Non-target school#88 of 100
American University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
American University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #88 of the 100 schools we measure: 42 alumni list investment banking analyst titles alongside the 18 top banks from classes of roughly 2015 onward, weighted for school size, and its wider banking alumni network holds 357 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #88of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 4279% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 2048% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 357#86 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 45.7#68 per capita
- US-based
- 70%251 profiles
Is American a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the data20 of American University's 42 top-bank analysts are at the elite five, a 48 percent elite share. The full group of 42 covers graduates of 2013 or later who are matched to the 18 top banks by an investment banking analyst title tracked here, and 33 of them, 79 percent, graduated in 2018 or later, so the network skews heavily toward recent classes.
Density is the stronger of the two broad reads: 357 IB profiles across 7,817 undergraduates is 45.7 per 1,000 undergraduates and a #68 per-capita rank, against #86 by network size. 70 percent of profiles are currently US-based, leaving roughly 106 located outside the United States, a wider international spread than the raw counts alone suggest. Private equity representation runs 66 profiles per 100 IB profiles.
The top-bank rank of #93 trails both the #88 headline and the #86 rank by network size, which means the profile base is broader than the outcomes contained within it, and 42 analysts across roughly a decade is a small cohort in absolute terms. It remains 42 documented arrivals at the largest banks, achieved from a student body of 7,817, and that is the number worth carrying forward.
American investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+American University's analysts at the 18 top banks we measure, graduates of 2013 or later with investment banking analyst titles, against the elite five. Its per-bank cells are not yet measured, so the breakdown by bank is the one thing this page cannot show.
- 18All 18 top banks we measure42
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview20
By count alone American University ranks #94 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where American alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsAmerican University’s rank in each vertical we count, by the same title-phrase method. Bars show its count as a share of that ranking’s #1 school.
How to recruit for investment banking from American
Kogod’s finance page reports that 97% of its BS in Finance graduates from 2018 through 2020 were working, in graduate school, or both six months after graduation, that 88% had an internship, and that graduates started at JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, FRB Realty Capital, Freddie Mac, and Goldman Sachs; its students also run a $1,000,000 portfolio structured like an asset management team.
The Student Managed Investment Fund, established in 2010 and run as a course open to undergraduates and graduate students who can return for consecutive semesters with rising responsibility, has students overseeing about $850,000 in assets as analysts, fund managers, portfolio managers, accountants, and economists.
The career office’s financial services guide sets the calendar: internship hiring runs August through January and can start in June, most firms recruit juniors with some taking strong sophomores, investment banking recruits from August to October with corporate finance running into November, and finance drop-in advising runs twice a week.
The forum verdict is a safety school for banking: posters advise that Georgetown, George Washington, and Maryland are the better Washington options, a banking executive director says George Washington gives a better shot though it is not Georgetown, and the original poster concludes that American stays a fallback if the target applications miss.
Our data ranks American #88 on 357 top-bank analysts from 7,817 undergraduates, or 45.7 per 1,000; 70% of its banking alumni network is US-based, the lowest share in this batch. Its per-bank cells are not yet fetched, so the neighbor table above stands in for a bank breakdown.
What American publishes about outcomes
4 figures, 2 sourcesEvery figure below is quoted from the source named above it, as published; none is ours. Read them beside our counts, which measure a different thing: analysts matched to named banks rather than a graduating class's outcomes.
Kogod School of Business, Finance Major
- BS in Finance graduates working or in graduate school, 2018 through 2020
- 97%
- BS in Finance students with an internship
- 88%
- Student portfolio cited on the finance page
- $1,000,000
American University Kogod School of Business, Student Managed Investment Fund
- Student Managed Investment Fund assets
- about $850,000
How American compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+American investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs American University a target school for investment banking?
American University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #88 of the 100 schools we measure: 42 alumni list investment banking analyst titles alongside the 18 top banks from classes of roughly 2015 onward, weighted for school size, and its wider banking alumni network holds 357 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many American alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
42 American University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #94 count of the 100 schools ranked; 20 of them are at the elite five, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview. Its per-bank breakdown is not yet measured, so the table above compares its total with the top of the ranking.
Do banks treat American University as a target school?
No; forum posters rank it behind Georgetown, George Washington, and Maryland among Washington schools for banking and call it a safety choice. Our count ranks it #88 of 100.
How do Kogod finance graduates fare after graduation?
97% of BS in Finance graduates from 2018 through 2020 were working or in graduate school six months out, 88% had internships, and starting employers included JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs.
What is Kogod’s Student Managed Investment Fund?
A course established in 2010 in which students manage about $850,000 as analysts, fund managers, and portfolio managers, returning for consecutive semesters with more responsibility.
How many American University alumni work in private equity?
236 American University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #73 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many American University alumni work in venture capital?
85 American University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #61 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many American University alumni work in hedge fund?
38 American University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #71 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted American’s analysts
Counts come from People Data Labs, which aggregates public professional profiles. The headline rank is anchored on the strict measure: profiles that list American University in their education, a job title containing “investment banking analyst”, one of 18 named top banks as an employer, and a graduation year of 2013 or later — the analyst classes of roughly 2015 onward, deduplicated across banks. Those conditions hold on the profile rather than on a single job, so the title and the bank are usually but not provably the same role. The rank weights that count at two-thirds and the same count per 1,000 undergraduates at one-third, so school size is priced in. The elite-five figure counts analysts at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview. Data pulled 2026-10-16.
The alumni-network figure is broader: everyone who has held a title containing “investment banking” at any firm worldwide, across all years, including graduate alumni. It reads as the size of the school’s banking network rather than a single era’s placement. Of those, 251 (70%) are currently based in the United States and 106 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 7,817 total undergraduates reported for fall 2023 in the NCES IPEDS Fall Enrollment dataset — a school-size comparison, not a placement rate for a graduating class.
