Non-target school#65 of 100
Bucknell University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
Bucknell University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #65 of the 100 schools we measure: 88 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 465 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #65of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 8885% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 3843% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 465#74 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 120.9#43 per capita
- US-based
- 96%448 profiles
Is Bucknell a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the data85 percent of Bucknell's top-bank analysts graduated in 2018 or later, 75 of 88, which says the school's presence at the 18 largest firms is being built now rather than inherited from older classes. The full count of 88 alumni with investment banking analyst titles alongside those banks ranks #74, nine places behind the #65 headline position.
The school posts 120.9 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates against the 97.8 median, from 465 IB profiles and 3,846 undergrads, good for #43 on broad density, and the same small-campus arithmetic applied to the analyst count is what lifts the headline above the raw #74. 96 percent of profiles sit in the United States. The elite five hold 38 of the 88 top-bank analysts, a 43 percent share.
Counts are modest in absolute terms and the buyside network is the thinnest part of the picture, with venture capital at #90 on 34 profiles and private equity at #86 on 175. Bucknell's case rests on freshness and domestic concentration rather than volume, which is a reasonable base for a student targeting analyst recruiting directly out of undergrad.
Bucknell investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+Bucknell 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 measure88
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview38
By count alone Bucknell University ranks #74 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Bucknell alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsBucknell 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 Bucknell
Bucknell’s Class of 2024 outcomes report reaches 843 of 860 graduates, a 98% knowledge rate, with 93% employed, in graduate school, or in other activity and a $73,075 average starting salary. The Freeman College of Management had 160 graduates, 130 employed, 19 in graduate school, and 9 seeking; its finance majors averaged $88,903, and their employer list carries investment banking analyst titles at Bank of America, Guggenheim Partners, Houlihan Lokey, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Morgan Stanley, and MTS Health Partners, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase private banking, and a Deutsche Bank sales and trading seat among the accounting majors.
The Class of 2025 report, at a 98% knowledge rate covering 891 of 906 graduates, has 93% placed within nine months, 71% employed and 17% in graduate school, a $73,346 average starting salary, and Freeman graduates averaging $79,028, the highest of the three colleges; Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, and Goldman Sachs are on the employer list.
The finance major’s page leans on the Student Managed Investment Fund, where selected seniors and second-semester juniors run $3,600,000 of the university endowment in a two-semester course, plus Bloomberg and CapIQ terminals in the Moriarty Investment Lab and a dedicated investment banking course; it says recent finance majors have started at Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and TD Securities and that many intern in investment banking, wealth management, and corporate finance.
The forum comparison of five schools, using each one’s first-destination report, had Bucknell sending the most students into banking of the group, in the high teens from a class under four thousand, and rated them semi-targets with great alumni networks and some bulge-bracket campus recruiting; skeptics in other threads call all of them non-targets at the top banks, note Bucknell has sent students to bulge brackets without knowing whether through recruiting or alumni, and observe that the student body is well off, which itself feeds placement.
Our data ranks Bucknell #65 on 465 top-bank analysts from 3,846 undergraduates, or 120.9 per 1,000, the #43 per-capita figure in the country from a raw count that ranks #74; 96% of its banking alumni network is US-based. Its per-bank cells are not yet fetched, so the neighbor table above stands in for a bank breakdown.
What Bucknell publishes about outcomes
14 figures, 3 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.
Bucknell Center for Career Advancement, Class of 2024 Graduate Outcomes (PDF)
- Graduates covered, Class of 2024
- 843 of 860
- Knowledge rate, Class of 2024
- 98%
- Employed, in graduate school, or in other activity, Class of 2024
- 93%
- Average starting salary, Class of 2024
- $73,075
- Freeman graduates, Class of 2024
- 160 (130 employed, 19 in graduate school, 9 seeking)
- Freeman finance major average salary, Class of 2024
- $88,903
Bucknell University, Bucknell Class of 2025 Grads Earn Higher-Than-National Average Starting Salary
- Graduates covered, Class of 2025
- 891 of 906
- Knowledge rate, Class of 2025
- 98%
- Placed within nine months, Class of 2025
- 93%
- Employed, Class of 2025
- 71%
- In graduate school, Class of 2025
- 17%
- Average starting salary, Class of 2025
- $73,346
- Freeman average starting salary, Class of 2025
- $79,028
Bucknell University, Major in Accounting & Financial Management
- Student Managed Investment Fund assets
- $3,600,000
How Bucknell compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Bucknell investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs Bucknell University a target school for investment banking?
Bucknell University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #65 of the 100 schools we measure: 88 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 465 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Bucknell alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
88 Bucknell University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #74 count of the 100 schools ranked; 38 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 Bucknell as a target school?
A semi-target by the forum comparison of its peer group, which had Bucknell sending the most students into banking of the five, and a non-target at the top banks by skeptics. Our count ranks it #65 of 100, with the #43 per-capita figure in the country.
Which banks hired Bucknell finance majors in the Class of 2024?
The outcomes report lists investment banking analyst titles at Bank of America, Guggenheim Partners, Houlihan Lokey, Keefe Bruyette & Woods, Morgan Stanley, and MTS Health Partners, with finance majors averaging $88,903.
What is the Student Managed Investment Fund at Bucknell?
A two-semester course in which selected seniors and second-semester juniors manage $3,600,000 of the university endowment, backed by Bloomberg and CapIQ terminals in the Moriarty Investment Lab.
How many Bucknell University alumni work in private equity?
175 Bucknell University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #86 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Bucknell University alumni work in venture capital?
34 Bucknell University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #90 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Bucknell University alumni work in hedge fund?
42 Bucknell University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #62 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Bucknell’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 Bucknell 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, 448 (96%) are currently based in the United States and 17 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 3,846 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.
