Lower semi-target school#56 of 100
Lehigh University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
Lehigh University is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #56 of the 100 schools we measure: 116 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 598 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #56of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 11667% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 4337% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 598#66 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 102.9#50 per capita
- US-based
- 91%545 profiles
Is Lehigh a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataLehigh ranks #58 on alumni who have worked as investment banking analysts at the 18 top banks — two places behind the #56 headline, which the per-student leg nudges up — on a count of 116 people from the 2013 class forward. Measured against a total of 598 IB profiles, roughly one in five of the school's entire banking network shows up in a recent top-bank analyst seat.
Density clears the bar at 102.9 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates versus the 97.8 median, drawn from 5,811 undergrads. The alumni base is heavily domestic at 91 percent US-based. Hedge funds are the strongest buyside vertical, ranking #42 with 68 profiles and 11 hedge fund profiles per 100 IB profiles, while the elite five hold 43 of the 116 top-bank analysts.
The recency figure is the honest caveat, since 78 of the 116 top-bank analysts graduated in 2018 or later and 33 percent of the group predates that window, while venture capital stays thin at #69 with 69 profiles. Lehigh hands a student a working alumni base inside the largest banks, which matters more at this rank than any single density reading.
Lehigh investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+Lehigh 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 measure116
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview43
By count alone Lehigh University ranks #58 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Lehigh alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsLehigh 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 Lehigh
Lehigh’s Class of 2024 First Destination Report, with verifiable outcomes for 91% of 1,307 bachelor’s recipients, shows the College of Business at 96% employed, continuing education, or in service within six months: 80% employed, 14% continuing education, and 4% still seeking, at a $78,359 average starting salary, with 94% completing an internship or experiential learning. By industry, financial services took 27%, management consulting 15%, accounting 9%, and investment banking 4%; finance majors averaged $77,483 and integrated business and engineering graduates $83,381, and the sample employers include Bank of America, BlackRock, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Jefferies.
The university-wide Class of 2025 page reports 92% with a successful outcome within six months, 64% employed and 24% continuing education, a $77K average starting salary, 577 unique employers, 88% with an internship or experiential learning, and 90% of the class represented in the report.
The Dreyfus Portfolio, funded in 1962, is the flagship student-run fund and what the college calls the strongest gateway to financial markets on campus: invitation-only, with an interview process the fund says rivals investment banking interviews, overseeing the Investment Management Group’s three real-money portfolios alongside the Rights and FSL Value portfolios, a Thompson International Portfolio, and a Wall Street Council. A 2008 university story recalled that four or five of the fund’s six managers typically had jobs before November, that year at Goldman Sachs, KPMG, and Barclays Capital.
Forum alumni call Lehigh an upper non-target where banking is an uphill battle but a bunch of students place every year, especially from the Dreyfus fund and the integrated business and engineering program whose students are seen as the smart ones, and where a ton of alumni reach banking, private equity, and direct lending a few years after a first job. The dissent is sharp: one poster says nobody in the portfolio club placed in banking during his years and that the career office pushes students toward the Big Four, and recommends Indiana unless the aid is generous.
Our data ranks Lehigh #56 on 598 top-bank analysts from 5,811 undergraduates, or 102.9 per 1,000, the #50 per-capita figure in the country; 91% 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 Lehigh publishes about outcomes
20 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.
Lehigh Center for Career & Professional Development, First Destination Report: Class of 2024 (PDF)
- Knowledge rate, Class of 2024
- 91% of 1,307 graduates
- College of Business successful outcomes, Class of 2024
- 96%
- College of Business employed, Class of 2024
- 80%
- College of Business continuing education, Class of 2024
- 14%
- College of Business still seeking, Class of 2024
- 4%
- College of Business average starting salary, Class of 2024
- $78,359
- College of Business graduates with an internship or experiential learning
- 94%
- Financial services share of College of Business industries
- 27%
- Management consulting share
- 15%
- Accounting share
- 9%
- Investment banking share
- 4%
- Finance major average starting salary
- $77,483
- Integrated Business and Engineering average starting salary
- $83,381
Lehigh University, Post-Graduation Career Outcomes (Class of 2025)
- Class of 2025 successful outcomes, university-wide
- 92%
- Class of 2025 employed
- 64%
- Class of 2025 continuing education
- 24%
- Class of 2025 average starting salary
- $77K
- Unique employers hiring Lehigh students
- 577
- Class of 2025 with an internship or experiential learning
- 88%
- Class of 2025 represented in the report
- 90%
How Lehigh compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Lehigh investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs Lehigh University a target school for investment banking?
Lehigh University is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #56 of the 100 schools we measure: 116 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 598 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Lehigh alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
116 Lehigh University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #58 count of the 100 schools ranked; 43 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 Lehigh as a target school?
An upper non-target by forum alumni, where a handful place each year through the Dreyfus fund and heavy networking. Our count ranks it #56 of 100, with the #50 per-capita figure in the country.
What share of Lehigh business graduates go into investment banking?
4% of the College of Business Class of 2024 by industry, against 27% in broader financial services, per the First Destination Report; sample employers include Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, and Citi.
What is the Dreyfus Portfolio at Lehigh?
The flagship student-run investment fund, funded in 1962, invitation-only with an interview the fund likens to banking interviews; a 2008 story had four or five of its six managers with offers before November, including Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital.
How many Lehigh University alumni work in private equity?
244 Lehigh University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #71 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Lehigh University alumni work in venture capital?
69 Lehigh University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #69 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Lehigh University alumni work in hedge fund?
68 Lehigh University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #42 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Lehigh’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 Lehigh 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, 545 (91%) are currently based in the United States and 53 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 5,811 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.
