How many UW alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?

114 University of Washington alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #60 count of the 100 schools ranked; 59 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 Washington as a target school?

No; forum consensus describes virtually no bank recruiting at Foster, with Seattle boutiques and middle-market shops the realistic path and Berkeley the West Coast target. Our count ranks it #73 of 100.

What share of Foster graduates go into investment banking?

3.8% of the Class of 2025 by industry, with financial services at 10.5% and commercial banking and credit at 9.3%; finance is the largest function at 18%.

What do Foster graduates earn after graduation?

An $81,444 average salary and a $10,760 average signing bonus for the Class of 2025, with 92% employed or in graduate school within 90 days on an 82% knowledge rate.

How many University of Washington alumni work in private equity?

476 University of Washington alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #40 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many University of Washington alumni work in venture capital?

199 University of Washington alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #30 of the 100 schools in our database.

How many University of Washington alumni work in hedge fund?

75 University of Washington alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #38 of the 100 schools in our database.

Non-target school#73 of 100

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

University of Washington is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #73 of the 100 schools we measure: 114 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 922 profiles that include an investment banking job title.

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

Photo: Martin Kraft · CC BY-SA 3.0

Rank: #73of 100 schools
At 18 top banks, 2015+: 11475% graduated 2018+
At the elite five: 5952% of the top-bank total
IB alumni network: 922#47 by profiles
Per 1,000 undergrads: 23.3#85 per capita
US-based: 73%669 profiles

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

A rank below 60 puts the odds against you without ending your chances: every school on this list has placed analysts into the top banks. Plan on cold email volume that feels unreasonable and a resume built from early finance internships. The students who make it from this tier start earlier and follow up longer than everyone they are competing against.

Is UW a target school for investment banking?

The verdict, from the data

Fifty-two percent of Washington's top-bank analysts sit at the elite five, 59 of 114 people, one of the highest elite shares in this tier. The school does not produce many top-bank analysts in absolute terms, and a disproportionate number of the ones it does produce land at the most selective firms rather than at the larger balance-sheet banks.

The wider network leans heavily toward investing, with 476 private equity profiles at rank #40 and 199 venture capital profiles at rank #30, both far ahead of the banking rank of #73, alongside 52 private equity and 22 venture capital profiles per 100 IB profiles. Its top-bank count ranks #60, thirteen places ahead of the #73 headline that the per-student leg of the measure pulls down, and 85 of the 114 analysts graduated in 2018 or later.

The limitations are scale and location. Density is 23.3 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates against the 97.8 median, ranking #85, because 922 profiles come from 39,515 undergraduates, and only 73 percent of profiles are currently US-based. Washington offers a strong investing network and a small, quality-weighted banking pipeline that thins out quickly beyond the elite firms.

UW investment banking placement by bank

Analysts, classes of ~2015+

University of Washington'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 measure114
5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview59

By count alone University of Washington ranks #60 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.

Where UW alumni land beyond investment banking

Alumni profiles, all years

University of Washington’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 UW

Foster’s Class of 2025 outcomes, on an 82% survey knowledge rate of business majors, report 92% employed, in graduate school, or in other planned activity within 90 days, an $81,444 average salary, a $10,760 average signing bonus, and 95% with an internship by graduation; Bank of America and JPMorganChase are on the top employer list alongside Accenture, Amazon, the Big Four, Boeing, and Microsoft.

By industry the class is accounting-first: accounting 21%, internet and software 17.3%, consulting 14.1%, financial services 10.5%, commercial banking and credit 9.3%, real estate 6.7%, then investment banking at 3.8% and investments at 3.2%; by function, finance is the largest group at 18%, ahead of accounting at 13%.

The EY Center for Career Advancement is the school’s career office: personalized coaching, targeted search strategies, skill-building sessions led by employers and alumni, employer-led résumé reviews, practice hiring scenarios with feedback, and networking access to Foster alumni and employer partners on and off campus.

Forum accounts call Foster a respected school with virtually no bank recruiting on campus: the Big Four and consulting firms swarm it, bulge brackets do not, so banking means networking hard and stacking finance internships from freshman year. Seattle is the realistic market, with small and mid-size boutiques and, to a lesser extent, San Francisco, since most of the city’s bank presence is commercial banking and wealth management; a West Coast analyst says he sees almost no UW graduates in banking next to Berkeley’s, and one poster calls it a chicken-and-egg problem of few recruiters and few interested students.

Our data ranks UW #73 on 922 top-bank analysts, the #47 count in the country, from 39,515 undergraduates, or 23.3 per 1,000; 73% of its banking alumni network is US-based, the lowest share in this batch. Its per-bank cells are not yet fetched, so the neighbor table above stands in for a bank breakdown.

What UW publishes about outcomes

15 figures, 1 source

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.

Foster School of Business, Class of 2025 Outcomes (PDF)

Survey knowledge rate, Class of 2025 business majors: 82%
Employed, in graduate school, or in other planned activity: 92% within 90 days
Average salary, Class of 2025: $81,444
Average signing bonus, Class of 2025: $10,760
Graduates with an internship by graduation: 95%
Accounting share of industries: 21%
Internet and software share: 17.3%
Consulting share: 14.1%
Financial services share: 10.5%
Commercial banking and credit share: 9.3%
Real estate share: 6.7%
Investment banking share: 3.8%
Investments share: 3.2%
Finance share of functions: 18%
Accounting share of functions: 13%

How UW compares with schools ranked nearby

Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+

See the full ranking of 100 schools →

UW investment banking FAQ

8 questions

Is University of Washington a target school for investment banking?
University of Washington is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #73 of the 100 schools we measure: 114 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 922 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many UW alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
114 University of Washington alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #60 count of the 100 schools ranked; 59 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 Washington as a target school?
No; forum consensus describes virtually no bank recruiting at Foster, with Seattle boutiques and middle-market shops the realistic path and Berkeley the West Coast target. Our count ranks it #73 of 100.
What share of Foster graduates go into investment banking?
3.8% of the Class of 2025 by industry, with financial services at 10.5% and commercial banking and credit at 9.3%; finance is the largest function at 18%.
What do Foster graduates earn after graduation?
An $81,444 average salary and a $10,760 average signing bonus for the Class of 2025, with 92% employed or in graduate school within 90 days on an 82% knowledge rate.
How many University of Washington alumni work in private equity?
476 University of Washington alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #40 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Washington alumni work in venture capital?
199 University of Washington alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #30 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Washington alumni work in hedge fund?
75 University of Washington alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #38 of the 100 schools in our database.

How we counted UW’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 Washington 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, 669 (73%) are currently based in the United States and 253 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 39,515 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.