Grade Inflation at Top Schools and Its Impact on Campus Recruiting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Of interviewed students, what fraction just applied online without a connection?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

To what level of granularity? Does taking math 22a/b as an econ major look meaningfully better than math 18a/b? I shouldn't need to name the school, unless you know of multiple target schools with this numbering scheme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Family member worked at a hedge fund in his twenties had to provide his SAT scores. This was about ten years ago. Assume this common in some fields where prestige matters a lot, especially now with even more grade inflation.

Not common these day in hedge fund trading - an 800 is not at all impressive in that context. Hence, AMC/AIME scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

Less often these days. There's a lot more interest in engineering students and others with hard majors, math and so on. Banking and consulting do want some raw brain power. No one floats through an engineering degree regardless of grade inflation. Any English or History major that gets hired by these firms today likely has a parent that's a Managing Director and so on somewhere on Wall Street. Or they are the offspring of a prominent and wealthy family. Generally, an English degree doesn't fly unless they're bringing the connections and the wealth.

Why do you hire econ/finance/business majors over math/stats/engineering/CS/physics majors? Wouldn't the latter be expected to have more brainpower?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

Less often these days. There's a lot more interest in engineering students and others with hard majors, math and so on. Banking and consulting do want some raw brain power. No one floats through an engineering degree regardless of grade inflation. Any English or History major that gets hired by these firms today likely has a parent that's a Managing Director and so on somewhere on Wall Street. Or they are the offspring of a prominent and wealthy family. Generally, an English degree doesn't fly unless they're bringing the connections and the wealth.

Why do you hire econ/finance/business majors over math/stats/engineering/CS/physics majors? Wouldn't the latter be expected to have more brainpower?

This is my least favorite new hiring practice. We're gonna randomly hire smart people who are untrained to do our jobs to do something they don't care about and pay them a bunch just cause they're smart! I did an undergrad in physics and graduate training in statistics. Lord knows, you don't wanna hire most of the people from my cohort, just because they're "smart."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

To what level of granularity? Does taking math 22a/b as an econ major look meaningfully better than math 18a/b? I shouldn't need to name the school, unless you know of multiple target schools with this numbering scheme.

Wait..where can you major in economics and not take 22 a/b ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If grade inflation is happening at elite colleges or Ivy League schools, as reported by the New York Times and other outlets, how do on-campus recruiters distinguish between applicants? I’ve also heard that some hedge funds and investment banks actually ask for or look at applicants’ prior math-competition results (such as USAMO or AIME). This was mentioned in the Chinese social media—is that actually true?

No it isn’t. You can stop now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

I hired engineers at a FAANG for years, that sounds like Paly family copium after Larla didn’t get into a top UC. It literally never happens. Nobody cares where you went to school. If you can code you can code.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

This has become MUCH rarer, especially as the top schools’ student bodies become more pre-professional.

100% not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

Less often these days. There's a lot more interest in engineering students and others with hard majors, math and so on. Banking and consulting do want some raw brain power. No one floats through an engineering degree regardless of grade inflation. Any English or History major that gets hired by these firms today likely has a parent that's a Managing Director and so on somewhere on Wall Street. Or they are the offspring of a prominent and wealthy family. Generally, an English degree doesn't fly unless they're bringing the connections and the wealth.

Why do you hire econ/finance/business majors over math/stats/engineering/CS/physics majors? Wouldn't the latter be expected to have more brainpower?

This is my least favorite new hiring practice. We're gonna randomly hire smart people who are untrained to do our jobs to do something they don't care about and pay them a bunch just cause they're smart! I did an undergrad in physics and graduate training in statistics. Lord knows, you don't wanna hire most of the people from my cohort, just because they're "smart."

The issue is finance companies can't have colleges teaching their students how they do things because how they do things is a valuable part of their IP and can't get leaked, much less taught publicly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

To what level of granularity? Does taking math 22a/b as an econ major look meaningfully better than math 18a/b? I shouldn't need to name the school, unless you know of multiple target schools with this numbering scheme.

Wait..where can you major in economics and not take 22 a/b ?

Harvard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

This has become MUCH rarer, especially as the top schools’ student bodies become more pre-professional.

Well, I know a Princeton philosophy major working at Goldman hired last year…my one anecdote doesn’t mean much but this person is UMC but zero family connections to Wall Street.

Admittedly, I don’t know if she took a bunch of Econ or other classes that falls under the “relevant coursework”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Thank you for the kind and detailed information. I spoke with my child’s school counselor, and they mentioned that some tech companies—at least here on the West Coast—look at applicants’ high schools in addition to the the academic competition to get a sense of their background, since they don’t rely solely on college names anymore. I found that interesting and was wondering whether a similar trend exists in the financial industries in the East Coast.

Me again. No big banking or consulting employer "relies solely on college names." Even if we are looking at a candidate from a target school, we are going to be looking at the relevant coursework. We're familiar with the course catalog at the target schools.

What “relevant” coursework? Kids with English and History and all kinds of humanities degrees from top schools get hired in banking or consulting.

Less often these days. There's a lot more interest in engineering students and others with hard majors, math and so on. Banking and consulting do want some raw brain power. No one floats through an engineering degree regardless of grade inflation. Any English or History major that gets hired by these firms today likely has a parent that's a Managing Director and so on somewhere on Wall Street. Or they are the offspring of a prominent and wealthy family. Generally, an English degree doesn't fly unless they're bringing the connections and the wealth.

Why do you hire econ/finance/business majors over math/stats/engineering/CS/physics majors? Wouldn't the latter be expected to have more brainpower?

Person who worked in recruiting here. We still hire a lot of Econ and finance majors. A lot of this is these people have a high level of interest in banking and are likely to really stick it out. What we don’t really hire out of anymore is Art History, English etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here who posted about exec functioning skills and about how high school doesn't matter. I worked in recruiting for IB and also for consulting (after actually being a consultant myself). Happy to answer questions.

Of interviewed students, what fraction just applied online without a connection?

I did see this happen. Interestingly I actually saw a decent number people who had a master’s right after college or worked a year or elsewhere have luck with this at the top consulting firms and occasionally in finance —as they were ok coming in as a first year. You aren’t going to come in at a higher level.

[Anonymous]

pp. Should say * as long as they were ok coming in as a first year.