How do kids from lower ranked schools land prestigious internships/jobs?!?!

Anonymous
I have not read the whole thread, but a Caucasian White Male at a Top 25 is going up against diversity recruitment targets at these companies, so he would be at a disadvantage no matter what school he goes to. Are you sure that the kids landing the big jobs from Penn State for example aren’t connected and strings weren’t pulled for them? Regardless, I would advise your DS to adjust the companies / jobs he is targeting… aim for mid tier or niche consulting for example….or aim for locations outside of the key offices. And, if you have any contacts or family connections at all, now is the time to pull them. Lastly, The recruitment cycle for consulting and finance internships for summer 2024 are pretty much over, they hire 12-18 months in advance, so if he doesn’t have anything lined up for next summer, he needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan B
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You sound like one of the people who doesn't understand that the elite college experience has very little to do with academic performance and everything to do with making connections.

Read "The Years That Matter Most" by Paul Tough -- he explores this in some depth (and it's a great book).


Well, we need serious learners too, lest we continue on this downward trajectory where no one cares about work quality.


Serious learning is generally necessary but not sufficient. You get hired because of who you know. But who you know doesn't matter if you aren't at par. You aren't a contender for the top consulting jobs at all if you aren't at least at par with the folks who successfully hold those positions.
Anonymous
A bit disappointed. I thought this was going to give advice on finding internships. There are all sorts of students looking!
Anonymous
OP, I agree with the others - you’ve drank the top school kool aid.

The thing is, it’s not top schools vs lower ranked schools now, it’s a global competition.

I went to the UMich and head a department at a large professional services firm in NY. My peers, the heads of the other departments, come from a variety of schools - Yale, Arizona State, Williams, Boulder, Rutgers, etc. Recently, a position to become the Head for the Americas opened up and a bunch of us went for the job. Do you know who got it??? A guy from India who came from a no name Indian university, not even from the top Indian engineering schools which are well known. Imagine how we felt.

As others have said, it’s about grit and determination. Connections help especially for the first job. But the most important thing is the value you bring.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:A bit disappointed. I thought this was going to give advice on finding internships. There are all sorts of students looking!


Multiple interviews and expecting the intern to work part-time during the school year, not just summer, are “things” now. It’s funny how many expect the intern to be experienced when…they’re trying to get an internship.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:First of all, disabuse yourself of the notion that students who went to lower ranked schools "worked less hard." Students opt for lower ranked schools for many reasons that have nothing to do with their brains or work ethic - financial, geographic, athletic, etc. Perhaps they do have connections at the firms you mentioned, or perhaps they actually work harder than your son -- higher GPAs, more impressive extracurriculars, leadership roles, relevant work experience, research, etc.






Yes but you can look at common data set and majority doesn't have high grades and scores high enough for top schools.


And a minority do have high grades and high scores. They are highly motivated and do very well.

It's about the person, not the school.

This. The majority don’t get the top internships, it is the highly able and motivated ones who do and you can find people like that even at schools which accept 60 percent of applicants. It is about the individual.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP, I agree with the others - you’ve drank the top school kool aid.

The thing is, it’s not top schools vs lower ranked schools now, it’s a global competition.

I went to the UMich and head a department at a large professional services firm in NY. My peers, the heads of the other departments, come from a variety of schools - Yale, Arizona State, Williams, Boulder, Rutgers, etc. Recently, a position to become the Head for the Americas opened up and a bunch of us went for the job. Do you know who got it??? A guy from India who came from a no name Indian university, not even from the top Indian engineering schools which are well known. Imagine how we felt.

As others have said, it’s about grit and determination. Connections help especially for the first job. But the most important thing is the value you bring.


+1
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:A bit disappointed. I thought this was going to give advice on finding internships. There are all sorts of students looking!


Actually, if you read the whole thread, you will find plenty of good advice.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I have not read the whole thread, but a Caucasian White Male at a Top 25 is going up against diversity recruitment targets at these companies, so he would be at a disadvantage no matter what school he goes to. Are you sure that the kids landing the big jobs from Penn State for example aren’t connected and strings weren’t pulled for them? Regardless, I would advise your DS to adjust the companies / jobs he is targeting… aim for mid tier or niche consulting for example….or aim for locations outside of the key offices. And, if you have any contacts or family connections at all, now is the time to pull them. Lastly, The recruitment cycle for consulting and finance internships for summer 2024 are pretty much over, they hire 12-18 months in advance, so if he doesn’t have anything lined up for next summer, he needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan B


