Non-target school#71 of 100
William & Mary investment banking placement: is it a target school?
William & Mary is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #71 of the 100 schools we measure: 92 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 452 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #71of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 9265% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 3740% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 452#76 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 64.9#61 per capita
- US-based
- 89%404 profiles
Is William & Mary a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the data92 William & Mary alumni have worked as investment banking analysts at the 18 top banks since the 2013 class, ranking #72 and sitting almost exactly in line with the school's #71 headline rank. Set against 452 total IB profiles, close to one in five of the banking network has passed through a recent analyst seat at one of those firms.
Density lands below par at 64.9 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates against the 97.8 median, though the per-capita rank of #61 still beats the #76 rank by network size, since 6,963 undergrads sit behind the total. 89 percent of profiles are US-based, and the elite five hold 37 of the 92 top-bank analysts, a 40 percent share.
Recency is the number to watch here: 60 of the 92 top-bank analysts graduated in 2018 or later, a 65 percent share, meaning more than a third of the cohort came earlier. Private equity ranks #85 with 176 profiles. William & Mary offers a steady rather than accelerating banking pipeline, which still leaves a usable set of alumni to reach.
William & Mary investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+William & Mary'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 measure92
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview37
By count alone William & Mary ranks #72 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where William & Mary alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsWilliam & Mary’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 William & Mary
The Class of 2024 undergraduate business outcomes report, at a 93% knowledge rate on 187 of 201 graduates, puts 99% in employment or graduate school: 67% in full-time jobs and 30% in graduate or professional school, with a $78,142 mean and $79,600 median salary among the 70% of employed graduates who reported one, and a $6,504 mean bonus. Employers with two or more hires are led by JPMorgan Chase with 7, Bank of America with 4, and Morgan Stanley with 2, with MUFG also on the list.
Finance majors did better than the school: at a 96% knowledge rate on 89 of 93, 100% were employed or in graduate school, 83% working full time and 16% in graduate school, at an $85,375 average starting salary with a $9,205 average bonus across 54 unique employers; 44 of the 89 landed in the Mid-Atlantic and 20 in the Northeast.
The Mason School reports a 96% job or graduate school placement rate within three months and a $69,671 median starting salary across its programs, and its Boehly Center for Excellence in Finance is the hub: alumni mentor matching, the Bianca Caragliano stock pitch competition, the Howard J. Busbee Finance Academy, the Mason Investment Fund, and Women in Business, plus the annual From DoG Street to Wall Street conference, in its 20th year in September 2026, which brings hundreds of students of every major into panels and one-on-one conversations with finance alumni.
Forum threads are dated and lukewarm: an older one says nearly every bulge bracket and elite boutique recruits at Virginia while William & Mary is not heavily recruited for banking, that regional middle-market banks such as Harris Williams recruit there and its alumni are powerful, and that it is a non-target for bulge brackets; a poster from the school says Richmond friends struggled to reach finance outside Virginia, which cuts the other way, and the fallback advice is accounting into the Big Four and a top business school later.
Our data ranks William & Mary #71 on 452 top-bank analysts from 6,963 undergraduates, or 64.9 per 1,000, the #61 per-capita figure in the country; 89% 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 William & Mary publishes about outcomes
23 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.
William & Mary Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement, Outcomes Report: Undergraduate Business, Class of 2024 (PDF)
- Knowledge rate, business Class of 2024
- 93% (187 of 201)
- Employed or in graduate school, business Class of 2024
- 99%
- Full-time employment, business Class of 2024
- 67%
- Graduate or professional school, business Class of 2024
- 30%
- Mean salary, business Class of 2024
- $78,142
- Median salary, business Class of 2024
- $79,600
- Employed graduates reporting a salary
- 70%
- Mean bonus, business Class of 2024
- $6,504
- JPMorgan Chase hires, business Class of 2024
- 7
- Bank of America hires, business Class of 2024
- 4
- Morgan Stanley hires, business Class of 2024
- 2
- Finance major knowledge rate, Class of 2024
- 96% (89 of 93)
- Finance majors employed or in graduate school
- 100%
- Finance majors working full time
- 83%
- Finance majors in graduate school
- 16%
- Finance major average starting salary
- $85,375
- Finance major average bonus
- $9,205
- Unique employers of finance majors
- 54
- Finance majors placed in the Mid-Atlantic
- 44 of 89
- Finance majors placed in the Northeast
- 20
Mason School of Business, Undergraduate Careers
- Mason School placement within three months
- 96%
- Mason School median starting salary
- $69,671
Boehly Center, From DoG Street to Wall Street
- From DoG Street to Wall Street, September 2026
- 20th annual
How William & Mary compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+William & Mary investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs William & Mary a target school for investment banking?
William & Mary is a non-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #71 of the 100 schools we measure: 92 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 452 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many William & Mary alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
92 William & Mary alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #72 count of the 100 schools ranked; 37 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 William & Mary as a target school?
No by the forum threads, which call it a non-target for bulge brackets that regional middle-market banks recruit at, but its Class of 2024 finance majors reached 100% placement at an $85,375 average salary with JPMorgan Chase the top employer. Our count ranks it #71 of 100.
What is the Boehly Center at William & Mary?
The Mason School’s finance hub, with alumni mentor matching, a stock pitch competition, the Finance Academy, the Mason Investment Fund, and the annual From DoG Street to Wall Street conference, in its 20th year in 2026.
What do William & Mary finance majors earn out of school?
An $85,375 average starting salary with a $9,205 average bonus for the Class of 2024, against a $78,142 mean for business graduates overall, per the Class of 2024 outcomes report.
How many William & Mary alumni work in private equity?
176 William & Mary alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #85 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many William & Mary alumni work in venture capital?
51 William & Mary alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #79 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many William & Mary alumni work in hedge fund?
24 William & Mary alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #85 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted William & Mary’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 William & Mary 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, 404 (89%) are currently based in the United States and 48 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 6,963 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.
