I think that if you are looking at value, I’d personally choose a Fordham or Bama Culverhouse (yes, they’re at Goldman and other IBs) over Michigan, etc.
Investment management has people from all schools and stripes and there are so many firms all over - tons.
Just look at the bios of some fund managers and analysts.
Looking at mutual funds, I see foreign (a trend that will happen more and more). At Fidelity, I see everything from Wharton to Wisconsin to Hobart & William Smith.
At Vanguard, you have Arcadia U with a Villanova MBA (you’ll see MBA in many of these), Shippensburg, American U.
T Rowe Price - W Washington U (with MBA at Dartmouth), St. Marys of Maryland, Hillsdale
My daughter’s BF is at U of Denver Daniels School and he’s on the team that manages a chunk of the portfolio. I know Culverhouse Alabama has the same (and it’s arguably the best NMF).
I think - for mutual fund management or private equity management - there are soooooooo many operations and as I show above - you’ll have some MBAs from top or not top schools (I saw a Louisville), you’ll have CFAs, and you’ll have schools that run the gamut - even at your largest firms (but there’s so many opportunities).
I was visiting a client of my client yesterday (I call on car dealers) - and this operation was being visited by a private equity. I was interested in the person I met who was on the team looking to fund - he was a Cornell Engineer with Harvard MBA. But I was looking at the profiles of the people at the company - and on the investment team - you had USC, Wesleyan, CUNY Baruch, Gtown, Union, McGill, TCU, Nebraska, Fordham, and more. This is a firm from Greenwich, CT.
Other firms run the gamut - from Colorado to any big 10, SEC schools, etc.
I think in investment management and I’m not saying the better names don’t do better - but are they worth hundreds of thousands of dollars more? That’s up to you - but I can’t imagine.
If it were me and that was the goal, I’d pursue an NMF school and bust tail - reaching out and networking etc. It’s the internet world today - and my daughter’s BF worked in healthcare equity last summer - and had no issue getting an internship.
You have a great problem - brilliant kid, going to get into fantastic schools…but on the flipside could also potentially save you $250K or even $360K - and you just don’t know which will work. Any could work - but yes, some may require more work.
One thing to look at - most these folks (not all) have MBAs or CFAs so where they go undergrad may not be as impactful as where they go grad - and they’ll be working a few years first before they go to an MBA program - and where you go undergrad will have little impact on where you go MBA - assuming one can get a solid role from anywhere. Your GMAT and work experience will determine where you go.
It seems like you’re a value guy - so i’m not sure more names would be of help here - unless they do better financially…especially if you’re going to lean heavily into Fordham. But if you would be willing to spend $80-90K a year, then of course, it’s your right to add others.
A school that might be an in between ($50K-ish) would be - Ga Tech.
But I’m not sure it provides any more value than anywhere else.
In fact, one could argue, by being at a less competitive school, you’d have more access to getting on an investment team (managing a fund the school’s give). My daughter’s BF told me - all the interviewers wanted to talk about that.
Best of luck to you whatever way your son goes.