Top Schools for Private Equity

Schools whose networks lean private equity

Private Equity 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 private equity roles.

• 1Florida State University78
• 2Bentley University73
• 3Northeastern University67
• 4Baruch College63
• 5Babson College60
• 6Boston University59
• 7Arizona State University56
• 8Northwestern University55
• 9University of Colorado Boulder55
• 10University of Miami54

The job, the firms, and the pay

Private equity firms buy companies, improve them, and sell them. Large funds hire most associates out of investment banking analyst programs, so PE school rankings track the IB ranking closely. Representative firms: Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, Carlyle, TPG, Warburg Pincus, Vista Equity, Thoma Bravo.

Associates at large US funds typically earn a $150k to $200k base and $275k to $400k including bonus. Carried interest adds more at senior levels.

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 “private equity” 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 private equity 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.