Semi-target school#25 of 100
Wake Forest University investment banking placement: is it a target school?
Wake Forest University is a semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #25 of the 100 schools we measure: 296 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 1,214 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #25of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 29676% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 7325% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 1,214#36 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 221.9#24 per capita
- US-based
- 96%1,170 profiles
Is Wake Forest a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataNearly a third of Wake Forest's 296 top-bank analysts work at Wells Fargo — 91 people, with Bank of America adding another 54. Between them the two firms hold 145 of the 296. Goldman Sachs sits fifth at 26, behind Barclays's 35 and J.P. Morgan's 30, which is why only 73 of the analysts, or 25 percent, sit at the elite five.
The school ranks #24 on density at 221.9 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates, more than double the 97.8 median, against a #36 rank by network size on 1,214 profiles. The top-bank count ranks #28, three places behind the headline #25, with the per-student side of the blend closing the gap. What stands out is how domestic and how banking-specific this network is: 96 percent US-based, with 6 venture capital and 3 hedge fund profiles per 100 IB profiles.
One firm supplying almost a third of the top-bank analysts leaves the rank sensitive to a single relationship, and nothing in the data says whether that relationship is still adding people at the same rate. The verdict is a dense network with a narrow center of gravity and very little buyside spread.
Wake Forest investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+Wake Forest 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.
- 1Wells Fargo91
- 2Bank of America54
- 3Barclays35
- 4J.P. Morgan30
- 5Goldman Sachs26
- 6UBS16
- 7Morgan Stanley15
- 8Citi10
- 9Deutsche Bank7
Banks with fewer than five matched analysts, and banks not yet measured for this school, are left off the list. Of the 296 analysts at the 18 banks, 73 (25%) are at the elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview.
Where Wake Forest alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsWake Forest 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 Wake Forest
Wake Forest publishes first destinations for the whole university. For the Class of 2024, with data on 85.8% of the class, 97.3% had a positive outcome within six months, 65.7% employed and 31.5% in graduate school, and investment banking was the single largest industry at 12.6%, ahead of management consulting at 9.2% and investment management at 6.4%. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo sit on the top-employer list.
The School of Business reports its bachelor’s Class of 2025 at 77% with a first destination at graduation, 86% at three months, and 98% at six months. Finance has been the second most popular major at the university over the past decade, one graduate in ten.
The Pre-Wall Street Career Track is the structured pipeline: 35 first-year students selected each fall, programming from the spring of first year through junior year, required finance and accounting courses, and a 3.4 GPA floor. The career office adds that its banking graduates come overwhelmingly from finance and accountancy, with economics and politics majors among them.
Forum accounts call Wake Forest a semi-target for Charlotte and a non-target for New York, with Wells Fargo and Bank of America treating it as a target, Jefferies recruiting on campus, and Citi, Barclays, Goldman, and JPMorgan among the firms in placement data. A parent of a graduate says roughly half of each year’s finance majors go into banking.
The same threads describe a southern drift, to Charlotte, Atlanta, and Texas, a large alumni base in New York finance, a Greek system that doubles as a recruiting network, and blunt advice that a student set on New York banking should look northeast.
Our data ranks Wake Forest #25 with 5,471 undergraduates, a small base that lifts the per-student leg. The bank breakdown above shows which of the 18 measured firms hold the most Wake Forest analysts.
What Wake Forest publishes about outcomes
12 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.
Wake Forest Office of Personal and Career Development, The Wake Forest Advantage (Class of 2024 outcomes)
- Share of the Class of 2024 with outcome data
- 85.8%
- Positive outcomes within six months, Class of 2024
- 97.3%
- Employed, Class of 2024
- 65.7%
- Graduate or professional school, Class of 2024
- 31.5%
- Investment banking share of employed graduates, Class of 2024
- 12.6%
- Management consulting share, Class of 2024
- 9.2%
- Investment and portfolio management share, Class of 2024
- 6.4%
Wake Forest School of Business, Student Achievement Data
- School of Business bachelor’s Class of 2025 with a first destination at graduation
- 77%
- Same, at three months
- 86%
- Same, at six months
- 98%
Wake Forest Pre-Wall Street Career Track
- Pre-Wall Street Career Track seats per year
- 35
- Pre-Wall Street Career Track GPA floor
- 3.4
How Wake Forest compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Wake Forest investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs Wake Forest University a target school for investment banking?
Wake Forest University is a semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #25 of the 100 schools we measure: 296 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 1,214 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
Which banks hire the most Wake Forest analysts?
By our count, Wells Fargo leads with 91 Wake Forest alumni holding investment banking analyst titles, then Bank of America with 54 and Barclays with 35, among graduates of 2013 or later at the 18 top banks we measure.
Do banks treat Wake Forest as a target school?
A semi-target, #25 of 100 by our count and by forum consensus, with Charlotte the market where it recruits like a target and New York the one where it does not.
Which Wake Forest programs feed investment banking?
The Pre-Wall Street Career Track, which selects thirty-five first-years each fall, and the finance major; forum posters add that the Greek system works as a network.
Which banks hire the most from Wake Forest?
Bank of America and Wells Fargo by the university’s own employer list and by forum accounts, which treat both as target relationships, with Jefferies, Citi, Barclays, Goldman, and JPMorgan behind them.
How many Wake Forest University alumni work in private equity?
423 Wake Forest University alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #49 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Wake Forest University alumni work in venture capital?
78 Wake Forest University alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #65 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many Wake Forest University alumni work in hedge fund?
41 Wake Forest University alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #66 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Wake Forest’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 Wake Forest 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, 1,170 (96%) are currently based in the United States and 44 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 5,471 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.
