How much does being a D1 athlete (mid tier athletics) help w/

[Anonymous]

As others have mentioned, some schools and sports actively cultivate alumni networks and encourage student athletes to leverage those connections.

But there's a related and perhaps more valuable benefit: the recruiting process itself teaches networking skills. A Patriot or Ivy League athlete typically isn't a five star recruit with offers falling into their lap. They have to hustle, make connections, and sell themselves. If parents handle this process, it's a missed opportunity to develop these skills.

My son manages his entire recruitment process, and it's essentially the same as networking for internships and jobs with cold emails, building relationships, following up, handling rejection, and staying organized. The legwork required to get recruited, especially as a non elite prospect, builds a skill set that should transfer to the professional world.
So while alumni networks and employer appreciation for athletes matter, I'd argue the process itself is just as important if the recruited athlete is highly involved. What people often underestimate is just how much work recruiting actually is. It's a massive time commitment that forces student athletes to grow up fast.

[Anonymous]

My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

[Anonymous]

Depends. If the hiring manager is also college athlete the nod will go to the athlete candidate. Particularly in IB , which is chock of former D1 athletes, playing a sport gives you a leg up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If the hiring manager is also college athlete the nod will go to the athlete candidate. Particularly in IB , which is chock of former D1 athletes, playing a sport gives you a leg up.

As a parent of a kid playing a sport at an Ivy, what my daughter tells me is that an athlete sitting in the middle of the pack of their class cannot compete for the plum internships or first year finance jobs with the kids graduating at the very top. Similar with places like McKinsey. If you are at the top of your class AND an athlete, absolutely. But it’s not like they are rolling out the red carpet for the highest risk buy side roles just because you are an athlete. There’s mythology about the Ivy-alumni-athlete in finance person that is exaggerated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

I was going to write something similar, though I am on the other side. I was a UPenn wrestler, so I definitely have a loyalty to UPenn wrestlers. I will go to some reunions and meet up with current wrestlers and happy to provide my contact information. If any wrestler contacts me out of the blue and wants to meet up in NYC (or if I am down in Philly), I am happy to do so and will make the time. Not so much just a random Penn kid unless their outreach makes some sense from a career perspective.

Outside of the wrestling team, I like smart Penn kids (and Wharton grads), but I don't care all that much of someone was on the football or softball or other team. I appreciate the time commitment and it's impressive if they also have other achievements, but it doesn't move the needle all that much.

I also don't ascribe much weight to a kid from another college playing a sport. The candidate has to fill a need for a job and if the sport took up all their time, it's going to be hard for them to stand out.

My advice to any of these other athletes would be similar to how I view wrestlers...there must be successful alums from your school who played the sport, so go network with those alums. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if you are an analyst at JPM vs Goldman vs Morgan Stanley vs INSERT IBANK NAME HERE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If the hiring manager is also college athlete the nod will go to the athlete candidate. Particularly in IB , which is chock of former D1 athletes, playing a sport gives you a leg up.

As a parent of a kid playing a sport at an Ivy, what my daughter tells me is that an athlete sitting in the middle of the pack of their class cannot compete for the plum internships or first year finance jobs with the kids graduating at the very top. Similar with places like McKinsey. If you are at the top of your class AND an athlete, absolutely. But it’s not like they are rolling out the red carpet for the highest risk buy side roles just because you are an athlete. There’s mythology about the Ivy-alumni-athlete in finance person that is exaggerated.

That is why Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury are great picks for finance. Great pipelines with heavy hitting alum networks with easy access to clubs and connections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

This just isn’t true.

[Anonymous]

Middlebury is nowhere near Amherst and Williams. Usually pumped up by Karen Midd boosters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

This just isn’t true.

Simply stating that without any support just kind of undermines your assertion to the point that it’s just a garbage reply. When a consulting firm doing internship hiring asks for your SAT scores like McKinsey does and you are a test optional tennis player with a middle of the pack GPA, you are not getting that internship no matter how much charisma you exude. You’ll get a job at a big bank someday but it’s more likely institutional sales. That’s a world away from a buy side IB job or consulting at McKinsey. Some people don’t realize that all jobs at investment banks snd other similar places are not created equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

This just isn’t true.

Simply stating that without any support just kind of undermines your assertion to the point that it’s just a garbage reply. When a consulting firm doing internship hiring asks for your SAT scores like McKinsey does and you are a test optional tennis player with a middle of the pack GPA, you are not getting that internship no matter how much charisma you exude. You’ll get a job at a big bank someday but it’s more likely institutional sales. That’s a world away from a buy side IB job or consulting at McKinsey. Some people don’t realize that all jobs at investment banks snd other similar places are not created equal.

I think this moved off-topic because nobody gets an MBB consulting job without doing well on case interviews and what not (MBBs are huge companies now, so they do hire college grads in non-consulting roles so I can definitely see a tennis player getting a job in marketing or bus development support or something like that).

Finance hiring (which is what OP asked) works differently and there are many high-paying client-relationship roles where the tennis player can be slotted in as example.

I also think using tennis is probably just a bad analogy. Ivy league tennis and golf players tend to all be wealthy and have great connections regardless of the sport. They nearly all come from private schools...possibly boarding schools for a tennis player.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is nowhere near Amherst and Williams. Usually pumped up by Karen Midd boosters.

You definitely don't run in the right circles when it comes to IB and MBB recruiting. Let's just leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is at an Ivy playing a sport. It seems like a great conversation starter for her at fairs and in interviews.

I think the athlete network thing is overhyped. At least she has not seen it. She really does not have time to network, not like how the kids in finance clubs at her school do.

For the best finance jobs, they just want the smartest kids with quantitative skills. They’ll take a physics major over a tennis player any day.

For her, her sport continues to teach things that will carry forward. The biggest are accountability and time management and drive. But when you drop your resume at JPM they want to see first and foremost your GPA and the classes you are taking (the more math the better).

This just isn’t true.

Simply stating that without any support just kind of undermines your assertion to the point that it’s just a garbage reply. When a consulting firm doing internship hiring asks for your SAT scores like McKinsey does and you are a test optional tennis player with a middle of the pack GPA, you are not getting that internship no matter how much charisma you exude. You’ll get a job at a big bank someday but it’s more likely institutional sales. That’s a world away from a buy side IB job or consulting at McKinsey. Some people don’t realize that all jobs at investment banks and other similar places are not created equal.

I know a single volleyball team at one of the above schools that had a HALF DOZEN girls with banking internships just this past summer. That was effectively three quarters of the rising juniors and seniors. I see it first hand because my kid plays with them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is nowhere near Amherst and Williams. Usually pumped up by Karen Midd boosters.

Time for some reading.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-banking

https://mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-target-schools/

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/from-college-to-consulting/

https://www.peakframeworks.com/post/ib-target-schools

https://www.middlebury.edu/college/sites/default/files/2023-04/Top%20Colleges%20for%20High-Paying%20Jobs%20in%20Finance%20-%20WSJ.pdf?fv=Be3fxjHC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middlebury is nowhere near Amherst and Williams. Usually pumped up by Karen Midd boosters.

You definitely don't run in the right circles when it comes to IB and MBB recruiting. Let's just leave it at that.

Have to agree - Middlebury a great school but a notch or two below Williams and Amherst on the street

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously if it is Bucknell you are all but guaranteed a spot at the most prestigious firms on Wall Street.

Bucknell is a very good school, but is this sarcasm? fairly new here

Yes, it's sarcasm. There was (maybe is?) a poster who would incessantly brag about Bucknell possessing a "pipeline" to "The Street", so people started to run with it.