Non-Targets on Wall Street

whartongrad08
Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:53:44 +0000

Having worked in investment banking before I can tell you that schools are tiered in this way:

1). National Targets (i.e. target candidates from these schools for all offices worldwide) - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn/Wharton, Stanford, MIT, Dartmouth, etc. [not exhaustive but a sample of the schools]
2). Regional Targets (i.e. generally target candidates from these schools for local offices with some candidates going to other offices) - USC, UCLA, Berkeley, Rice, UT-Austin, UVA, UChicago, Northwestern, UMich, etc. [not exhaustive but a sample of the schools]
3). Non-Target (i.e. will hire from these schools if the person really networked and found a way to get an interview, attend a school with an “IB” focused program that fosters relationships with banks but arent necessarily considered targets)

For the non-target list I’ve seen most candidates come from schools like Indiana, Arizona State, Penn State, etc. [i.e. large public schools with semi-decent/average undergrad business programs].