Non-target school#74 of 100
University of South Carolina investment banking placement: is it a target school?
University of South Carolina is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #74 of the 100 schools we measure: 97 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 485 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #74of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 9782% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 2728% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 485#73 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 17.0#92 per capita
- US-based
- 87%420 profiles
Is South Carolina a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataSouth Carolina places #68 on top-bank alumni while carrying a headline rank of #74, and the six-place slide is entirely the blend's per-student leg. 97 people who graduated in 2013 or later listed an investment banking analyst title alongside one of the 18 top banks tracked here, and 80 of them finished school in 2018 or later.
Scale rather than density drives that count. 485 IB profiles come out of 28,470 undergraduates, or 17 per 1,000 undergraduates against a median of 97.8, leaving the school at #92 per capita and #73 by volume. 27 of the 97 top-bank analysts, 28 percent, are at the elite five. 87 percent of profiles are currently US-based, and the buyside mix is light at 41 private equity and 10 venture capital profiles per 100 IB profiles.
The profile count is all-time and worldwide, so it says nothing about how many seniors receive offers in a given year, and 17 per 1,000 undergraduates is a thin spread by any reading. What survives that caveat is a concrete group of people who reached the largest banks in the industry, and a group whose membership has grown substantially since the 2018 classes.
South Carolina investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+University of South Carolina'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 measure97
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview27
By count alone University of South Carolina ranks #68 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where South Carolina alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsUniversity of South Carolina’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.
How to recruit for investment banking from South Carolina
The Carolina Finance Scholars Program is the route: a highly selective organization inside the Darla Moore School built to mirror elite finance recruiting, with technical preparation, networking guidance, and hands-on modeling. Each year 100 to 120 students apply and about 30 are accepted, and its modeling partner counts 91 South Carolina students holding its certification, which one scholar credits for walking into a 400-question technical guide already knowing the concepts.
The program began as a BB&T-funded two-year track: its pilot year ended in 2016 with all 10 seniors in high-paying jobs and the four juniors available for summer internships in top finance internships, and the 2016–17 cohort added 11 seniors, 18 juniors, and one sophomore, with the director describing it as a way to reach jobs that South Carolina students historically could not.
School-wide, the Moore School reported in 2019 that 84% of reporting undergraduates were employed 90 days after graduation, up from 67% the year before and the highest in its history, at a $57,837 average salary, also a record; a spring 2025 graduate profile follows a finance and real estate major from a Raymond James health care banking internship into a full-time investment banking analyst seat, calling the scholars program the most influential factor in his growth.
Forum accounts say the scholars program has historically been the feeder into banking, placing roughly twenty students a year across firms and cities, most to Charlotte and many to New York, Chicago, and Atlanta; Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan seats are uncommon but posters have seen a few, and J.P. Morgan and Jefferies have begun recruiting directly from the school.
Our data ranks South Carolina #74 on 485 top-bank analysts from 28,470 undergraduates, or 17.0 per 1,000, the #92 per-capita figure in the country; 87% 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 South Carolina publishes about outcomes
9 figures, 3 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.
Adventis, USC Finance Scholars Partner with Adventis to Strengthen Investment Banking Career Prep
- Applicants to the Carolina Finance Scholars Program each year
- 100 to 120
- Scholars accepted each year
- about 30
- South Carolina students with the Adventis certification
- 91
- Questions in the technical interview guide a scholar cites
- 400
Darla Moore School of Business, Finance Scholars (September 2016)
- Pilot-year seniors placed in high-paying jobs, 2016
- 10 of 10
- Seniors added for 2016–17
- 11
- Juniors added for 2016–17
- 18
Darla Moore School of Business, job placement and salaries (August 2019)
- Undergraduates employed after graduation, 2019
- 84% at 90 days (67% in 2018)
- Average undergraduate salary, 2019
- $57,837
How South Carolina compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+South Carolina investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs University of South Carolina a target school for investment banking?
University of South Carolina is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #74 of the 100 schools we measure: 97 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 485 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many South Carolina alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
97 University of South Carolina alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #68 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 the University of South Carolina as a target school?
No; forum posters say the Carolina Finance Scholars program is the feeder, placing roughly twenty students a year, mostly to Charlotte, with J.P. Morgan and Jefferies now recruiting directly. Our count ranks it #74 of 100.
What is the Carolina Finance Scholars Program?
A selective two-year track inside the Moore School that admits about 30 of 100 to 120 applicants a year, mirrors elite finance recruiting with technical and networking preparation, and began with a BB&T-funded pilot whose 10 seniors all landed high-paying jobs in 2016.
How have Moore School placement rates changed?
The school reported 84% of undergraduates employed 90 days after graduation in 2019, up from 67% the year before, with a record $57,837 average salary.
How many University of South Carolina alumni work in private equity?
197 University of South Carolina alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #80 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of South Carolina alumni work in venture capital?
49 University of South Carolina alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #81 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of South Carolina alumni work in hedge fund?
23 University of South Carolina alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #88 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted South Carolina’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 South Carolina 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, 420 (87%) are currently based in the United States and 65 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 28,470 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.
