WhartonPablo

i am interested in I-banking. where should i go?

CNI

Duke and Dartmouth will provide an easier path, school-work wise, although U of C's econ dept. is the best out of those three. just pick which school you like better.

CNI

You also have a better chance of landing in NYC by going to Duke/Dartmouth. If you want to stay in Chicago, go to U of C.

slipper1234

Agreed. UC pretty much has the in at everywhere in Chicago, but Duke/ Dartmouth have the advantage on Wall Street. Dartmouth does the best in terms of the actual number of banks recruiting on campus.

uchicagoalum

While it is true that Chicago places more finance / consulting types into Chicago, and while Dartmouth and Duke have a more NYC pull, I would not choose on this criterion alone, or on a desire to go into an IB division. Frequently, students find themselves hunting for ANY finance position with a strong firm, and then have to choose amongst several alternatives based on their personal interests, hours, compensation and so forth. In terms of the likelihood of gaining a post-BA job in sales and trading, fixed income, research, or one of the many other finance sub-sectors, it is pretty much a wash across the three schools.

Really, you should look into where you think you will most likely succeed as a well rounded student. With this in mind, if I was looking at college primarily as a ticket to a high paying job and an MBA program 2-5 years after graduation, I would choose Duke or Dartmouth, but not Chicago. I am not saying that Chicago is a bad pre-MBA choice, but you clearly have to purchase into the intellectual culture during your time there if you do not want to be miserable.

unalove

Agreed. Chicago might bring you to the same level in the long run, but it's going to be a long, long run unless you dig schoolwork as much as derivatives trading (or whatever).

JHS

I have no idea where CNI or slipper is getting his/her information. I don't think there is a meaningful difference among those schools, per se, in the opportunities available to their similarly situated students.

slipper1234

There is a big difference. Dartmouth as 5/7 elite banks recruiting on campus vs. 4 for Duke and 3 for Chicago (vault*.com). Dartmouth also has special "during the year" internships that are a big advantage in terms of getting into top firms.

CNI

slipper, could you maybe post those articles? I don't have a membership to vault, and i doubt a lot of people do

uchicagoalum

The user generated content on Vault is not meaningful. Even the Vault proprietary research often needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. There is not major investment bank that recruits at Dartmouth, but not at Duke or Chicago.

chicagoboy12

How many recruit at cornell?

uchicagoalum

There are basically two tiers of recruiting for elite banks and consulting firms:

1. HYPSM, Wharton, and Cal Tech if a student is aggressive.

2. Chicago, Columbia, Northwestern, Berkeley, Cornell, Brown, Penn, Duke, Dartmouth, Rice, Amherst, Wellesley, Swarthmore, Williams, and JHU if a student is aggressive. The undergraduate business oriented divisions of Michigan, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and Virginia would also be in here, but moreso for the dry accounting and control type positions (which out of college pay the same and have comparable responsibilities).

After this there is a huge drop off in terms of on campus recruiting presence, yet you do see some people from places like Emory, UCLA or NYU sneak in on account of having been a high GPA business major or having strung together a handful of influential internships.

stoneimmaculate

if you're deciding on a school based on the fact that you want to be in the best position for investment banking then you're probably not a good "fit" for Chicago. Duke and Dartmouth have better recruiting anyway.

Sam Lee

Not according to uchicagoalum, who seems to be in that field. Are you sure about what you just wrote? What's your background?

This seems to be like an endless debate..esp after someone who seems knowledgeable gives his/her view and then a person like you just pops up and says otherwise.

stoneimmaculate

Dartmouth has incredible recruiting for its size, probably right behind HYPW in the ivy league. Duke does really well too, especially at MS.

This stuff isn't a secret, do some research. It's a well known fact that Chicago does not do that well at all for NYC BB's; most end up in Chicago.

Ibankingoasis.com is an excellent resource for this kind of stuff and the people that post there actual work on wall street, so take their word for it.

heres one thread about Uchicago Econ at the University of Chicago?? | WallStreetOasis.com

use the search engine, there is plenty of stuff there.