Top Schools for Hedge Funds

Schools whose networks lean hedge funds

Hedge Funds alumni profiles per 100 IB alumni profiles, among the 72 schools with at least 500 IB profiles. This measures the mix of a school’s alumni network. It does not measure how often its bankers move into hedge fund roles.

• 1Baruch College21
• 2Arizona State University19
• 3Rutgers University19
• 4Northeastern University15
• 5Fordham University15
• 6Ohio State University12
• 7Lehigh University11
• 8Boston University11
• 9Bentley University10
• 10Florida State University10

The job, the firms, and the pay

Hedge funds invest in public markets. The multi-manager platforms hire from bank analyst programs and increasingly straight from school. Representative firms: Citadel, Millennium, Bridgewater, Point72, D. E. Shaw, Two Sigma, Elliott.

Junior analysts typically earn a $150k to $200k base. Bonuses move with performance, and $300k+ all-in years are common at the large platforms.

Pay figures are typical US ranges from public comp surveys, not from this dataset.

How we counted

Counts come from People Data Labs, which aggregates public professional profiles. For each school we counted people who list the school in their education and have held a job title containing the phrase “hedge fund” at any point. The count includes undergraduate and graduate alumni and covers roles at any firm worldwide. Titles that skip the phrase (an “Analyst” at a hedge fund firm, for example) are not counted, so treat these as a consistent comparison between schools rather than a census. Data pulled 2026-07-30.

The size-adjusted view uses fall 2023 total undergraduate enrollment from the NCES IPEDS Fall Enrollment dataset. It divides the all-time profile count by a current enrollment headcount and reports the result per 1,000 undergraduates. Use it as a school-size comparison. It does not measure placement for a graduating class.