IU Kelley Top Target or Semi-Target?

Seeking insight into Indiana Kelley, it seems like their workshop places absolutely lights out to EB’s, BB’s, and MM’s. However others seem to be skeptical of IU. As a college senior trying to get a holistic view of the school, how well is it respected and perceived on the street? Does the Kelley brand name carry weight?

 

IU'S IB workshop is excellent. However it is very competitive - keep that in mind when considering schools as IU Kelley without the workshop has limited OCR.

For the workshop itself it is a top target for places like Chicago/midwest (believe most of their placements are Chicago) and a strong semi target for NYC. If you can get scholarship money the IBW is very helpful. But I would still place Ross/Wharton/HYP in a higher tier of "top targets"

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Controversial

I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything: IU Kelley is not a target or semi-target. It's a nontarget.

There are non-target schools that have GREAT (and extremely small) programs for breaking onto Wall St. The IBW at Kelley is a great example, Penn State has the NLF, William & Mary has the "Dog St. to Wall St." program, Syracuse has the OVF. You are basically guaranteed interviews at top firms on the street if you are in those programs, but outside of the programs those schools are not targets at all.

That being said, IU Kelley is a great school and if you can get into the honors program you have the best chances outside of the workshop. The IBW is hyper competitive so you cannot rely on that.

Target schools are the typical Ivies (HYPSW-C) + respected T25 schools like UMich Ross/UVA McIntire/GU McDonough/Duke/NYU Stern/Cornell AEM. Semi-targets are schools like Vandy, Emory, Notre Dame, CMU, etc.

 

The IBW has about 80 kids a year, wouldn't call that "extremely small"

 
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Would definitely have to disagree with you here, peers who have gone to IU describe the IBW as a top target and for those who do not get into the IBW, can still get into IB without too much difficulty as long as you have a 3.5+, good internships, and relevant club experiences. The drop between IBW and non-IBW is large, but IU Kelley outside of the workshop still sends kids to IB/PE. Also I wouldn’t call placing 80 kids a year to banks “extremely small.” Personally I went to a semi-target school in the northeast, and loved my college experience, but definitely have respect for their business program.

 

You & your peers do not understand what a top target is. IU Kelley has never been in the discussion on WSO, reddit, at banks, etc. when considering target schools for recruiting.

I listed the target schools in my last post. IU isn't close to any of those in terms of recruitment.

Target schools are schools that get heavy on campus recruiting from all/most of the banks for their NYC offices. The "top targets" are HYPSW & Columbia. The average student at a "top target" can break into IB with relative ease. At IU, only the cream of the crop are going to ib

 

I posted this on another thread, but I will re-post for reference. Also, feel free to PM me to discuss the IU Program as I am 3-4 years out as an alum.

Going to IU is quite a big gamble on getting into the IB Workshop and much of the recruitment process, aside from GPA (even this can be manipulated based on what classes you take in what order), isn't something you can control considering much of getting in has to do with subjective measurements (Business Frats / Greek Life Connections which is predicated on what high school you went to and who you were friends with). For example, the minimum GPA to even apply for the IB Workshop is a 3.60 GPA and every year multiple candidates will gain admission while being significantly below this threshold mainly if they are a Diversity Candidate, but also through business fraternity / social fraternity connections. Also, a 3.80+ candidate can get axed over a 3.50+ candidate due to being an "optimal social-fit" - I.E. you play lax and got into one of the 4-5 well represented Greek Organizations freshman year.

Furthermore, all the top banks will ask the professor that runs the program for his "recommendations" on which candidates to interview and he will provide "recommendations" based on a few criteria (firm preference / GPA / mock interviews). Do you really think he'll recommend a 'Non-IB Workshop' candidate for the 1 Goldman / 1 Evercore / 1 JPM spot considering he is incentivized to achieve 100% student placement? -Answer: No

Is it possible to get offers without the workshop? - Absolutely, many do it every year, however, it is SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult and your prospects will 100% decrease to the point where if you are able to receive an offer to an MM bank such as a SunTrust / BMO / Piper Sandler / Baird without the Workshop, you would most definitely be guaranteed a spot at a BAML / Barlcays / Citigroup / MoCo etc if you were in the IB Workshop.