I work for a F200 and we hire young white college grads, male and female, all the time. White males are still our biggest recent hire demographics. We have plenty of other ethnicities too and while it may be true a group will say for this role we need more female representation or URMs, we still hire plenty of white males overall. I would not agree with the idea that doors are slamming in the face for white males. The demand for highly capable graduates who can perform well is very high and any graduate who can figure out how to make themselves highly capable will have options.
Anonymous
I work at three different IB companies and based on my limited experience, almost all of the internship positions go to either: 1- college athletes with connections; 2- family connections. YMMV.
Anonymous
^^this is the correct answer…DCUM is in denial

end thread
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid is at a top 25 school. He went through the summer internship interview process last year but didn’t land an internship with any of the prestigious employers people talk about here - banks, asset managers, consulting, etc. His school is so bloody competitive and there are so many hard driving and high achieving kids and, I guess, only this many spots at these firms per school. Kid has been pretty devastated.

But what has made it worse is seeing kids from lower ranked schools on LinkedIn, think 150+, who end up with internships at such places! I realise how this comes off but it is deeply upsetting when kid had to work SO hard to get into a top school and then see kids who have worked less hard, coming from schools with 80%+ acceptance rates, end up with opportunities that we have been told are easier to get as top school grads.

Kid just feels, what was the point of busting his behind so hard, he could have taken it easier, enjoyed high school a bit more, could have gone to a lower ranked school and still ended up at BlackRock or JP Morgan or Bain. And, of course, I haven’t shared this with him, but I’ve started feeling the same way.


Can you wrap your mind around the proposition that students at lower ranked schools also work hard?

There are a lot of assumptions in these two sentences.


Not OP. Can you in all honesty say that the AVERAGE kid at a 150+ school has worked as hard in high school as the AVERAGE kid at Princeton or MIT?? I think not but I’d be happy for people to prove me wrong.

- Grad of 150+ school who remembers what his average classmates were like




Some very smart hard working kids need to go to lower ranked schools because of merit.


+1

The world has changed. There are smart, motivated kids everywhere.


There were always smart, motivated kids everywhere.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I work in a firm OP mentioned in her post. In NYC. We have 2-3 interns in our department every year. I don’t have a lot of interaction w
them but I did notice we’ve had a Fordham student in each cohort for last several years. I asked the HR person about this and he said, I’ve learned city kids are a lot less work. He said he had interns that got in trouble or more recently, parents calling him. He literally got a call from a parent worried about her daughter taking subway at 5-6 am to get to work. Could she start later etc. So … now we get a lot more city kids.


Wow! This is a great story, thank you for sharing.


Yes, same, only state flagships now. No more Ivies for us. I've heard the same from other places.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My kid is at a top 25 school. He went through the summer internship interview process last year but didn’t land an internship with any of the prestigious employers people talk about here - banks, asset managers, consulting, etc. His school is so bloody competitive and there are so many hard driving and high achieving kids and, I guess, only this many spots at these firms per school. Kid has been pretty devastated.

But what has made it worse is seeing kids from lower ranked schools on LinkedIn, think 150+, who end up with internships at such places! I realise how this comes off but it is deeply upsetting when kid had to work SO hard to get into a top school and then see kids who have worked less hard, coming from schools with 80%+ acceptance rates, end up with opportunities that we have been told are easier to get as top school grads.

Kid just feels, what was the point of busting his behind so hard, he could have taken it easier, enjoyed high school a bit more, could have gone to a lower ranked school and still ended up at BlackRock or JP Morgan or Bain. And, of course, I haven’t shared this with him, but I’ve started feeling the same way.


Can you wrap your mind around the proposition that students at lower ranked schools also work hard?

There are a lot of assumptions in these two sentences.


Not OP. Can you in all honesty say that the AVERAGE kid at a 150+ school has worked as hard in high school as the AVERAGE kid at Princeton or MIT?? I think not but I’d be happy for people to prove me wrong.

- Grad of 150+ school who remembers what his average classmates were like




Some very smart hard working kids need to go to lower ranked schools because of merit.


+1

The world has changed. There are smart, motivated kids everywhere.


There were always smart, motivated kids everywhere.


Agreed, but there are more now at lower-ranked schools with merit aid because their families cannot pay for elite schools.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I work at three different IB companies and based on my limited experience, almost all of the internship positions go to either: 1- college athletes with connections; 2- family connections. YMMV.


Yes, but IB is not the be-all and end-all at some of the firms mentioned by OP. Commercial banking can be very interesting, especially when you get to bigger deals like middle market and beyond, syndicated finance, etc.
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