Columbia

A quick glance at Columbia Business School: Columbia currently ranks in eighth place as one of the best business schools, according to US News & World Report (March 2012). It was ranked #4 for finance.  

Columbia’s Class of 2013 and Finance

6669 people applied to Columbia Business School; 1062 applicants were accepted (16% acceptance rate). The middle 80% of accepted students had GMAT scores in the 680-760 range. The Columbia Business School class of 2013 has an average of four years of work experience and a median GMAT score of 720.

29% of class of 2013 students have undergraduate degrees in business.

The greatest number of students entered CBS with industry experience in financial services (28%). 7% had prior experience in private equity.

CBS Academics Related to Finance & Economics

Students are required to take two full core courses and 12 half-term core courses, three of which are chosen from the “flex-core” menu.

First Term Core Courses

• 2 Full courses: Corporate Finance and Financial Accounting
• 6 Half-term courses: Managerial Statistics, Managerial Economics, Strategy Formulation, Marketing Strategy, Operations Management, Leadership Development

Second Term Core Courses

• 2 Electives
• 3 Half-term courses: Global Economic Environment, Decision Models, Managing Marketing Programs
• 3 Flex-core classes, one from each category (see below)

“Flex-Core” Menu

• Organization: Organizational Change, Power and Influence, Social Networks and Social Capita
• Performance: Operations Strategy, Financial Planning and Analysis
• Markets: Game Theory and Business, Global Economic Environment II: Business Cycles and Financial Markets, Incentives and Performance

With more than half of Columbia Business School’s MBAs securing jobs in finance-related jobs, it’s no surprise that the Finance and Economics Division is CBS’s largest division. Students who wish to pursue careers in this industry would take their first year electives and second year courses from the courses listed below.

Courses Focused on Finance

• B6301-001 – Corporate Finance 3.0 credit hours
• B6302-001 – Capital Markets & Investments 3.0 credit hours
• B8301-002 – Advanced Corporate Finance 3.0 credit hours
• B8308-001 – Debt Markets 3.0 credit hours
• B8309-002 – Derivatives 3.0 credit hours
• B8313-001 – Security Analysis 3.0 credit hours
• B8314-001 – Real Estate Finance 3.0 credit hours
• B8323-001 – Asset Management 3.0 credit hours
• B8345-001 – Entrepreneurial Finance & Private Equity 3.0 credit hours
• B8358-001 – Banking Fundamentals: Value and Risk 3.0 credit hours
• B8399-004 – Emerging Financial Markets 3.0 credit hours
• B8399-005 – Real Estate Capital Markets 3.0 credit hours
• B8399-030 – Social Impact Real Estate Investing & Development 3.0 credit hours
• B8399-032 – Financial Crises and Regulatory Responses 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-001 – Finance & Sustainability 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-043 – Mergers & Acquisitions 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-057 – VC/Angel Deals: gut-driven tech investing 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-063 – Investment Banking Tax Factors 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-066 – Value & Special Situation Investment 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-077 – Applied Value Investing 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-111 – Private Equity: the asset class, its investments & its markets 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-116 – Hedge Funds 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-128 – Mental Models, Investment Frameworks 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-172 – Institutional Investing and Endowment Management 1.5 credit hours
• B9301-174 – Misunderstood Securities: Investing in Uncertainty and Change 3.0 credit hours
• B9377-003 – Mergers & Acquisitions in Media (Master Class) 3.0 credit hours
• B8201-003 – Economics of Strategic Behavior 3.0 credit hours
• B8313-001 – Security Analysis 3.0 credit hours
• B9301-173 – Valuation 3.0 credit hours

The table here shows which courses would be appropriate for specific finance-related careers. And this table shows a similar chart for PE/VC careers.

Columbia CaseWorks Cases that will be of interest to students pursuing careers in the finance sector include:

• Cash is King: Microsoft’s 2004 Cash Disbursement, with Professor Laurie Hodrick
• Drop the Debt? Dilemmas Confronting the Design of Development Aid and Debt Relief, with Professor Marc Giannoni
• Liquidating Harvard, with Professor Andrew Ang
• The Perfect Storm: Citigroup’s $7.5 Billion Mandatory Convertible Issue, with Professor Enrique Arzac
• Valuing Currency Management: TOM vs. U.S. Commerce Bank, with Professor Geert Bekaert
• Walgreen Company, 1990: The Cash Distribution Decision, with Professor Laurie Hodrick)

(See full list here.)

