The surprising top schools for banking jobs in the U.S.

Which schools are most likely to get you a job in an investment bank in America? Our research suggests they're not all the most likely suspects.

As a follow-up to our recent article on the top schools in Europe for banking jobs, we looked at comparable data for the top schools in the U.S.. As the chart below shows, it helps to be in or close to New York City if you want to move into banking - New York University, Columbia University, Cornell, Rutgers and Baruch all top the list. But there's one anomaly.

Surprisingly, LinkedIn data suggests there are more people working at top banks in the U.S. who've graduated from the London School of Economics (in London) than from Harvard (in Cambridge, Massachusetts).

This popularity of LSE graduates in the U.S. banking market is a surprise, and partly down to internal moves from Europe - where LSE students dominate entry-level banking hiring, and partly down to the popularity of the LSE's masters courses with candidates who've completed a bachelor's degree in the U.S. 

Our own figures, based on eFinancialCareers' own resume database, suggest that LinkedIn's figures might also be skewed by people working in the middle and back office. When we look at the top schools attended by people working in front office revenue generating jobs at major banks, New York University again ranks top but Harvard University ranks second. The London School of Economics is still a major feeder to banks in the U.S., but it slips down the ranking to 7th when we look at the top schools for the front office.

The LSE's own data (now five years out of date) shows that its finance graduates achieve a median starting salary of £50k ($67k) versus $40k for students of public policy. Senior LSE graduates on Wall Street include Jehan Ilahi in the executive office at Goldman Sachs, or Stephen Luterman the head of fixed income markets technology at JPMorgan. 

 

Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)

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