What About Wharton?
We know. Many are probably asking how a list of top business schools for investment banking could not include the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School? Though certainly a top contender in the field historically, Wharton actually sent only 14 percent of its most recent class into investment banking, a figure that has slipped some almost every year since 2008. We should note that while Wharton is sending fewer of its students into banking, it still sent 36.9 percent of the Class of 2015 into finance overall, with increasing numbers of graduates pursuing opportunities in private equity, venture capital and with leveraged buyouts shops.
Though we’ve focused in here on CBS, Chicago Booth and NYU Stern, that’s not to say that other leading business schools won’t help you land a position at your choice investment bank. If you find yourself in the enviable position of gaining acceptance to multiple top MBA programs, we encourage you to use overall industry placement stats, how many students from a given school got jobs at your target firms, what those students took down in terms of salaries and the resources provided by student clubs as useful measuring sticks to evaluate your options. These, together with a close look at faculty and curriculum, can help you truly assess the strength of a school’s program in terms of helping you land your chosen job.
