only between 7-15 depending on the size of the fund. Figure around 75 each year from the very top shops (incl. say BainCap and the like) , that's roughly half of a McK BA class.

2 years of BB IB/MBB + 2 years of great deal exp. working with some of the top minds in business, top undergrad, top grades, more than likely 700+ GMAT = pretty formidable candidate.  Add in great recs from likely HBS alums who  are likely to donate  either currently or in the future, and you don't even have to worry about community service. :)

According to the Carlyle website, they have ~110 worldwide at the associate level.  Majority of them are the former banking analysts who are pre-MBA.   http://www.carlyle.com/Team/Title/item8202.html 

Guy... VC/PE make up 13% of HBS incomming class ~120 students. Your calculation of 20 candidates per major fund (bx,kkr,tpg,carlyle) = only 80 candidates. Given that I said that 20-30 pre-MBA candidates is generous, the number is probably closer to 50-60, which leaves space for 60-70 warm bodies from smaller PE shops and VC firms.

There's no point in arguing w/ you. If you can't concede that mega-cap PE is a shoo-in to HBS, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

There is no argument that having mega PE experience makes you a strong candiate.  However, the claim that you are a shoo-in with >90% acceptance rate is absolutely ridiculous.  So before you make more ignorant statements and claim that someone doesn't know what they are talking about, you need to do your research and check the numbers.

Have someone who is at HBS right now, look up their fellow students.  None of the big four PE funds you listed have 20 people in one year.  Try more like five. 

actually the guy who said peeps from top PE funds are shoo-in to HBS, he is CORRECT. Having a KKR, Blackstone, Bain Cap, TPG, Carlyle, and Cerberus on your resume and you're half way in already. The people who get those types of jobs? They are superstar type A people, with top notch undergrad and grades. They WILL execute their application to perfection and score a 700+ on the GMAT, because that's the type of people they are. THey will kick ass in the interviews since bschool interviews are a joke compared to what they went thru to get into the funds. They will have superb recs from powerful HBS alums, that comes with the job. It is just as hard (probably harder) to get into one of those companies than it is to HBS, which is why hbs loves them becuase they have already been preselected and rigorously tested. I find it hard to imagine that there will be significantly more than 100 people applying from those top funds each year, I would estimate like 8 - 12 people applying each year from each firm (also remember a few will go to Stanford/Wharton for whatever personal reasons)     

Aceman said it the way it is. Couldn't agree more.

Aceman (and Pepin), you need to stop posting on topics that you clearly don't know about. While your description about the candidates who work at the top PE firms is valid and getting hired by those firms is definitely harder from a numbers perspective than getting into HBS, your claim that they are shoo-ins to HBS is false. You clearly have not talked to anyone at the top firms or HBS. If you had, you would know that, while the probability is significantly higher than the average acceptance rate of ~15%, it is not a sure thing like you falsely claim.

Looking at your past posts, this is not the first time that you have posted wrong information on a topic that you obviously don't know about (example: "Kids who can get into M/B/B out of undergrad,if they choose to go back to bschool, will most definitely get in Harvard, Stanford, or Wharton. There might be the lone ranger that chooses Columbia or Kellogg for personal/location reasons, but VERY RARELY (

AllYourBase, I never claimed that coming from Blackstone you are guaranteed a spot in HBS. All I supported was the claim that having been successful in Blackstone's recruitment process guarantees that you are a top candidate that is very likely to be successful in applying to HBS. The reasons are vast - past academic exellence, type A, excellent previous/current work experience, good at interviewing, etc - all the things that ensure you will be a very competative candidate for HBS.

No one is guaranteed admission at HBS - 4.0 GPA, 800 GMAT, and 5 years in Goldman Sachs PIA don't guarantee you will get in. They are simply good indicators that you are at the top of the candidate list.

That's all I am trying to say.

Maybe someone who works at a large PE fund would care to chime in? This is mostly speculation.

No, it's not speculation. I speak from experience.

by Pepin (Chimp, 15 Banana PointsPoints) on 1/22/08 at 7:05am

* I-Banking Bullpen

I hope this is the right place to post this to get some help. I will be going straight into PE from undergrad and unlike a lot of the other guys who transfer out of IB, I have little Excel modeling experience. Is there an efficient way for me to get some modeling experience before I begin my job because I don't want to be totally lost when given to construct a model?

Any insights would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Yes, your point? It shows, obviously, that I have experience with the recruitment process at the top PE funds in question of this thread.

I don't see how Excel modeling proficiency plays a role.

Pepin, perhaps in addition to Excel modeling, you need some lessons on basic logic as well.

Aceman (incorrectly) stated that "peeps from top PE funds are shoo-in to HBS". You responded that Aceman is correct and that you couldn't agree more. You did therefore claim that people from Blackstone are guaranteed a spot in HBS. That's the definition of a shoo-in.

Either your logic is flawed or you don't know what shoo-in means.

Well, this back-and-forth banter is not helping the person who posted originally, but if you must, then here.

If you read the arguments that Aceman provided, you will see that this is precisely what I was agreeing with, as I already explained to you. Now, if you are going to be picky about it, no, those folks don't have a 100% chance and therefore are not "shoo-ins." However, it is obvious that they are the ones the most likely to get in. Well, that's as close to a guaranteed admission as you can get.

Anything else still left unclear?

Sweet, thanks. I was basing it off of the fact my (consulting) office sends analysts to HBS at roughly a 70% clip over the past 3 years and I figured that the PE work ex would only boost that percentage. Guess I was wrong.

Btw, I think 30% is roughly the admission rate for Deloitte BAs.

I could see the acceptance rate getting to 70-80% at some places in some years, just highly doubt a blended avg. is close to 90% across mega-funds based on what I know.