Which banks hire the most UVA analysts?

By our count, J.P. Morgan leads with 105 UVA alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then Jefferies with 105 and Wells Fargo with 102, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.

Do you need McIntire to recruit for investment banking from UVA?

Contested. Banks historically recruited the university rather than the school, and clubs matter more than either, but the three-year Commerce program has shifted looks toward its students since 2025.

Which UVA clubs feed investment banking?

MII and AIF. Forum accounts credit the two with a large share of elite-boutique and restructuring placements, and MII is open to any student.

Is UVA a target for elite boutiques?

Yes by forum accounts, with restructuring a named strength. The bank breakdown shows which of the 18 measured firms hold the most UVA analysts.

How many University of Virginia alumni work in private equity?

1,193 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #15 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many University of Virginia alumni work in venture capital?

274 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #21 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many University of Virginia alumni work in hedge fund?

102 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #24 of the 100 schools in our database.

Target school#10 of 100

University of Virginia investment banking placement: is it a target school?

University of Virginia is a target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #10 of the 100 schools we measure: 748 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 3,231 profiles that include an investment banking job title.

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

Photo: Aaron Josephson; cropped by Ibn Battuta · Public domain

Rank: #10of 100 schools
At 18 top banks, 2015+: 74873% graduated 2018+
At the elite five: 26335% of the top-bank total
IB alumni network: 3,231#11 by profiles
Per 1,000 undergrads: 183.5#31 per capita
US-based: 90%2,899 profiles

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

Ranks 1 through 15 are targets, and every school in this tier has placed at least 521 analysts into the 18 top banks since the classes of roughly 2015. The pipeline is proven at scale and banks arrive on campus expecting to hire, so your job is to use the machine early. Reach out to alumni your freshman and sophomore years, because at a target the competition sits in your own classrooms.

Is UVA a target school for investment banking?

The verdict, from the data

At 17,612 undergraduates, the University of Virginia is more than three times MIT's size, yet it still posts 183.5 investment banking profiles per 1,000 undergraduates — nearly double the 100-school median of 97.8 — while its raw total of 3,231 profiles ranks #11 of 100. The headline #10 rests on the strict measure — 748 alumni in investment banking analyst seats at the 18 top banks since the 2013 class, a count that ranks #10 all on its own.

The broader network reads #11 by size against #31 per capita, but its real signature is geography: 90% of profiles are US-based, 2,899 in all, a share only Dartmouth and Notre Dame, both at 92%, top in this group. The buyside mix is similarly conventional, with 37 private equity profiles per 100 IB profiles and a venture capital figure of just 8 per 100 IB profiles, tied for the lowest of any school in this group.

An all-time profile count can mask trajectory: 3,231 profiles say how many Virginia alumni have ever carried a banking title, not whether the current flow into analyst classes is rising or falling, and a 17,612-student denominator softens the per-capita read either way. The verdict is a profile that holds when the measure tightens — #10 on analyst seats at the top banks, #11 by network size — anchored almost entirely in the US market.

UVA investment banking placement by bank

Analysts, classes of ~2015+

University of Virginia 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 748 analysts at the 18 banks, 263 (35%) are at the elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview.

Where UVA alumni land beyond investment banking

Alumni profiles, all years

University of Virginia’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 UVA

McIntire's B.S. in Commerce Class of 2025 reported an average salary of $94,747 on a 93% response rate, with 95% in a positive outcome: 89% holding a job offer, 5% enrolling in graduate school, 1% out of the market. The average signing bonus was $9,746 among the 69% who reported one, and JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, Houlihan Lokey, and Guggenheim sit on the top-employer list next to the Big Four.

McIntire became a three-year program in 2025, admitting after first year so Commerce coursework starts sophomore year, which is when banks recruit for junior-year internships. The 2026 cycle admitted 43.5% of 876 applicants with a 3.9 mean GPA.

McIntire Investment Institute, founded in 1994 through a Blue Ridge Capital endowment, is a student-run long/short equity fund that crossed $1,000,000 under management and is open to any UVA student. The Alternative Investment Fund runs market-neutral, and forum accounts call it the most selective club on Grounds.

Forum accounts describe a target for every bulge bracket and most elite boutiques with an unusual tilt toward elite boutiques and restructuring: Jefferies, Evercore, Guggenheim, Perella Weinberg, and a Houlihan Lokey restructuring pipeline that runs through an alumnus group head. The alumni answer cold emails at rates other schools envy.

Whether McIntire itself matters is contested. Older threads say banks recruit UVA rather than McIntire; a 2025 poster says non-Commerce students get fewer looks under the three-year program, and that clubs matter more than the school either way, with MII and AIF credited for a large share of elite-boutique placements.

The buyside is the thinner side by the same accounts, with fewer direct private equity and hedge fund pipelines than peer targets, and a 2025 update says that gap has narrowed as more alumni reach the buyside.

Our data shows a network that is 90% US-based and a top-bank rank that matches the headline, the measured version of a public school that recruits like a private one. The bank breakdown shows which of the 18 measured firms hold the most UVA analysts.

What UVA publishes about outcomes

11 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.

McIntire School of Commerce, Career Outcomes

Average salary, B.S. in Commerce Class of 2025: $94,747
Response rate, Class of 2025: 93%
Positive outcomes, Class of 2025: 95%
Holding a job offer, Class of 2025: 89%
Average signing bonus, Class of 2025: $9,746
Graduates reporting a signing bonus, Class of 2025: 69%

The Cavalier Daily, McIntire reports 43.5 percent admission rate and 3.9 mean GPA (July 2026)

McIntire 2026 admission rate: 43.5%
McIntire 2026 applicants: 876
McIntire 2026 admitted mean GPA: 3.9

McIntire Investment Institute

McIntire Investment Institute founded: 1994
McIntire Investment Institute assets under management: $1,000,000+

How UVA compares with schools ranked nearby

Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+

See the full ranking of 100 schools →

UVA investment banking FAQ

8 questions

Is University of Virginia a target school for investment banking?
University of Virginia is a target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #10 of the 100 schools we measure: 748 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 3,231 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
Which banks hire the most UVA analysts?
By our count, J.P. Morgan leads with 105 UVA alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then Jefferies with 105 and Wells Fargo with 102, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.
Do you need McIntire to recruit for investment banking from UVA?
Contested. Banks historically recruited the university rather than the school, and clubs matter more than either, but the three-year Commerce program has shifted looks toward its students since 2025.
Which UVA clubs feed investment banking?
MII and AIF. Forum accounts credit the two with a large share of elite-boutique and restructuring placements, and MII is open to any student.
Is UVA a target for elite boutiques?
Yes by forum accounts, with restructuring a named strength. The bank breakdown shows which of the 18 measured firms hold the most UVA analysts.
How many University of Virginia alumni work in private equity?
1,193 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #15 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Virginia alumni work in venture capital?
274 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #21 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Virginia alumni work in hedge fund?
102 University of Virginia alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #24 of the 100 schools in our database.

How we counted UVA’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 Virginia 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, 2,899 (90%) are currently based in the United States and 332 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 17,612 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.