Kid wants to work on Wall Street

[Anonymous]

Considering OPs stats
NYU>Georgetown>UMich>Notre Dame> Emory>UVA>WashU>BC>Vandy

I would ED1 Emory for the best odds at getting into a school with a pipeline. Or ED1 NYU Stern as an overall best pick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait. So OP posted the question at 11:31 AM, and then literally within one minute the "Bucknell/The Street" poster just happens to have read it *and* responded...

...and then in the next 45 minutes there are seven more posts about Bucknell?

Yeah. It's really sad. Maybe it's all being done by Bucknell admissions office.

The Bucknell kids go to The Street poster is nuts. A third rate school.

No, you're nuts. Bucknell is ranked #30 among LACs. It's within 5-10 spots of W&L, Colgate, Haverford, Colby, and Bates. How in the world is that a third rate school? Does each tier only have 5-10 schools or something?

Colgate is leagues ahead of Bucknell though.
Leagues.

Whatcha talkin' 'bout ? Both schools are in the Patriot League.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_League

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Considering OPs stats
NYU>Georgetown>UMich>Notre Dame> Emory>UVA>WashU>BC>Vandy

I would ED1 Emory for the best odds at getting into a school with a pipeline. Or ED1 NYU Stern as an overall best pick.

Sorry, OP's kid isn't getting into a single one of these schools with his stats. Bucknell or Colgate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering OPs stats
NYU>Georgetown>UMich>Notre Dame> Emory>UVA>WashU>BC>Vandy

I would ED1 Emory for the best odds at getting into a school with a pipeline. Or ED1 NYU Stern as an overall best pick.

Sorry, OP's kid isn't getting into a single one of these schools with his stats. Bucknell or Colgate.

I personally don’t agree with this. These schools are reaches but worth applying to. Bucknell and Colgate simply do not place well in high finance outside of nepo hires and lucky breakthroughs. A better target school is IU Kelley of OPs kid really wants Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering OPs stats
NYU>Georgetown>UMich>Notre Dame> Emory>UVA>WashU>BC>Vandy

I would ED1 Emory for the best odds at getting into a school with a pipeline. Or ED1 NYU Stern as an overall best pick.

Sorry, OP's kid isn't getting into a single one of these schools with his stats. Bucknell or Colgate.

I personally don’t agree with this. These schools are reaches but worth applying to. Bucknell and Colgate simply do not place well in high finance outside of nepo hires and lucky breakthroughs. A better target school is IU Kelley of OPs kid really wants Wall Street.

My DS graduated from IU Kelley in May and is still looking for a job on Wall Street. Not sure what you guys are smoking.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...mine went to Princeton to work on Wall Street. Friends on Wall Street went to a myriad of schools.. ND, Georgetown, Penn, Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and one even went to Drexel. I didn't hear of any from Bucknell. Your child may need to " back door it" with those stats OP if they can' t get into a plum uni. Maybe aim for operations in an undesirable city to work in a big bank first (such as JP Morgan in Columbus, Ohio). I know someone who did that from Miami U in OH + ended up on Wall Street.

[Anonymous]

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Considering OPs stats
NYU>Georgetown>UMich>Notre Dame> Emory>UVA>WashU>BC>Vandy

I would ED1 Emory for the best odds at getting into a school with a pipeline. Or ED1 NYU Stern as an overall best pick.

Sorry, OP's kid isn't getting into a single one of these schools with his stats. Bucknell or Colgate.

I personally don’t agree with this. These schools are reaches but worth applying to. Bucknell and Colgate simply do not place well in high finance outside of nepo hires and lucky breakthroughs. A better target school is IU Kelley of OPs kid really wants Wall Street.

My DS graduated from IU Kelley in May and is still looking for a job on Wall Street. Not sure what you guys are smoking.

I guarantee you there are kids that graduated from Wharton still looking for jobs on Wall Street…yet nobody would dispute your chances are greater from Wharton.

Your personal anecdote doesn’t change anything on the raw numbers and PP wasn’t implying that Kelley grads all easily get jobs.

[Anonymous]

For all of you arguing over Bucknell, they actually publish an annual comprehensive list of where their most recent class is working or attending graduate school.

Here's the one from 2023:

https://www.bucknell.edu/sites/default/files/file/2024-05/final_post_grad_report_2023.pdf

There are degrees within in the school of liberal arts (economics, etc) that appear to lead to Wall Street jobs and then if you scroll further you'll come to their Business school (Freeman College of Management).

I have no affiliation with Bucknell. My son is a rising senior, we toured this summer and he decided that it's not for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alright OP, this is an area I'm very familiar with and can give some insight. Wall Street is still very prestige driven when we're talking about desirable roles (investment banking, sales & trading, and buy side role e.g., private equity, asset management, hedge funds, etc.). This has improved in recent years but there are many online resources that show the 'target' schools that these institutions primarily hire from. The heavy hitters are Ivy League schools (esp. HYP and Wharton), and similarly prestigious programs, but there are some slightly more accessible schools that your kid should look into if interested in 'high finance':

UVA (Darden)
Georgetown (McD)
U Michigan (Ross)
NYU (Stern)
Emory (Goizuetta)

These would all be reaches, but not totally out of the question. They all have dedicated business schools that have very strong pipelines into IB and Wall St. more broadly. Indiana University's Kelley is another program that places remarkably well and has lower selectivity than the usual suspects. Fordham and Boston College also have some success, but limited comparatively.

