So, you’re looking for a good university that’s gonna get you far in the fast-paced world of investment banking? Then Grantford has you covered.
Why study investment banking? Investment bankers are the reason any large company is able to acquire other businesses and grow corporate profits. Without a facilitator, these complicated decisions either wouldn’t run smoothly or couldn’t happen at all. Investment bankers sit at the helm of meetings for these big decisions and make sure everything goes well for their client.
Investment Banking involves a variety of skills. You need communications to function in the front office. You need accounting to advise businesses on how to effectively respond to the ever-changing market. You need to learn to tap in to find and follow possible disruptors. For this kind of holistic education, you have to make sure you pick the right school.
Here are some top choices if you’re interested in taking courses to be an investment banker!
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
When is there a better time to look into a school than on its centennial year! The birthplace of the Blue Devils is also home to a top-tier investment banking program.
Duke’s online career center is a masterful collection of all the many career opportunities waiting for Duke’s graduates. It includes numerous employer-sponsored challenges for students of a given field. For example, the Investment Banking Challenge is written and administered by JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banking companies.
That particular challenge teaches you a number of real-world, career skills, like:
- Finding appropriate merger and acquisitions targets
- Financial analysis
- Providing investment recommendation
- General successful execution of strategy
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
What it lacks in undergraduate business programs, UChicago makes up for in its economics. They have the 4th best econ program in the country, and it shows. Even without that undergrad business school, UChicago sends the 15th most investment bankers into the workforce. Once you graduate, you can apply to stay for an MBA at the Booth School of Business, the 3rd best business school in America.
Investment banking students at UChicago also clearly take their profession incredibly seriously. They have an Investment Banking Club (the Undergraduate Investment Banking Group) that even has its own website. That student organization has official connections with several banks, and all of their undergraduate board members already have ties and jobs with large-scale investment banking companies.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
That’s right, MIT isn’t just a school for technological development. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a wide variety of programs, and their Investment Banking program, and associated and highly prolific Investment Banking Club, are well-respected in the finance world.
MIT certainly isn’t known for sending students into traditional investment banking fields, but what the Sloan School of Management lacks in notoriety, it makes up for in its ability to shake things up—MIT’s investment bankers generally aren’t as interested in the status quo of the profession.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also provides another skill important for any front house roll. It ranks #1 in the country in Communications, which is an absolutely necessary skill for this kind of job.
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
If you want the best of the best for investment banking colleges, UPenn could be your place. The University of Pennsylvania is the #1 investment banking school by total hires in the field.
Wharton, UPenn’s business school, was the first college-level school of business, so it has a rich history of being at the forefront of any business field. If anything new and exciting is happening in the world of finance, you can expect to see a graduate of Wharton’s finance program on the front lines.
If you want to be more sure than anyone else that you know where your life leads after graduation, the University of Pennsylvania is a sure bet!
New York University
New York City, New York
Even if we forget about their specific programs, NYU is certainly the best-located college on this list. The main campus sits at the heart of Manhattan, the most iconic district of the most populous city in the country. Luckily, we don’t have to forget about their programs, because this school is amazing at a lot of things.
Particularly its investment banking program, which is ranked #2 in the country by total hires post-grad. New York University’s Stern School of Business has numerous economics-focused programs for undergrad and grad school. If you’re looking to continue on to an MBA in Banking, Stern has you covered.
46% of NYU investment banking grads end up in the most elite of investment banking firms, so if anyone is making it to the big leagues, it’ll be an NYU alumn.
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Possibly the most beautiful campus on this list, designed to mimic a small European town, University of California Berkeley is home to a number of top tier programs. They have to be good if nine of their faculty members have won Nobel Prizes. A particular strength of this powerhouse school is investment banking.
UC Berkeley’s school of business, Berkeley Haas, has one of the longest histories of business schools in the country, so they have plenty of experience shaking up the status quo in the business world. In fact, that’s one of their core tenants. Investment banking at UC Berkeley puts a focus on running the future of business, and changing the future of individual businesses is an investment banker’s main job. The goals go hand in hand.
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
Georgetown University sits just between the northern edge of the Potomac River and the southern edge of Georgetown, its historic namesake neighborhood. The school is just down the street from the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and Smithsonian Museums, so a career with the federal government may not be a bad idea after graduating here.
The McDonough School of Business has several graduate and undergraduate programs, and their investment banking is holistically considered #2 in the country.
It may not be the top school for investment banking by hires, for that it’s the seventh-best, but it is the best investment banking school in terms of successful career path. Those who graduate from Georgetown’s program can rest easy knowing their career is headed the right way.
These are the Best Colleges for Investment Banking!
If you’re looking to help top businesses acquire subsidiaries and plan where best to use their money to maximize profits, investment banking is certainly the financial path for you! There are plenty of factors to weigh when looking for a school to study in that field. Whether you want a more traditional investment banking education or something a bit more avant-garde, the big bankers or the status-quo shakers, one of these colleges has exactly what you’re looking for.
