Ivy League and Wall Street

Ivy League and Wall Street June 9 There are great benefits to attending a school such as Wharton. Theres a piece up on Business Insider by Portia Crowe entitled 19-year-old who turned down Goldman Sachs says other students are just lazy that we figured wed share with our readers because it perhaps unknowingly offers some insight into the benefits of attending an Ivy League  university. The piece focuses on a Wharton undergraduate student who hustled to land an internship at Goldman Sachs during his freshman year at Wharton and then secured a similar position at a Wall Street hedge fund. In the piece, the Wharton undergrad argues that so many students at Wharton and other  highly selective  colleges rely on their universitys prestige to land internships and such. And he argues that doing so is, essentially, the mark of a lazy job applicant. But what this student may not realize because he has the luxury of attending Wharton is that lazy students at Arizona State University and Kansas cant be lazy and still secure internships on Wall Street. A consulting firm like McKinsey, for instance, hires almost exclusively out of the Ivy League and other extremely selective colleges such as MIT, Caltech, Duke, Stanford, etc. That student at Kansas even if he or she is a hustling student with great drive is unlikely to land a summer internship at McKinsey. Its just not going to happen. So while we respect the hustle of this Wharton undergraduate student and we do appreciate what he has to say, it seems hes unaware of some of the great benefits that come with attending a school such as the University of Pennsylvania. According to the piece in Business Insider, The intern says he  reached out to some 200 Penn graduates from the schools alumni database before getting a Goldman offer and landing the hedge fund gig. Therein lies another great benefit of attending Penn. Access to tons of highly successful people, many of whom have found great success at firms such as Goldman Sachs. That alumni database isnt nearly as useful at a school such as Adelphi University. Some of the best Wall Street firms do not have job fairs at Adelphi (sorry Adelphi!). So, to the Wharton undergrad, we respect your hustle and youre right that many students are indeed lazy (at Ivy League colleges as well as at every college across the land), but dont underestimate the power that attending Wharton brings to your candidacy for these Wall Street internships. Because thats what youre doing. Youre underestimating your schools value-add. And thats a business faux pas. Learn more about that on Wall Street this summer. We leave you with a quote from Bloomberg Business: The conveyor belt from the Ivy Leagues to Wall Street is frictionless, and the siren song of Wall Street is strong. We couldnt agree more.