Financial Research Centers at Columbia Business School

• The Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis
• The Center for Pricing and Revenue Management
• The Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate
• The Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing

CBS Finance-Related Clubs

• Financial Education Society 
• Columbia Investment Management Association
• Investment Banking Club
• Private Equity and Venture Capital Club
• Real Estate Association
• Columbia Finance Organization
• Equity Research Club

Finance Hiring Stats at Columbia Business School

In 2011, 50.3% of CBS graduates accepted full-time job offers in the finance industry.

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Wharton

A quick glance at Wharton: Wharton currently ranks in third place as one of the best business schools, according to US News & World Report (March 2012). For finance, Wharton was ranked as number one.

Incoming Wharton Students and Financial Services

The class of 2013 has an average of four years of work experience and a median GMAT score of 720.

16% of class of 2013 students entered Wharton with industry experience in private equity/venture capital; 14% had experience in investment banking; and 5% had previous industry experience in some other financial services.

29% have undergraduate degrees in business.

Wharton Academics Related to Financial Services

Wharton has a new, updated curriculum as of 2012 that features a core curriculum with 3.5 credits in fixed courses taken with your cohort and 5.5 credits in flexible courses. The core focuses on analytical skills such as accounting, finance, marketing, management, operations, statistics, and microeconomics, as well as on “soft skills” like ethics, communication, and leadership skills. Students then specialize in an area of study by choosing courses that satisfy major and elective requirements. Students can major in one or two concentrations.

Students interesting in this sector would major in Finance. Finance is Wharton’s most popular major and may be chosen in conjunction with another major (usually Marketing, Operations and Information Management, or Strategic Management).

There are two required courses counted towards the Finance major:

• Corporate Finance (FNCE 601)
• Macroeconomics and the Global Economic Environment (FNCE 602)

In addition, the major requires four credit units of upper division finance courses. (For details on major requirements, please see MBA Resource 2012-13 p. 30.):

• Accelerated Corporate Finance (FNCE612)
• Financial Derivatives (FNCE717)
• International Financial Markets (FNCE719)
• Investment Management (FNCE720)
• Real Estate Investment Analysis Financing (FNCE721)
• Commercial Bank Management (FNCE723)
• Urban Real Estate Economics (FNCE724)
• Fixed Income Securities (FNCE725)
• Advanced Corporate Finance (FNCE726)
• Corporate Valuation (FNCE728)
• Urban Fiscal Policy (FNCE730)
• International Corporate Finance (FNCE731)
• International Banking (FNCE732)
• Capital Markets (FNCE738)
• Behavioral Finance (FNCE739)
• International/Multinational Corporate Finance (FNCE748)
• Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (FNCE750)
• The Finance of Buyouts and Acquisitions (FNCE751)
• Financial Engineering (FNCE892)
• Global Monetary and Financial Institutions: Theory and Practice (FNCE893)
• Managing Fixed Income Portfolios (FNCE894)
• Private Equity (FNCE895)
• Finance in Europe (FNCE896)
• Finance in the Middle East and North Africa (FNCE897)

(See course descriptions here.)

Students seeking careers in financial services would work closely with the following research centers:

• Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research – The center runs regular programming, including conferences and seminars for finance students, and awards grants and prizes for student-led research projects.
• Financial Institutions Center – This research center focuses financial institutions and financial markets. It runs a number of different research programs.

During winter and spring breaks, students may participate in one of Wharton’s Global Modular Courses (GMC), courses that expose students to the “challenges and opportunities in regions undergoing rapid change.” Some past modular courses of interest to finance students include Finance in Europe (in London) and Building Future Markets (in Cape Town).

Another international opportunity for finance students that complement Wharton’s mission of “Knowledge into Action” is the Global Career Treks. Organized by students and MBA Career Services, these treks provide students with group interviews with prominent companies in various sectors, including those in venture capital/private equity.

