Target school#3 of 100
University of Pennsylvania investment banking placement: is it a target school?
University of Pennsylvania is a target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #3 of the 100 schools we measure: 1,183 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 5,099 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #3of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 1,18375% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 60651% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 5,099#3 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 439.2#9 per capita
- US-based
- 83%4,228 profiles
Is Penn a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataOnly four schools in the entire ranking clear 5,000 investment banking profiles, and the University of Pennsylvania belongs to that group at 5,099 — a raw total that edges past Harvard's 5,015 and lands the #3 count by network size among 100 schools. The #3 overall rank now rests on the strict top-bank measure instead: 1,183 analysts at the tracked banks, the #2 count anywhere, with 2,250 private equity profiles at #3 alongside.
Here the broad network's two reads pull further apart than at either school above: #3 by size but #9 per capita, at 439.2 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates across 11,611 undergrads. The network also stays home — 4,228 profiles, or 83%, are US-based, a share only Georgetown's 84% beats in the top five, and the second-largest US contingent of any school after Columbia. The mix of 44 private equity profiles per 100 IB profiles sits mid-pack among immediate peers.
A #9 per-capita rank flags the caveat: with 11,611 undergraduates against Harvard's 9,095, part of Penn's total is a function of sheer class size, and an all-time census cannot distinguish 1990s alumni from last year's analysts. Even after that discount, a top-three finish on both network size and the overall rank leaves Penn's network among the deepest in the data.
Penn investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+University of Pennsylvania 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.
- 1Goldman Sachs208
- 2J.P. Morgan191
- 3Morgan Stanley160
- 4Bank of America144
- 5Citi113
- 6Evercore76
- 7Barclays72
- 8Lazard54
- 9UBS54
- 10Jefferies52
- 11Moelis52
- 12Deutsche Bank51
- 13Wells Fargo44
- 14RBC Capital Markets39
- 15Houlihan Lokey37
- 16PJT Partners29
- 17Centerview26
- 18Perella Weinberg22
Banks with fewer than five matched analysts, and banks not yet measured for this school, are left off the list. Of the 1,183 analysts at the 18 banks, 606 (51%) are at the elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview.
Where Penn alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsUniversity of Pennsylvania’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 Penn
Penn Career Services publishes a Wharton undergraduate career plans report every year. The Class of 2024 edition covers 620 graduates with a 71% response rate and 516 known outcomes, and 90.3% of them were in full-time employment. Financial services took 59% of the employed, consulting 18%, and technology 7%.
Inside financial services, investment banking and brokerage was 61% of placements and private equity 13%. By job function, 149 graduates went into investment banking. Goldman Sachs hired 22, JPMorgan Chase 19, Morgan Stanley 15, and Evercore and Bank of America 10 each.
Wharton Investment and Trading Group runs Accelerator, a semester-long program for underclassmen that teaches investing from scratch with no application, and counts more than 300 investment team members alongside a general membership in the thousands. Wharton Undergraduate Finance Club calls itself the largest finance club at Penn and runs investment, quant, case, and capital advisory teams.
A former recruiter on Wall Street Oasis recalled several hundred Penn applications for one bank's summer analyst class, a couple of dozen interviews, and single-digit superday seats, and said Goldman visits campus several times a year to rooms full of suits. The thread is dated, and the point survives: the offer rate is a share of a large applicant pool.
College of Arts and Sciences students place at bulge brackets and elite boutiques too. Forum advice for them is to join WITG, WUFC, or the private equity and venture club, meet upperclassmen early, and take accounting sophomore fall, because the Wharton curriculum is what those clubs replace.
Posters on the same forum describe top Wharton students skipping bulge brackets for elite boutiques and direct-to-buyside seats, and one analyst at an elite boutique put Wharton at a third of an incoming class. Read that as a description of preference rather than a measure.
Our count is for the whole university, not Wharton alone, so it includes the Arts and Sciences and engineering students the report above leaves out. The bank breakdown shows the firm-by-firm split.
What Penn publishes about outcomes
15 figures, 2 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.
Penn Career Services, Wharton Undergraduate Class of 2024 Career Plans Survey Report
- Graduates covered, Wharton undergraduate Class of 2024
- 620
- Response rate, Class of 2024
- 71%
- Known outcomes, Class of 2024
- 516
- In full-time employment, Class of 2024
- 90.3%
- Financial services share of the employed, Class of 2024
- 59%
- Consulting share, Class of 2024
- 18%
- Technology share, Class of 2024
- 7%
- Investment banking and brokerage share of financial services placements
- 61%
- Private equity share of financial services placements
- 13%
- Graduates in investment banking by job function
- 149
- Goldman Sachs hires
- 22
- JPMorgan Chase hires
- 19
- Morgan Stanley hires
- 15
- Evercore and Bank of America hires
- 10 each
Wharton Investment and Trading Group (Penn Clubs)
- WITG investment team members
- 300+
How Penn compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Penn investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs University of Pennsylvania a target school for investment banking?
University of Pennsylvania is a target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #3 of the 100 schools we measure: 1,183 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 5,099 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
Which banks hire the most Penn analysts?
By our count, Goldman Sachs leads with 208 Penn alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then J.P. Morgan with 191 and Morgan Stanley with 160, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.
Is Wharton the only route into investment banking from Penn?
No. College of Arts and Sciences students place at the same banks, and forum advice for them is to let the finance clubs do the work the Wharton curriculum does. Our count covers the whole university.
Which Penn clubs feed investment banking?
WITG and WUFC are the two largest, with WITG's Accelerator the entry point that needs no experience or application. The private equity and venture club is the third name that comes up.
Why do so many Wharton graduates skip the bulge brackets?
In the Class of 2024 report, private equity took 13% of financial services placements and Evercore hired as many graduates as Bank of America. Forum accounts describe a preference for elite boutiques and buyside seats; the elite-five share on this page is the measured version.
How many University of Pennsylvania alumni work in private equity?
2,250 University of Pennsylvania alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #3 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Pennsylvania alumni work in venture capital?
673 University of Pennsylvania alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #6 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Pennsylvania alumni work in hedge fund?
212 University of Pennsylvania alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #8 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Penn’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 Pennsylvania 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, 4,228 (83%) are currently based in the United States and 871 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 11,611 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.
