Complete UK Undergraduate Tier List
Haven't seen one of these in 5 minutes. Given UK University offers are starting to come out I thought it could be somewhat useful for firming / clearing.
My opinion from many interviews, ACs and LinkedIn Alumni statistics, based mainly from FO Banking presence, Consulting, as well as general reputation and finance placement over the last ten years. Do comment, I am Interested in others perspective.
Tier S+ (World Renowned Target)
Oxford - Not much to say. Strange amount of Google Employees. The Best UK University.
LSE - Arguably the best for banking. Great location for Networking (you won't have to)
Cambridge - Again, world class. Nothing between these, the other two may be slightly better.
Top Employers in this bracket: Deloitte, GS, McKinsey, JPM, Citi, MS, BCG + PE
Tier S (Strong Target)
Imperial - The only entirely STEM focused UK University. Best of this bracket.
UCL - Like above, great location for networking and top placement.
Warwick - Probably the best undergraduate business school.
Top Employers in this bracket: Deloitte, GS, Citi, Accenture, JPM + McKinsey for UCL / Imperial
Tier A (Semi Target)
Bath - Great international Program, Nice University. Surprisingly best BB Placement in this tier.
Durham - Far away from London. Great reputation. Boring apparently.
KCL - Best London university to offer a finance course. Great Location / Banking Placement.
Top Employers in this bracket: Mostly EY, Deloitte, PWC, HSBC and GS. Less so JPM, MS.
Tier B (Weak Semi Target)
Nottingham - Not as far away from London. Relatively good FO placement. Not boring.
Loughborough - Also relatively good FO placement, Really fun university.
Manchester - Target for BO, Party University, Rare FO placement, Partner with Bocconi.
Top Employers in this bracket: Largely Deloitte, PWC, HSBC, Amazon. BB Placement rare.
Tier C (Weak Semi Target)
Exeter - The least diverse university in the UK.
Bristol - Similar to Exeter but a bit more fun.
Edinburgh / St Andrews - Good location for MS/JPM Middle and Back office events.
Top Employers in this bracket: Big4 Dominate employment, HSBC, NatWest / RBS
Tier D (Reputable but Non Target)
Lancaster, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool.
Will add suggested edits here:
Touch grass
one from Italy here haha
This stuff doesn't mean shit in the UK. Look at LinkedIn and you'll find people in your "Tier D" at GS/MS/JPM.
Found the Loughborough student haha.
With most of the semi targets you listed, there's really not much in it I reckon.
The placement of Edinburgh so far down is hilarious.
Bath has good representation probably partly because of its industrial placement program.
Idk what the person above me is talking about, you're not gonna find more than a couple students from the whole of Tier D in FO at any BB unless they're diversity or were recruited in 2008. That may change with push to socioeconomic diversity though.
Bath has good representation because the student and the career service have upped their game in both placement and non-placement
Take it upon yourself to check - go to LinkedIn, sort people by university and input title "Investment Banking." You'll find those at GS, Rothschild, PJT, Citi, BofA, Moelis, Deutsche etc. This job doesn't require nearly as much intellectual horsepower as you might think.
Of course it doesn't require that much intellectual horsepower, HR doesn't give a shit about that though. I'm not in any way calling any of the people at these unis stupid either.
I have some time today so I had a quick look (but I have looked at this before).
Trend is as follows: the more "prestigious" the firm (yes cringe I know), the more likely there was an intermediate step to getting the IB role. Whether that be big 4, target MFin, a less "prestigious" division, maybe MO or something.
Very few are at BBs straight out the gate. There are definitely some MMs and BSBs in their though which is fine but that's not what I was talking about originally anyway. Obviously there are directors that went to these schools but that's irrelevant because we all know recruitment was more of a cakewalk 10-15 years ago.
Certainly right about that. What we can't test is whether that's due to a lack of knowledge, lack of ability, or whether the university had a negative signalling effect on employers.
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