Finance-Related Clubs and Extracurricular Activities at Wharton

• Finance Club – This club works closely with the career management department and with recruits, and runs events for students interested in the following areas of finance: capital markets, international finance, investment banking, non-banking corporate finance, and private client services.
• Private Equity & Venture Capital Club – This club runs events and activities that focus on career development, skill development, and networking for students interested in venture capital, growth capital and buyouts.
• Investment Management Club – The mission of this club is to provide members with “education, mentoring and career advice while building a larger and more tight-knit community of investment managers.”
• Sales & Trading Club – This club focuses on providing its members with recruiting opportunities for summer internships and full-time jobs in the sales and trading industries, including structured finance positions.

Other groups and conferences that may interest finance students include the Wharton Social Venture Fund, the Finance Conference, the Investment Management Conference, and the Community Consultants.

Finance Hiring Stats and Top Finance Companies Hiring at UPenn Wharton

In 2011, 38.54% of Wharton graduates accepted full-time job offers in the financial services industry. Broken down according to subspecialty, the percentages are as follows:

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Stata Center at MIT Sloan

This post about MIT’s Sloan School of Management, focusing on financial services, is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the posts exploring the elements at each school that will help you pursue your goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

A quick glance at MIT Sloan: MIT currently ranks in fourth place as one of the best business schools, according to US News & World Report (March 2012). For finance, it is ranked number five. In 2011, 8.4% of MIT Sloan graduates entered the investment banking industry and 18.3% reported job functions in investment banking.

Incoming Sloanies and Financial Services

The class of 2012 entered MIT Sloan with an average of five years of work experience, an undergraduate GPA of 3.5, and a GMAT score of 717.

20% of class of 2013 students entered MIT with backgrounds in finance. 1% had accounting backgrounds.

MIT’s Classes Related to Finance

MIT Sloan’s five core courses are all taken during the first semester, along with one elective course. The core structure “provides the foundation of freedom and flexibility you need to pursue your personal goals and interests throughout the rest of your time at MIT Sloan.” First semester core and elective finance-related courses include Financial Accounting (core) and Finance Theory (first semester elective).

Once students complete their first semester, they move on to specialized Tracks which further set students out on their desired career paths. The Finance Track offers courses and activities that will expose students to the practices and institutions of the world of finance. Students in the Track must participate in at least one off-campus event. These include London Banking Days, New York Finance Day, the Asia Finance Trek, and Boston Investment Management Day. There are also numerous sponsored seminars, social events, and career advising opportunities available. By completing the Finance Track, students earn a certificate in Finance on top of their MBA.

Here are the 2011-2012 Finance Track required courses:

• 15.403 Introduction to the Practice of Finance
• 15.401 Finance Theory I
• 15.402 Finance Theory II

And the elective courses:

• 15.431 Entrepreneurial Finance
• 15.433 Investments
• 15.434 Advanced Corporate Finance
• 15.437 Options and Futures
• 15.438 Fixed Income
• 15.450 Analytics of Finance
• 15.522 Security Design
• 15.545 Mergers and Acquisitions
• 15.416 Ph.D. Intro to Financial Economics
• 15.419 POF: Alternative Investments‐Private Equity
• 15.423 POF: Advanced Corporate Risk Management
• 15.424 POF: Endowment Management
• 15.426J Real Estate Finance
• 15.427J Real Estate Capitals Markets
• 15.431 Entrepreneurial Finance
• 15.433 Investments
• 15.434 Advanced Corporate Finance
• 15.436 International Finance
• 15.437 Options and Futures
• 15.438 Fixed Income
• 15.440 Ph.D. Advanced Financial Economics I
• 15.441 Ph.D. Advanced Financial Economics II
• 15.442 Ph.D. Advanced Financial Economics III
• 15.450 Analytics of Finance
• 15.460 Analytics of Finance II
• 15.518 Taxes and Business Strategy
• 15.521 Management Accounting and Control
• 15.522 Security Design
• 15.535 Business Analysis Using Financial Statements
• 15.545 Mergers and Acquisitions
• 15.617 Basic Business Law, Tilted Towards Finance
• 15.647 Subprime, Credit Crunch, and Economic Crisis ‐ A Legal Roadmap
• 15.970 SSIM: Financial Crises & Systemic Risk
• 15.S02 SSIM: Valuation
• 15.S04 POF: Foundations of Institutional Portfolio Management
• 15.S05 SSIM: Applied Fixed Income and Speculative Strategies
• 15.S10 POF: Multinational Business Finance
• 15.S12 SSIM: Data Technologies for Quantitative Finance
• 15.S12 SSIM: Functional and Strategic Finance
• 15.S14 SSIM: Retirement Finance, Lifecycle Investing
• 15.S20 POF: Investment Management
• 15.S25 POF: Foreign Exchange Markets from a Quant Perspective

