The best investment banking institutions are those that consistently enroll numerous students to top investment banks, boast impressive rate of placement for students who are not in college and offer specialized programmes or student groups to prepare you for finance careers. Cornell, MIT, and Columbia all meet this standard. They also have a large number of alumni working in the industry and other extracurricular programs like Booth’s Finance Society, and Stern’s famed Finance Program which offer exposure to real-world challenges in investment banking.
These schools also typically have a strong alumni network within the field which can be beneficial for networking, and are usually located close to the financial hub of small or regional investment banks. They also have top-ranked accounting and finance programs.
When choosing a college, you should also consider your personal interests, the kind of career you wish to pursue and what positions you’re interested in working at an investment banking company. In contrast to other industries, where hiring is more meritocratic through technical interviews, recruitment for investment banking is heavily dependent on a school’s reputation and the quantity of top performing students that the institution produces each year.
For students who are just beginning their studies, look into institutions like NYU and UMich, which have strong reputations in the business field and are known for their alumni networks and high placement rates. In Europe you should think about HEC Paris and Oxford Said Business School. In Asia think about HKUST best virtual data rooms and CUHK and Chinese universities like Peking University, Tsinghua and Fudan.