With that being said, the TOP job placements at IU are actually on par with the top placements at any Non-Harvard/UPENN schools (UCLA / UVA / Georgetown / Cornell) with a few kids joining the Blackstone / PJT analyst classes. However, much of your fate at IU is unfortunately decided your freshman year based on what fraternity you join and your relationship with the IB Workshop Professor / Upper Classmen.

With all that being said, despite placing ~80+ candidates/year, as an alumni I would have to admit to IU being a 'Non-Target' school because there are so many 'what-ifs' involved when evaluating a candidate from the school (ex: being a straight white/Asian male will make it categorically more difficult to place into the IB Workshop / Finance Societies).

Also ~80 placements in a Kelley class of 2,000+ every single year (when I graduated around 2016-2017, many of the 'average to above average Kelley students' had no clue as to where they would be working post-graduation as an 2nd semester senior) is quite weak. A target school is classified as a place where someone NOT in the top 5-10% of the University can still gain a relatively selective position.

In all, IU Kelley is a GREAT option if you are unable to gain admission to a 'Prestigious-University'

 

I would say a top target is a school where you don't have to be in the very highest echelon of your class in order to get great opportunities. Given the sheer size of IU's business school alone (7,500 undergrads) and the selectivity of the IBW (someone above mentions 80 kids), you definitely still have a lot of competing to do to get a great offer from IU Kelley.

 

You can PM me if you want. Its the IBW or bust. There are virtually no opportunities outside of the IBW. Its also an absolute grind to get into the IBW, the competition just gets fiercer every year. Only go there if its really your only decent choice.

 

Target schools are Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Stern, Wharton, Ross, UVA, USC, Cornell, USC(For LA/SF, not so much for NYC) UC Berkeley (Same thing as USC).

Semi-Targets are Emory, CMU, Notre Dame, Vandy, and some more schools.

 

My heart jumped when you said USC was a target before I saw the parenthesis... Guess I'll be staying in California with you Berkeley boys! Fight on.

And Kelly is a non-target lets be real

 

IBW placement is great, but the application process is not at all a meritocracy. It is almost like a rush process to a certain extent. Every year people that shouldn't get in do and people that should don't. There are a lot of politics involved and a lot of subjective things. If you don't get in you can still recruit for ibanking but it will be much much harder as banks will just choose to recruit from the IBW. There are probably 5 people a year who will get decent Banking offers without the workshop out of 15 who seriously try for it.

 

Having seen documents from the IBW on placements, and knowing many people in the club (pre-workshop) I would compare it to a larger version of the IB Academy at U of Illinois. Good placements but a lot of MM placements, which goes back to the faculty who established the programs at both of those schools

“If you ain’t first, you’re last!” - GOAT
 

Most posts on thread are good.

One thing not to forget is that the mentality in NYC finance is VERY classist (and well...there's another factor as well). IBW is great because they have a reputation for producing extremely competent analysts.

That said if you can get into a higher tier school that benefits you: Everyone knows that nobody's going to blame them for hiring the Harvard guy that turns out to be incompetent or unmotivated at IB work whereas pushing a non-target can easily backfire. The industry itself also tends to hire class based and the leadership are generally reluctant to hire people that they see as being part of the lower castes, and there's a strong preference for people with the right pedigree/family/tribal backgrounds.

 

Spot on, I want to emphasize the point of risk in terms of pushing a Harvard guy or gal vs. a non-target. I come from a non-target and this is the biggest hurdle to overcome. You have to convince the people you interact with, even your alumni, that you are worth the risk to push through in case you end up being incompetent

“If you ain’t first, you’re last!” - GOAT
 

IU Kelley has great IB recruiting for undergrad if you are in the investment banking network. My best friend who goes there however told me that all students are allowed to go the firm presentstions on campus, they get OCR from (Moelis, Lazard, Evercore, JPM, BAML, Barclays, PWP, Jefferies, WB, CS, and many many more banks). As you can see they have stellar placements if you are in the Investment Banking Network. They also send a select few kids to the buy-side out of school, past placements include Audax Group, BDT Capital Partners, and Maranon Capital; all very solid buy-side placements out of undergrad.

 

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