Which banks hire the most SMU analysts?

By our count, Goldman Sachs leads with 46 SMU alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then Citi with 34 and J.P. Morgan with 31, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.

Do banks treat SMU as a target school?

The alternative assets program is, for Houston and Dallas, by forum consensus; the university and the business school on their own are not. Our count ranks SMU #29 of 100, in the semi-target tier.

How do you get into the SMU alternative assets program?

A selection committee picks finance undergraduates in sophomore or junior year on grades, coursework, and interviews; the 2024 intake had a 3.93 median GPA, and forum posters put the practical cutoff near three point seven with technical interviews.

Can you get to New York banking from SMU?

In small numbers. Forum accounts call New York a non-target with a growing presence, and name Centerview and Citi as firms now recruiting on campus for it.

How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in private equity?

605 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #35 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in venture capital?

117 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #48 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in hedge fund?

68 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #43 of the 100 schools in our database.

Semi-target school#29 of 100

Southern Methodist University investment banking placement: is it a target school?

Southern Methodist University is a semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #29 of the 100 schools we measure: 293 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 1,136 profiles that include an investment banking job title.

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

Photo: Spencerjc1 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Rank: #29of 100 schools
At 18 top banks, 2015+: 29381% graduated 2018+
At the elite five: 10435% of the top-bank total
IB alumni network: 1,136#38 by profiles
Per 1,000 undergrads: 159.7#38 per capita
US-based: 96%1,090 profiles

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

Schools ranked 16 through 35 place real numbers into top banks — at least 152 analysts each in this data — but the per-school pipeline runs thinner. Alumni will answer your emails, and the difference between getting an interview and getting skipped comes down to outreach volume. Start networking earlier than your target-school peers and treat every alumni conversation as a referral opportunity.

Is SMU a target school for investment banking?

The verdict, from the data

One in four people in Southern Methodist's investment banking network holds a recent top-bank analyst title: 293 of 1,136 profiles. The count ranks #29 by top-bank analysts and the headline lands on the same #29, so the strict measure and the blended rank agree exactly. Goldman Sachs is the largest employer at 46, with Citi next at 34, and Bank of America and Wells Fargo close the list at 26 and 24.

Both broad-network ranks come in at #38 — by size and per capita alike — and 159.7 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates runs comfortably above the 97.8 median on a base of 7,115 undergraduates. Eighty-one percent of top-bank analysts graduated in 2018 or later. At 96 percent US-based, the network is almost entirely domestic, and private equity is the strongest buyside line at 53 profiles per 100 IB profiles against 10 for venture capital.

A 96 percent US share means this is effectively a domestic count, so the school's standing says nothing about placement outside the country and the international reach of the 18-bank list adds almost nothing to its totals. The verdict is a small network that converts unusually well into recent top-bank analyst seats.

SMU investment banking placement by bank

Analysts, classes of ~2015+

Southern Methodist University analysts at each of the top banks we measured — graduates of 2013 or later with investment banking analyst titles. Banks with published feeder pages link through.

Banks with fewer than five matched analysts, and banks not yet measured for this school, are left off the list. Of the 293 analysts at the 18 banks, 104 (35%) are at the elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview.

Where SMU alumni land beyond investment banking

Alumni profiles, all years

Southern Methodist 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 SMU

Cox reports its BBA Class of 2025 at 93% achieving a career outcome within three months, an $85K average base salary, 94% completing at least one internship, and a $9.6K average signing bonus for the 60% who received one. Finance was 54% of accepted jobs by function at a $92,681 average, and financial services 44% by industry at $92,960; finance majors alone reported 93% employed at $90,848.

The employer list for that class includes Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Houlihan Lokey, Jefferies, Moelis, RBC Capital Markets, Stephens, Intrepid Financial Partners, and BMO Capital Markets, alongside the consulting and accounting firms.

The Alternative Asset Management Center, named for EnCap Investments and LCM Group, is the honors track banks read: a selection committee picks finance undergraduates in sophomore or junior year on grades, coursework, work ethic, and interviews, the 2024 intake had a 3.93 median GPA, and training starts in the spring of junior year with a case-based class built for private equity and banking.

Forum accounts draw the line sharply: SMU is not a target and Cox is not a target, but the alternative assets program is a target for Houston and Dallas, where every bank with a southern office recruits on campus and Goldman, Houlihan Lokey, Cowen, Stephens, and Jefferies hire consistently. One graduate puts most of the program into banking, with roughly two in five of those at bulge brackets or elite boutiques in Houston.

New York is described as a non-target with a growing presence, with Centerview and Citi’s financial institutions group recruiting on campus for it, and the program’s practical cutoff as roughly a three-point-seven GPA plus technical interviews prepared for from the start of sophomore year. Two investment clubs, Boulevard Investment Group and the Spindletop Energy Fund, carry their own pipelines, the latter into Houston energy banking.

Our data ranks SMU #29 from 7,115 undergraduates, a small enough base that the per-student leg carries the rank. The bank breakdown above shows which of the 18 measured firms hold the most SMU analysts.

What SMU publishes about outcomes

12 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.

SMU Cox, BBA Employment Report, Class of 2025

Career outcome within three months, Cox BBA Class of 2025: 93%
Average base salary, Class of 2025: $85K
Completed at least one internship, Class of 2025: 94%
Average signing bonus, Class of 2025: $9.6K
Graduates receiving a signing bonus, Class of 2025: 60%
Finance share of accepted jobs by function, Class of 2025: 54%
Finance function average salary: $92,681
Financial services share by industry, Class of 2025: 44%
Financial services average salary: $92,960

SMU Cox, Undergraduate Employment Outcomes

Finance majors employed within three months: 93%
Finance majors average starting salary: $90,848

SMU Cox, EnCap Investments and LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center

Alternative Asset Management Center 2024 intake, median GPA: 3.93

How SMU compares with schools ranked nearby

Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+

See the full ranking of 100 schools →

SMU investment banking FAQ

8 questions

Is Southern Methodist University a target school for investment banking?
Southern Methodist University is a semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #29 of the 100 schools we measure: 293 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 1,136 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
Which banks hire the most SMU analysts?
By our count, Goldman Sachs leads with 46 SMU alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then Citi with 34 and J.P. Morgan with 31, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.
Do banks treat SMU as a target school?
The alternative assets program is, for Houston and Dallas, by forum consensus; the university and the business school on their own are not. Our count ranks SMU #29 of 100, in the semi-target tier.
How do you get into the SMU alternative assets program?
A selection committee picks finance undergraduates in sophomore or junior year on grades, coursework, and interviews; the 2024 intake had a 3.93 median GPA, and forum posters put the practical cutoff near three point seven with technical interviews.
Can you get to New York banking from SMU?
In small numbers. Forum accounts call New York a non-target with a growing presence, and name Centerview and Citi as firms now recruiting on campus for it.
How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in private equity?
605 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #35 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in venture capital?
117 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #48 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Southern Methodist University alumni work in hedge fund?
68 Southern Methodist University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #43 of the 100 schools in our database.

How we counted SMU’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 Southern Methodist 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, 1,090 (96%) are currently based in the United States and 46 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 7,115 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.