How to get into IB at GS from University.

These questions are for Goldman Sachs, specifically.

  1. What are the main target schools for GS? Could you give a general ranking, maybe of the top 10?

  2. What kind of GPA would be expected for an IB job at GS?

  3. What is the importance placed on ECs? President of a frat or just some community service?

  4. What else is important?

Now obviously, networking plays a big role. And obviously, every candidate is a different case and originality helps. However, I'm simply wondering what the typical entry-level investment banker at Goldman Sachs has accomplished, and what they could usually bragged about in the interview or put on their resume.

 

I never actually heard of any case where ECs played a large role. Have some EC's, but really no one cares. Maybe for Goldman it matters more (I don't know), but certainly for most BB's they are sort of after the fact.

 

1)US -->Princeton, Harvard, Wharton, MIT, Northwestern, UChicago; Canada--> Ivey, Queens

2)3.5-4.0, Most are on the higher end of that range 3.8--> 4.0

3)Ecs are only useful if you can show some transferable skills

4)Knowing people inside the organization

 
PussInBoots:
"Birth Date Dec 8 1991" You are becoming a banking tool before you even applied to any college. Congrats!

finally pussinboots takes a pot shot. nice.

I'm making it up as I go along.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

1) Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Cornell, MIT, Stern are really the most represented schools

2) GPA: At least a 3.5 - many tend towards the higher range but leadership experience can balance out lower end GPA scores

3) EC's for GS are critical, but the big thing is taking leadership in those clubs. And also consistency, you're better off with leadership in 2 clubs than being a member of 5 different campus clubs.

4) Demonstrate leadership and teamwork - those are their two biggest things so everything on your resume should show those 2 things

 
Best Response
KB24TD21:
1) Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Cornell, MIT, Stern are really the most represented schools

2) GPA: At least a 3.5 - many tend towards the higher range but leadership experience can balance out lower end GPA scores

3) EC's for GS are critical, but the big thing is taking leadership in those clubs. And also consistency, you're better off with leadership in 2 clubs than being a member of 5 different campus clubs.

4) Demonstrate leadership and teamwork - those are their two biggest things so everything on your resume should show those 2 things

Sources?

 

stern is like an investment banker factory. when it comes to recruiting, stern is probably on par with all those schools mentioned. no one is saying it is a better school or more prestigious, just that it gets kids out onto the street. granted the reasons may be because of self selection and that stern is a breeding ground for ibankers, but that's irrelevant.

 
saidso:
jackdaniels:
when it comes to recruiting, stern is probably on par with all those schools mentioned.

No

I know people from stern in most if not all the banks and have seen the full summer class rosters at most banks.

What is your authority? Aren't you the kid who wanted to do ibd in charlotte?!?! and was then looking for pwm positions?

 

Actually I'm not implying anything about anything - I simply said Stern gets kids onto Wall Street and into GS. Didn't say it was a better school, or on the same level simply stated fact from my experience at various BB's and at GS specifically.

Yes, most BB's look for those qualities but I can say with a fact more than any other Bank - Leadership and Teamwork are the keys to nailing your GS interview. It's subtle things like when asked about projects speaking in we and talking about how you helped others and used others.

 

agreed. gs really looks for leadership more than other banks. most of the kids from my school who got ibd at gs were presidents of some huge club or had other real leadership ec's (im not talking about being secretary of the golf club or other bs). those kids had no problem talking about their level of involvement or commitment to said activity because it was actually legit and did require a huge time commitment from them.

 

can someone elaborate on exmaples of non-Aleksey-Vayner-like originality on resumes? and how much do non-finance related activities (volunteering, etc) matter? I don't see 'transferable skills' in many things that aren't finance related. .

 
jackdaniels:
when it comes to recruiting, stern is probably on par with all those schools mentioned.

This may be true, but how many kids does stern actually send to BBs for IBD, S&T etc. Wharton, for example, sent 18 kids to GS, according to this career report :

http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/wharton/surveys/Wharton2009Sum…

The report also shows the number of wharton kids at other BBs. I'm sure harvard, princeton etc have similar numbers. Is the number of stern kids at BBs anywhere close to the numbers i've posted? I've heard that there would be at most 5-6 stern kids at BBs. I could be wrong, but if i'm not, then stern can't be considered "on par" with harvard etc

 

saidso you are the idiot. most of your inquiries can be found after a 1 second google search. get your head out of your ass kid.

obivoiusly wharton and harvard are in a league of their own, i was more referring to the other schools on the list like duke or cornell and other targets usually ranked lower acadmeically but still have strong recruiting. all i meant to say was stern will not hold anyone back who really wants to do banking. i don't even go to stern, i was just speaking from what i have seen.

 
jackdaniels:
saidso you are the idiot. most of your inquiries can be found after a 1 second google search. get your head out of your ass kid.

obivoiusly wharton and harvard are in a league of their own, i was more referring to the other schools on the list like duke or cornell and other targets usually ranked lower acadmeically but still have strong recruiting. all i meant to say was stern will not hold anyone back who really wants to do banking. i don't even go to stern, i was just speaking from what i have seen.

Perhaps you should learn how to qualify your sentences. First you refer to a list of schools containing Harvard, Princeton, and Wharton (among others) and say that Stern is on par with ALL. Next, you say you didn't meat to say its on the level of Harvard or Wharton but rather only the other schools. Oh really? If that's the case why did you use "ALL" in the first place, surely even you could see the mistake with that. Stern is NOT on par with Harvard, Wharton or Princeton and that's why I said "NO." Qualify your sentences you idiot.

 
saidso:
jackdaniels:
saidso you are the idiot. most of your inquiries can be found after a 1 second google search. get your head out of your ass kid.

obivoiusly wharton and harvard are in a league of their own, i was more referring to the other schools on the list like duke or cornell and other targets usually ranked lower acadmeically but still have strong recruiting. all i meant to say was stern will not hold anyone back who really wants to do banking. i don't even go to stern, i was just speaking from what i have seen.

Perhaps you should learn how to qualify your sentences. First you refer to a list of schools containing Harvard, Princeton, and Wharton (among others) and say that Stern is on par with ALL. Next, you say you didn't meat to say its on the level of Harvard or Wharton but rather only the other schools. Oh really? If that's the case why did you use "ALL" in the first place, surely even you could see the mistake with that. Stern is NOT on par with Harvard, Wharton or Princeton and that's why I said "NO." Qualify your sentences you idiot.

Actually, if you bothered to read, KB24TD21 said:

KB24TD21:
1) Wharton, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Cornell, MIT, Stern are really the most represented schools

Which is true.

Followed by jackdaniels saying:

jackdaniels:
stern is like an investment banker factory. when it comes to recruiting, stern is probably on par with all those schools mentioned. no one is saying it is a better school or more prestigious, just that it gets kids out onto the street. granted the reasons may be because of self selection and that stern is a breeding ground for ibankers, but that's irrelevant.

Which is also true. Harvard, Wharton and other schools are both better than Stern as schools, and as paths to banking, but the fact is Stern is in the same league as them when it comes to the number of kids it gets on to the street. Wharton and Harvard get slots Stern kids couldn't, but to sit here and say that jackdaniels did not qualify his statement when he made an extensive effort to do so is incorrect.

 

Theres really no reason to prolong the argument(I hate e-fighting) and the basis for disagreement is pretty dumb. I took your initial statement as saying that Stern was as represented as Wharton, Harvard, etc and perhaps in my own mind I took it as, "Stern is as good as Wharton/Harvard." I agree with drexel.

 

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