How many Rice alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?

192 Rice University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #43 count of the 100 schools ranked; 90 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 Rice as a target school?

For Houston, yes, by every forum account, alongside Texas; elsewhere a low semi-target. Our count ranks it #38 of 100, in the lower semi-target tier, from one of the smaller student bodies we measure.

Which Rice programs feed investment banking?

The Rice Undergraduate Investment Fund and its energy sectors, the Rice Business Society's sophomore banking bootcamp and mentorship, and the career center's Houston recruiting calendar.

Can you get to New York banking from Rice?

With effort. Forum accounts say most Rice bankers end up in Houston energy groups and describe New York and San Francisco as semi-target markets at best.

How many Rice University alumni work in private equity?

289 Rice University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #62 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many Rice University alumni work in venture capital?

102 Rice University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #57 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many Rice University alumni work in hedge fund?

21 Rice University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #91 of the 100 schools in our database.

Lower semi-target school#38 of 100

Rice University investment banking placement: is it a target school?

Rice University is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #38 of the 100 schools we measure: 192 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 761 profiles that include an investment banking job title.

By Ben Chon, former J.P. Morgan investment banking analystUpdated 2026-10-16

Photo: Daderot · Public domain

Rank: #38of 100 schools
At 18 top banks, 2015+: 19278% graduated 2018+
At the elite five: 9047% of the top-bank total
IB alumni network: 761#57 by profiles
Per 1,000 undergrads: 166.4#36 per capita
US-based: 90%685 profiles

TargetTarget 1–15Semi-targetSemi 16–35Lower semi-targetLower 36–60Non-targetNon-target 61–100

In the 36 to 60 band the pipeline still exists — every school here shows at least 92 analysts at the top banks — but it is thin enough that you have to build your own. Expect to source interviews through cold emails and off-cycle applications rather than campus recruiting, and expect the alumni you find to remember what that climb felt like.

Is Rice a target school for investment banking?

The verdict, from the data

Nearly half of Rice's top-bank analysts sit at the elite five, 90 of 192 people, a 47 percent share that places its quality mix above most of this tier. The school ranks #43 on raw top-bank placement, while the headline — which also weighs those analysts per student — lands five places higher at #38, and it does all this on a base of only 4,574 undergraduates.

Density supports that reading at 166.4 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates versus the 97.8 median, ranking #36 per capita while the raw count of 761 profiles ranks #57. The pipeline is current, with 150 of the 192 analysts graduating in 2018 or later for a 78 percent recent share, and 90 percent of all profiles are US-based.

Hedge funds are close to invisible in this network, with 21 profiles ranking #91 and only 3 hedge fund profiles per 100 IB profiles, and private equity ranks #62 on 289 profiles. Rice converts a small undergraduate population into high-quality bank placement, and alumni looking for buyside coverage will find far less support than on the banking side.

Rice investment banking placement by bank

Analysts, classes of ~2015+

Rice 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 measure192
5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview90

By count alone Rice University ranks #43 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.

Where Rice alumni land beyond investment banking

Alumni profiles, all years

Rice 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 Rice

Rice's career center reports outcomes for the Classes of 2023 through 2025 together: 3,077 bachelor's alumni at a knowledge rate above 95%, with 53% working and 33% continuing education, financial analysis among the top job functions, and Houston, New York, and Dallas–Fort Worth the top three metro destinations in that order.

The Rice Undergraduate Investment Fund manages a portion of the endowment through 120-plus fund members in nine sectors, after a seven-session training program on accounting, finance, and valuation that more than 200 students have taken. Its Rice New Energy Fund, the first college fund focused entirely on clean energy, manages nearly $200,000, and the Rice Business Society brings recruiters to a campus that added an undergraduate business major only recently.

Forum accounts are unanimous that Rice and Texas are the two clear targets for Houston banking, with every bank that has a Houston office holding information sessions, resume drops, first rounds on campus, and superdays downtown, a metro ride from coffee chats. A December 2025 thread counted roughly thirty sophomores recruiting for the next Houston cycle, about half with offers at Evercore, Jefferies, Moelis, Citi, RBC, Guggenheim, and Piper Sandler before the bulge brackets had started.

The energy-focused sectors of the investment fund are said to place lights out in Houston, and the Business Society runs a banking bootcamp for sophomores with an upperclassman and alumni mentorship program. The limit is geography: posters call Rice a low semi-target outside Houston, note that most students who wanted New York or San Francisco settle for a Houston energy seat, and say Texas has the larger alumni network.

Our data ranks Rice #38, in the lower semi-target tier, from a base of 4,574 undergraduates. Its per-bank cells are not yet fetched, so the neighbor table above stands in for a bank breakdown until they are.

What Rice publishes about outcomes

8 figures, 3 sources

Every 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.

Rice Center for Career Development, Career outcomes

Bachelor's alumni covered, Classes of 2023–2025: 3,077
Knowledge rate: 95%+
Working, Classes of 2023–2025: 53%
Continuing education, Classes of 2023–2025: 33%

Rice Undergraduate Finance Club and Investment Fund

Investment fund members: 120+
Investment fund sectors: 9
Training program students: 200+

Rice Office of Admission, Business at Rice

Rice New Energy Fund assets: nearly $200,000

How Rice compares with schools ranked nearby

Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+

See the full ranking of 100 schools →

Rice investment banking FAQ

8 questions

Is Rice University a target school for investment banking?
Rice University is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #38 of the 100 schools we measure: 192 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 761 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Rice alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
192 Rice University alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #43 count of the 100 schools ranked; 90 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 Rice as a target school?
For Houston, yes, by every forum account, alongside Texas; elsewhere a low semi-target. Our count ranks it #38 of 100, in the lower semi-target tier, from one of the smaller student bodies we measure.
Which Rice programs feed investment banking?
The Rice Undergraduate Investment Fund and its energy sectors, the Rice Business Society's sophomore banking bootcamp and mentorship, and the career center's Houston recruiting calendar.
Can you get to New York banking from Rice?
With effort. Forum accounts say most Rice bankers end up in Houston energy groups and describe New York and San Francisco as semi-target markets at best.
How many Rice University alumni work in private equity?
289 Rice University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #62 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Rice University alumni work in venture capital?
102 Rice University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #57 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Rice University alumni work in hedge fund?
21 Rice University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #91 of the 100 schools in our database.

How we counted Rice’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 Rice 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, 685 (90%) are currently based in the United States and 76 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 4,574 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.