Non-target school#78 of 100
Michigan State University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
Michigan State University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #78 of the 100 schools we measure: 93 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 616 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #78of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 9368% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 2729% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 616#62 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 15.2#95 per capita
- US-based
- 83%513 profiles
Is Michigan State a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataMichigan State counts 93 alumni who worked as investment banking analysts at the 18 largest firms after graduating in 2013 or later, ranking #70 against a #78 headline. The raw IB count of 616 profiles ranks #62. Both counts beat the overall position, which is held back by per-student math — the broad per-capita read ranks #95 — rather than by the banking record itself.
That per-capita rank comes from 40,483 undergrads producing 15.2 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates against a 97.8 median. The buyside mix is the more interesting reading: private equity ranks #56 with 311 profiles and venture capital ranks #50 with 114, giving 50 private equity profiles and 19 venture capital profiles per 100 IB profiles.
The offsetting reads are elite share and recency. Just 27 of the 93 top-bank analysts sit at the elite five, a 29 percent share, and 68 percent of the cohort graduated in 2018 or later, leaving roughly a third of it older. Michigan State moves people into banking at real scale, and the practical constraint is how many classmates share the same 616-profile network.
Michigan State investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+Michigan 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 measure93
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview27
By count alone Michigan State University ranks #70 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Michigan State alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsMichigan 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 Michigan State
The Financial Markets Institute is the route: a highly selective Broad College program that gives a cohort of 25 to 30 students a year advanced coursework, scholarships, site visits to firms in the major financial centers, and an alumni network, aimed at investment banking, private equity, and asset management. Its modeling partner says six to seven scholars a year on average secure top-tier investment banking offers, that certification or heavy engagement is nearly universal among them, and that 160 Michigan State students hold the certification after 30 boot camps on campus.
Scholar testimonials on the same page come from a student trainer headed to Moelis as a 2025 investment banking summer analyst and another headed to Deutsche Bank, who credits building a full model with understanding how the statements connect rather than memorizing content; the partner notes that top applicants often arrive with the certification already in hand, a strong signal in a competitive admissions process.
A March 2026 conversation with the institute’s director, who has led it since 2019, describes a program working with about fifty students a year across the sophomore, junior, and senior cohorts, a mission of identifying students with the interest, aptitude, and grit that Wall Street requires, and a two-way evaluation in which the student and the program each decide the other is the right fit.
Forum accounts say the institute has placed fairly well on the street, with scholars at several bulge brackets and one at Apollo for a junior summer, that joining it is the single best bet for bulge-bracket banking from Michigan State, that Citi has taken several graduates through networking, and that the sober count is perhaps seven to ten students a year into high finance from a class of thousands.
Our data ranks Michigan State #78 on 616 top-bank analysts, the #62 count in the country, from 40,483 undergraduates, or 15.2 per 1,000, the #95 per-capita figure in the country; 83% 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 Michigan State publishes about outcomes
3 figures, 1 sourceEvery 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.
Adventis, How Michigan State FMI Uses Adventis to Train Top Finance Talent
- Financial Markets Institute cohort each year
- 25 to 30
- Michigan State students with the Adventis certification
- 160
- Adventis boot camps hosted on campus
- 30
How Michigan State compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Michigan State investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs Michigan State University a target school for investment banking?
Michigan State University is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #78 of the 100 schools we measure: 93 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 616 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Michigan State alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
93 Michigan 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 #70 count of the 100 schools ranked; 27 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 Michigan State as a target school?
No; forum posters put the count at perhaps seven to ten students a year into high finance, nearly all through the Financial Markets Institute, which they call the single best bet for bulge-bracket banking there. Our count ranks it #78 of 100.
What is the Financial Markets Institute at Michigan State?
A selective Broad College program admitting 25 to 30 students a year for coursework, scholarships, and site visits; its modeling partner says six to seven scholars a year secure top-tier investment banking offers.
How many Michigan State students work with the institute each year?
About fifty across the sophomore, junior, and senior cohorts, by the director’s March 2026 account, with scholars admitted early in sophomore year.
How many Michigan State University alumni work in private equity?
311 Michigan State University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #56 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Michigan State University alumni work in venture capital?
114 Michigan State University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #50 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Michigan State University alumni work in hedge fund?
36 Michigan State University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #72 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Michigan 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 Michigan 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, 513 (83%) are currently based in the United States and 103 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 40,483 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.