To reflect MIT Sloan’s mission of hands-on learning, or “Learning by doing,” the program offers endless Action Learning opportunities. The most prominent Action Learning feature is the Action Lab. The Action Lab for finance students is the Trading Lab. This unique, on-campus trading room is identical to trading room capitals around the world. Fully equipped with an electronic ticker, DataWall panels, and a Reuter’s feed, students get to experience trading and finance with the finest research facility at their fingertips.

In terms of academic research opportunities in the finance department, MIT offers the Laboratory for Financial Engineering (LFE). This research center “seeks to spur advances in financial engineering and to develop better ways to teach students and executives hot to apply financial technology in corporate settings.” The research projects fall under three categories: financial technology, capital markets, and risk management.

Finance-Related Clubs and Extracurricular Activities at MIT

• MIT Sloan Finance Club – The mission of this group is to provide students with the information, resources, and support to acquire recruiting opportunities at top investment banks and to eventually become leaders in the financial services industry.
• MIT Venture Capital & Private Equity (VCPE) Club – This club boosts members’ familiarity with investment capital, offers support, hosts events, competitions, and conferences (see below), and provides valuable C/C and P/E resources.
• Venture Capital Conference – Venture capitalists, industry leaders, and rising entrepreneurs come together to discuss important V/C opportunities and challenges.
• Private Equity Conference – 300-400 students and industry professionals unite for one of the largest student-run P/E conferences in the U.S.
• Competitions – MIT is famous for its competitions, and there are numerous competitions catered to students interested in finance. These include the MIT Sloan Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) and the popular $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Top Investment Banks Hiring at MIT Sloan

Poets and Quants provides the number of class of 2009 MIT grads who received job offers from top investment banks:

• Barclays Capital: 6 students
• Fidelity: 5 students
• Goldman Sachs: 5 students

For  the class of 2012, MIT Sloan provides this list of top banks hiring MIT Sloan interns:

• Goldman Sachs: 10 students
• Credit Suisse: 7 students
• Citi: 6 students

Other employers in financial services hiring members of MIT Sloan’s classes of 2011 and 2012 include:

• Asian Development Bank
• Banco Santander
• Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
• Baring Private Equity Asia
• Bessemer Venture Partners
• Black Coral Capital
• Capital One
• Celfin Capital
• Deutsche Bank
• Helion Venture Partners
• HSBC
• Liberty Mutual
• MasterCard Worldwide
• Oak Investment Partners
• Visa
• Women’s World Banking
• The World Bank

Are you applying to Sloan? Please see our MIT Sloan B-School Zone and MIT Sloan Application Package for more information on how Accepted.com can help you get accepted.

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Dartmouth Tuck

This post about Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, focusing on financial services, is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the posts exploring the elements at each school that will help you pursue your goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

A quick glance at Tuck: Tuck currently has the 3rd highest average starting salary and bonus among the business schools ranked in US News & World Report (March 2012). About 29% of Tuck graduates go into careers in financial services (16% in investment banking, 5% in private equity/venture capital, 4% in investment management, and 4% in other financial fields).

Incoming Tuckies and Financial Services

Tuck students graduating in 2012 have on average five years of work experience, an undergraduate GPA of 3.5, and a GMAT score of 718.

17% of class of 2012 students entered Tuck with backgrounds in investment banking or private equity, and 10% worked in other financial services or real estate. 22% majored as undergraduates in business or finance and 23% in economics. (More info is available on Poets and Quants. Note: A lot (but not all) of the stats from P&Q are extrapolations and estimates.)

Tuck’s Classes Related to Finance

Corporate finance and capital markets is one of the key functional areas and disciplines that comprise Tuck’s integrated core curriculum, which takes up all but two classes in the first year. Students with an “extensive background” in a particular area can opt out of the related core course and take an elective instead.

