Non-target school#61 of 100
University of Maryland investment banking placement: is it a target school?
University of Maryland is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #61 of the 100 schools we measure: 139 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 981 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #61of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 13973% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 7151% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 981#44 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 32.1#79 per capita
- US-based
- 85%831 profiles
Is Maryland a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataFifty-one percent of Maryland's top-bank analysts work at the elite five, 71 of 139 people, one of the strongest quality mixes in this tier. Volume is not the school's argument, but the seats its alumni occupy are disproportionately at the most selective firms, which is a more useful signal for a student targeting those specific banks than a larger count spread across balance-sheet institutions.
The seat count itself ranks #51 on those 139 people, ten places ahead of the #61 headline, with the per-student leg giving the difference back. The buyside network is well distributed, with 453 private equity profiles at #45 and 81 hedge fund profiles at #35, both well ahead of the school's #61 headline, and 150 venture capital profiles at #43 alongside them. Eighty-five percent of profiles are US-based.
Per-capita reach is where it falls away: 981 profiles across 30,608 undergraduates gives 32.1 per 1,000 undergraduates against the 97.8 median and a per-capita rank of #79, and 73 percent of analysts being recent graduates puts the trend mid-pack. Maryland's banking alumni land well when they land, and the number of them doing so each year stays small relative to the student body.
Maryland investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+University of Maryland'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 measure139
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview71
By count alone University of Maryland ranks #51 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Maryland alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsUniversity of Maryland’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 Maryland
Smith’s Class of 2024 undergraduate report says 99% of graduates accepted a job, started a business, volunteered, joined the military, or entered graduate school within six months: 75% employed full time and 18% continuing education, with 392 companies hiring, a $73,723 average and $72,450 median full-time salary, and a $6,855 average signing bonus. Financial services and professional services each took 25% of full-time hires, and the employer list includes JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, UBS, T. Rowe Price, and Deloitte.
The compensation overview behind it puts finance majors, the largest group at 217 reporting, at a $78,769 average and $77,000 median salary, against $75,811 and $73,000 for the school overall, with 43.7% of employed graduates receiving a signing bonus that averaged $6,960.
The student-run funds are the résumé line. Smith’s three funds oversee about $13,500,000: the Mayer Fund, seeded with $250,000 in 1993 and now above $9,000,000, and the undergraduate Senbet Fund, founded in 2006 and managing more than $3,000,000 with 12 senior finance majors. Fewer than 50 students a year are chosen from hundreds of applicants, the program ranks as the 14th-largest student-run fund program in the country, and the school says fund graduates have gone to Moody’s, American Express, and J.P. Morgan.
Wall Street Finance Fellows is the recruiting program: undergraduates aiming at investment banking, M&A, sales and trading, asset management, and private banking are matched with a Smith alumnus on Wall Street, coached individually toward a summer investment banking internship, and taken on a New York trip to visit banks and network; Goldman Sachs is among the firms named on the page.
Forum consensus is non-target, not semi-target: no bulge bracket formally recruits on campus, the school skews toward the Big Four, and posters comparing it with Penn State say neither brand gives a boost. The counterweight comes from alumni on the street, who describe a more material funnel than outsiders realize, especially into Bank of America, middle-market banks such as Stifel, Baird, and Jefferies that recruit through Smith, and Morgan Stanley equities trading, all of it contingent on joining the investment funds and fellows programs early.
Our data ranks Maryland #61, the first school in the non-target tier, on 981 top-bank analysts, the #44 count in the country, from 30,608 undergraduates, or 32.1 per 1,000; 85% 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 Maryland publishes about outcomes
22 figures, 4 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.
Smith School of Business, Class of 2024 Undergraduate Report
- Class of 2024 with a job, venture, service, or graduate school within six months
- 99%
- Employed full time, Class of 2024
- 75%
- Continuing education, Class of 2024
- 18%
- Companies hiring the Class of 2024
- 392
- Average full-time salary, Class of 2024
- $73,723
- Median full-time salary, Class of 2024
- $72,450
- Average signing bonus, Class of 2024
- $6,855
- Financial services and professional services share of full-time hires
- 25% each
SmithCareers, Class of 2024 Undergraduate Compensation Overview (PDF)
- Finance majors reporting salary
- 217
- Finance major average salary
- $78,769
- Finance major median salary
- $77,000
- School-wide average salary
- $75,811
- School-wide median salary
- $73,000
- Employed graduates receiving a signing bonus
- 43.7%
- Average signing bonus in the compensation overview
- $6,960
Smith School of Business, Student-led funds
- Assets across the three student funds
- about $13,500,000
- Mayer Fund seed gift, 1993
- $250,000
- Mayer Fund assets today
- more than $9,000,000
- Senbet Fund assets today
- more than $3,000,000
Smith School of Business, Smith School Student Funds Make Gains Amid Year of Market Uncertainty (June 2025)
- Senbet Fund managers
- 12 senior finance majors
- Students chosen for the funds each year
- fewer than 50
- National rank of the student-run fund program
- 14th-largest
How Maryland compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Maryland investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs University of Maryland a target school for investment banking?
University of Maryland is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #61 of the 100 schools we measure: 139 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 981 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Maryland alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
139 University of Maryland alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #51 count of the 100 schools ranked; 71 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 the University of Maryland as a target school?
No; forum consensus calls it a non-target with no bulge-bracket campus recruiting, though alumni describe a real funnel into Bank of America and middle-market banks through the funds and fellows programs. Our count ranks it #61 of 100, the first school in the non-target tier.
Which Smith programs feed investment banking recruiting?
Wall Street Finance Fellows, which pairs students with Wall Street alumni and runs a New York trip, and the student-run funds, where fewer than 50 students a year manage about $13,500,000 across the Mayer, Senbet, and Global Equity funds.
What do Smith finance majors earn after graduation?
A $78,769 average and $77,000 median for the 217 finance majors reporting in the Class of 2024, against a $73,723 average for the school, with 43.7% of employed graduates receiving a signing bonus.
How many University of Maryland alumni work in private equity?
453 University of Maryland alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #45 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Maryland alumni work in venture capital?
150 University of Maryland alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #43 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Maryland alumni work in hedge fund?
81 University of Maryland alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #35 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Maryland’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 University of Maryland 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, 831 (85%) are currently based in the United States and 150 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 30,608 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.
