Non-target school#82 of 100
Florida State University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
Florida State University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #82 of the 100 schools we measure: 87 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 504 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #82of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 8787% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 2326% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 504#72 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 15.6#94 per capita
- US-based
- 94%476 profiles
Is Florida State a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataOf the 87 Florida State alumni who listed an investment banking analyst title alongside one of 18 top banks since the 2013 graduating class, 76 finished school in 2018 or later. That 87 percent recent share means the top-bank network here was assembled almost entirely within the last several analyst classes, and the people inside it are still early in their own careers.
The school ranks #75 on that top-bank count against a headline rank of #82, and #72 on raw profile volume. The per-student leg of the blend is what pulls the headline down: 504 IB profiles across 32,217 undergraduates works out to 15.6 per 1,000 undergraduates, far under the 100-school median of 97.8, which places Florida State at #94 per capita. 23 of the 87, or 26 percent, are at the elite five.
One caution applies throughout. The profile total counts everyone who has ever listed a banking title at any firm worldwide, all-time, so it measures the size of an alumni network rather than yearly hiring, and the per-capita rank shows how thinly that network spreads across the undergraduate population. Florida State still produced 87 top-bank analysts in roughly a decade, which makes this a documented path rather than a hypothetical one.
Florida State investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+Florida State 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 measure87
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview23
By count alone Florida State University ranks #75 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Florida State alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsFlorida State 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. Per 100 IB shows the network mix: profiles per 100 IB profiles.
How to recruit for investment banking from Florida State
Willow Partners, founded in 2015, is the student society built for high-finance recruiting at the Wertheim College of Business, and its flagship Noles on Wall Street is a year-long, mentorship-driven workshop for investment banking, private equity and credit, venture, and hedge funds: modeling, valuation, accounting, case studies on real deals, behavioral prep, and an upperclassman or alumni mentor for each member. The society claims a 100% placement rate since inception, and its placement roster lists members headed to Guggenheim Securities, Bain Capital, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and UBS.
The Student Investment Fund, established in 2007, is run by finance master’s students in fall and spring and by undergraduates in a summer course, with the Undergraduate Investment Group supplying analysts; it ranked #10 among public-school student funds and #23 in North America for 2025 performance and is valued at $11,500,000, up from the $1,300,000 that seeded it in 2008. A 2021 state report noted the finance major is the college’s third-largest, producing well over 500 graduates a year, and counted more than 150 alumni leading Florida finance organizations, from Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase to Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.
The same state report gives the clearest banking figure on record: the Master of Science in Finance placed 95% of graduates at graduation, at an $85,000 average base salary and a $15,000 average signing bonus for domestic students, into banks including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Securities, Deutsche Bank, Evercore, Houlihan Lokey, Jefferies, Raymond James, Stephens, and UBS.
Forum sentiment has turned: a 2026 thread on non-targets that cracked banking this cycle says Florida State did incredibly well through the club, with several elite-boutique placements, though another poster says it comes in waves, with strong years recently and merely okay ones before. Older threads were harsher, calling the program small at about ten students a class, crediting past bulge-bracket seats mostly to diversity recruiting, and rating placement at essentially zero without networking, while noting a supportive alumni network.
Our data ranks Florida State #82 on 504 top-bank analysts, the #72 count in the country, from 32,217 undergraduates, or 15.6 per 1,000, the #94 per-capita figure in the country; 94% 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 Florida State publishes about outcomes
10 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.
Willow Partners
- Noles on Wall Street placement rate, by the society
- 100%
Florida State University News, FSU student-run investment fund earns Top 10 distinction (April 2026)
- Student Investment Fund rank among public-school funds, 2025 performance
- #10
- Student Investment Fund rank in North America
- #23
- Student Investment Fund value
- $11,500,000
- Seed capital for the fund, 2008
- $1,300,000
Florida Board of Governors, Finance in the State University System: Executive Summary (June 2021, PDF)
- Finance graduates per year, 2021 state report
- well over 500
- Alumni leading Florida finance organizations
- more than 150
- Master of Science in Finance placement at graduation
- 95%
- MSF average base salary, domestic students
- $85,000
- MSF average signing bonus, domestic students
- $15,000
How Florida State compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Florida State investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs Florida State University a target school for investment banking?
Florida State University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #82 of the 100 schools we measure: 87 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 504 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Florida State alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
87 Florida State University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #75 count of the 100 schools ranked; 23 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 Florida State as a target school?
No; forum posters call it a non-target whose Noles on Wall Street club had a strong 2026 cycle with elite-boutique placements after weaker years. Our count ranks it #82 of 100.
What is Noles on Wall Street?
A year-long mentorship workshop run by the student society Willow Partners, founded in 2015, that prepares members for banking, private equity, and hedge fund recruiting; the society claims 100% placement and lists members headed to Guggenheim, Bain Capital, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and UBS.
How well does Florida State’s finance master’s place into banking?
A 2021 state report put its placement at 95% at graduation with an $85,000 average base and $15,000 signing bonus, into banks including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Evercore, and Houlihan Lokey.
How many Florida State University alumni work in private equity?
395 Florida State University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #51 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Florida State University alumni work in venture capital?
84 Florida State University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #62 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Florida State University alumni work in hedge fund?
50 Florida State University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #58 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Florida State’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 Florida State 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, 476 (94%) are currently based in the United States and 28 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 32,217 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.