Outside of these, some schools do very well regionally (SMU and UT Austin for example), particularly in the Houston scene, though your kid might be less interested in going to college/working there.

I'd ignore much of the advice you'll hear about small schools that "punch above their weight". It's not that some SLACs don't do well (WASP, CMC, and some other very selective LACs do great), but for the most part this is kind of a fiction. I know many people who went to Bucknell or Villanova pursuing finance -- none of those people work in IB, PE, S&T, etc., though they can do fine if targeting corp. dev or accounting I guess.

Main takeaway: Wall St. has its favorites, and breaking in from outside of them is a very uphill battle. It's also worth mentioning that it's a very tough, very cutthroat career path. Definitely the kind pursuit where it's helpful to have other options in mind when you're in college.

Great summary. Until a few years ago, i did m and a for a top nyc law firm. It seemed like everyone i worked with at our client companies was an alum of an Ivy, a very top SLAC, or a very short list of other top schools (stanford, mit, chicago, maybe michigan). As others have said, there also are grads of NYC colleges who live and breathe finance and work harder than anyone (crazy how well Baruch grads, often first gen Americans, do). I literally never came across anyone from Bucknell, Lehigh, or most of the other schools mentioned in this chain. The industry employs a lot of people and has a lot of non-glamorous jobs that a Bucknell grad could fill, but I've never seen them among dealmakers, traders, etc.

+1
I worked on wall st in corp finance in investment banking for years. We mainly recruited from ivies, top LACs, duke, uva, Chicago, ND, pen state, Baruch, nyu, and michigan. I never came across a Bunnell grad. Maybe they applied but there were never any in our summer analyst or associate programs when I was there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My DS graduated from IU Kelley in May and is still looking for a job on Wall Street. Not sure what you guys are smoking.

I guarantee you there are kids that graduated from Wharton still looking for jobs on Wall Street…yet nobody would dispute your chances are greater from Wharton.

Your personal anecdote doesn’t change anything on the raw numbers and PP wasn’t implying that Kelley grads all easily get jobs.

your chances are greater from Wharton IF you have "connections". Otherwise, it is just as good a chance as others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
My DS graduated from IU Kelley in May and is still looking for a job on Wall Street. Not sure what you guys are smoking.

I guarantee you there are kids that graduated from Wharton still looking for jobs on Wall Street…yet nobody would dispute your chances are greater from Wharton.

Your personal anecdote doesn’t change anything on the raw numbers and PP wasn’t implying that Kelley grads all easily get jobs.

your chances are greater from Wharton IF you have "connections". Otherwise, it is just as good a chance as others.

Well, Wharton/Penn sends double the number of kids to Wall Street then the #2 feeder.

Are you implying they all have connections?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of you arguing over Bucknell, they actually publish an annual comprehensive list of where their most recent class is working or attending graduate school.

Here's the one from 2023:

https://www.bucknell.edu/sites/default/files/file/2024-05/final_post_grad_report_2023.pdf

There are degrees within in the school of liberal arts (economics, etc) that appear to lead to Wall Street jobs and then if you scroll further you'll come to their Business school (Freeman College of Management).

I have no affiliation with Bucknell. My son is a rising senior, we toured this summer and he decided that it's not for him.

this is incredibly impressive - I’m sure this makes some of the previous posters feel pretty foolish for bashing Bucknell!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why?

I don’t think I know a single HS kid who wants to work on Wall Street unless their parents or close adults already are.

Kids are usually more romantic. They know they need a job and need to find a major that will get them a job. But they are usually looking to 1. Be in a helping profession (doctor, teacher, social worker); 2. Be the smartest one around (collect advanced degrees); 3. Be in a follower of their passion (theatre, math, French poetry); 4. Be an entrepreneur (specifics not needed) and 5. Be like mom/dad or not be like mom/dad.

This is ridiculous. My DC wants to be an engineer and design weapons for the military with neither parent having a connection to the military. Doesn't really fit under any of your numbers above unless they scribble French poetry on the missiles they want to design.

I’m sad you couldn’t raise children with morals.

DP they actually investigate your morals very carefully when you apply for a clearance.

I find this laughable with at least some of the people I know with clearances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all of you arguing over Bucknell, they actually publish an annual comprehensive list of where their most recent class is working or attending graduate school.

Here's the one from 2023:

https://www.bucknell.edu/sites/default/files/file/2024-05/final_post_grad_report_2023.pdf

There are degrees within in the school of liberal arts (economics, etc) that appear to lead to Wall Street jobs and then if you scroll further you'll come to their Business school (Freeman College of Management).

I have no affiliation with Bucknell. My son is a rising senior, we toured this summer and he decided that it's not for him.

Wow. I love that they publish it in this much detail.
It is quite detailed and extraordinary Olt helpful.

Does any other school do something similar? Not just going to the website of school/major and seeing “top 3 employers over last 5 years) but something this granular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ND or Bucknell - Assuming you got into both, which is better.

for business it’s a toss up - both are great options!

Better for what? You people are so status obsessed. How about a fit for your kid, their happiness?