For the elective courses, students can choose the Finance, Accounting, and Economics courses which are taught by experts on investments, private equity finance asset pricing, auctions and game theory, international economics, portfolio management, corporate governance, management controls, capital structures, and corporate valuation.

Classes that may appeal to students interested in private equity include Private Equity Finance, Corporate Valuations, Corporate Restructuring, and Managing Mergers & Acquisitions.

Students interested in venture capital may choose to take some of the following: Emerging Technologies, Marketing New Products, Strategic Innovation Management, and Advanced Entrepreneurship.

See this list for course descriptions:

• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Restructuring
• Corporate Valuation
• Field Studies in Private Equity
• Financial Statement Interpretation and Analysis
• Investments
• Management of Service Operations
• Managing Mergers and Acquisitions
• Negotiation
• Private Equity Finance
• Real Estate
• Strategic Responses to Market Failure

Tuck also is home to two research centers focused on finance. The Lindenauer Center for Corporate Governance studies how “international differences in capital markets, ownership structures, and legal traditions affect financial contracts and best practices in corporate governance” as well as other governance issues. The Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship studies young companies and the role of private equity in their growth. The center is “actively involved in practitioner communities of private equity, and its outreach facilitates the pursuit of venture-backed activities.” That active involvement could be something of interest if you want to move into the clubby world of PE/VC. The Center for Private Equity and Entrepreneurship also helps students secure internships and fellowships, and runs prestigious programs such as the Tuck Capital Management Program and the Private Equity Internship Program.

Finance-Related Clubs and Extracurricular Activities

There is an active student-run Finance Club at Tuck that runs regular events throughout the year intended to familiarize student with finance-related job opportunities. The Finance Club works in conjunction with the Tuck Career Development Office and in close cooperation with the Investment Club and the Private Equity Club.

Examples of Finance Club events include the Sales & Trading and Private Wealth Management Breakfast (with representatives from Goldman Sachs), a trip to Wall Street, Art of a Deal Workshop/Cocktail Party, Interview Workshop/Wine Tasting, Valuation Workshop, and others.

The Investment Club also provides a forum for students to learn more about the investing and the career search. The club also manages the Tuck Investment Fund.

Investment Club events and activities include regular “Stock Pitch” sessions, mock interviews, and a trip to Omaha to visit Warren Buffett.

Finally, there’s the Private Equity Club, a large club with over 120 members. There is a wealth of information on the club website, including a list of speakers for the club’s Visiting Lecture Series.

Top Investment Banks Hiring at Tuck

Top investment banks that hired at Tuck in 2010-2011 include:

• Bank of America Merrill Lynch
• Barclays Capital
• Citigroup
• Cowen & Company
• Credit Suisse
• Deutsche Bank
• Fidelity Investments
• Goldman, Sachs & Co.
• Harris Williams & Co.
• J.P. Morgan
• Jefferies & Company
• Liberty Mutual
• Morgan Stanley
• UBS

The following list indicates the number of students who received job offers from top recruiting organizations from the most recent academic year (Class of 2011):

• J.P. Morgan: 5 students
• Goldman Sachs: 4 students
• Harris Williams & Co.: 4 students
• Morgan Stanley: 4 students
• UBS: 4 students

For internships, the list goes as follows:

Citigroup: 7 students
Goldman Sachs: 7 students
Barclays Capital: 4 students
Cargill: 4 students

According to a BusinessWeek profile on Tuck, 30% of graduating students accepted jobs in the functional area of finance/accounting, and 29% accepted job in the financial services industry.

The following chart (from Poets & Quants) provides an estimate of the class percentage and number of students expected to receive job offers from top investment banks in 2013:

1. Goldman Sachs: 3.2%, 9 students
2. Ernst & Young: 2.7%, 7 students
3. Credit Suisse: 1.4%, 4 students
4. Bank of America: 0.9%, 2 students
5. Barclays Capital: 0.9%, 2 students
6. Citigroup: 0.9%, 2 students
7. UBS: 0.9%, 2 students

Are you applying to Tuck? Please see our Tuck B-School Zone and Tuck Application Package for more information on how Accepted.com can help you get accepted.

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