Lower semi-target school#47 of 100
University of Wisconsin-Madison investment banking placement: is it a target school?
University of Wisconsin-Madison is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #47 of the 100 schools we measure: 233 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 1,452 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
- Rank
- #47of 100 schools
- At 18 top banks, 2015+
- 23376% graduated 2018+
- At the elite five
- 9239% of the top-bank total
- IB alumni network
- 1,452#32 by profiles
- Per 1,000 undergrads
- 39.5#72 per capita
- US-based
- 79%1,151 profiles
Is Wisconsin a target school for investment banking?
The verdict, from the dataWisconsin's two network reads disagree sharply. Its 1,452 IB profiles rank #32 by raw count, while 39.5 profiles per 1,000 undergraduates ranks #72 per capita, less than half the 97.8 median, and the top-bank-anchored headline lands at #47. The arithmetic is simply 36,797 undergraduates: the network is large because the school is large, and any individual student is one of many chasing the same seats.
The raw top-bank count is more flattering than the blended headline. Wisconsin holds 233 top-bank analyst seats at rank #39, with 92 of them at the elite five, a 39 percent share that sits mid-pack. Recent graduates make up 176 of the 233, a 76 percent recent share. The buyside network is one of the tier's better ones, with 677 private equity profiles at #32 and 190 venture capital profiles at #34.
Twenty-one percent of profiles are located outside the United States, so the domestic network is smaller than the 1,452 total suggests, and per-capita reach is the weakest part of the case. Wisconsin gives access to a broad, well-balanced finance alumni base across banking and the buyside, with the caveat that scale is doing most of the work behind the count.
Wisconsin investment banking placement by bank
Analysts, classes of ~2015+University of Wisconsin-Madison'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 measure233
- 5The elite five: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore, and Centerview92
By count alone University of Wisconsin-Madison ranks #39 of 100; the table of schools ranked nearby, below, sets that figure beside its neighbors.
Where Wisconsin alumni land beyond investment banking
Alumni profiles, all yearsUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison’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 Wisconsin
The Wisconsin School of Business reported that 94% of its Class of 2023 undergraduates seeking employment landed a job, that starting salaries rose $5,000 from the prior year, and that 59% received a signing bonus, a new high, on a knowledge rate that tracks nearly every graduate. The same release says the number of students accepting investment banking positions continues to increase and that investment research jobs have quadrupled since 2022, and credits nine of the top ten hiring companies with hosting a career trek.
Its 2025 Poets&Quants write-up puts the program at #22 nationally and #7 among publics, with 95% of students in full-time jobs within six months, 87% completing internships, a $73,896 average starting salary for the Class of 2024, and 31% receiving signing bonuses. The finance major page lists an $80,903 average starting salary for Class of 2025 finance majors and career treks whose past employers include Bank of America, Barclays, BMO Financial Group, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and UBS.
The Investment Banking Club is the pipeline. Its stated aim is to make the university a recruiting destination for premier banks in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and it calls itself the premier club on campus for investment banking placement. Fall recruitment runs an application, first-round interviews, and a Superday inside about a week in late September, and members get weekly sessions on M&A deals, IPOs, and LBOs, valuation and firm research, annual trips to all three cities, alumni networking, and mock interviews.
Peak Frameworks ranks Wisconsin #47 of 60 and #40 by total hires, a lower semi-target with consistent placement despite its distance from financial centers, held back by a 0.10% undergraduate placement rate that suggests opportunities reach only the top students. Its hires lean on a few firms: Goldman Sachs at 26% of placements, Bank of America at 18%, and Rothschild & Co at 15%.
Forum accounts say almost everyone in the club places in New York, that admission is the hard part and members who get in will place, whether as one of the few J.P. Morgan hires each year, on what one poster calls the yellow brick road to Rothschild, or at other banks, and that the club’s alumni database covers both sell-side and buy-side contacts. Against Illinois, posters say Wisconsin is more spread out and places more in New York; against Penn State, both are called mature programs with plenty of alumni on the street.
Our data ranks Wisconsin #47 on 1,452 top-bank analysts, the #32 count in the country, from 36,797 undergraduates, or 39.5 per 1,000; 79% 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 Wisconsin publishes about outcomes
15 figures, 4 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.
Wisconsin School of Business, A Banner Year: WSB Releases Employment Outcomes for Undergraduate Class of 2023
- Class of 2023 job seekers employed
- 94%
- Starting salary increase from the prior year, Class of 2023
- $5,000
- Class of 2023 receiving a signing bonus
- 59%
Wisconsin School of Business, WSB Undergraduate Program Jumps to Top 7 Among Publics in Poets&Quants’ 2025 Rankings
- Poets&Quants 2025 rank
- #22 (#7 among publics)
- Students in full-time jobs within six months
- 95%
- Students completing internships
- 87%
- Class of 2024 average starting salary
- $73,896
- Class of 2024 receiving signing bonuses
- 31%
Wisconsin School of Business, Finance, Investment, and Banking Major
- Class of 2025 finance major average starting salary
- $80,903
Peak Frameworks, University of Wisconsin-Madison Investment Banking Placement
- Peak Frameworks rank
- #47 of 60
- Peak Frameworks rank by total hires
- #40
- Peak Frameworks undergraduate placement rate
- 0.10%
- Share of Peak-counted placements at Goldman Sachs
- 26%
- Share of Peak-counted placements at Bank of America
- 18%
- Share of Peak-counted placements at Rothschild & Co
- 15%
How Wisconsin compares with schools ranked nearby
Analysts at 18 top banks, ~2015+Wisconsin investment banking FAQ
8 questionsIs University of Wisconsin-Madison a target school for investment banking?
University of Wisconsin-Madison is a lower semi-target school for investment banking by our count. It ranks #47 of the 100 schools we measure: 233 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 1,452 profiles that include an investment banking job title.
How many Wisconsin alumni are analysts at the top investment banks?
233 University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni from the classes of roughly 2015 onward hold investment banking analyst titles alongside one of the 18 top banks we measure, the #39 count of the 100 schools ranked; 92 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 Wisconsin as a target school?
A lower semi-target by Peak Frameworks, #47 of 60, where placement runs through the Investment Banking Club and posters say members who get in will place. Our count also puts it at #47 of 100.
Which banks take the most Wisconsin graduates into banking?
Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Rothschild & Co by Peak Frameworks’ LinkedIn count, at 26%, 18%, and 15% of placements, and the club’s members cluster in New York by forum accounts.
What do Wisconsin finance majors earn after graduation?
The finance major page lists an $80,903 average starting salary for the Class of 2025, and the school reported 59% of the Class of 2023 receiving a signing bonus.
How many University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni work in private equity?
677 University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni profiles include a private equity job title, ranking #32 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni work in venture capital?
190 University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni profiles include a venture capital job title, ranking #34 of the 100 schools in our database.
How many University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni work in hedge fund?
68 University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni profiles include a hedge fund job title, ranking #44 of the 100 schools in our database.
How we counted Wisconsin’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 Wisconsin-Madison 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, 1,151 (79%) are currently based in the United States and 301 are abroad. The per-1,000 figure divides the network count by 36,797 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.
