

Harvard, 4 Other Schools, Make Up Most MBAs at PE & VC Firms - JumpCrisscross
http://blog.pitchbook.com/harvard-4-other-schools-make-up-most-mbas-at-pe-vc-firms/

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rayiner
PE/VC firms are arms of the finance industry, and largely recruit from analyst
classes at traditional investment banks (either directly, or after an MBA).
The PE/VC firms are typically much smaller than investment banks, and are
happy to let them handle basic training. The top 5-7 business schools sit in-
between the two.

Why so few schools? Not because anyone thinks you can't get a top financial
education at U of M, but because more aren't needed. Business schools don't
offer substantial merit aid, so if you don't go to one of the top 5-7, it's
either because you couldn't get in, because you didn't do enough research to
know where financial firms hire from, or because you're geographically limited
to a location outside one of the major financial centers (New York, Chicago,
Boston, San Francisco). All of those characteristics are good filters for
PE/VC firms.

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mathattack
I would just add that there is much more supply of folks interested in PE/VC
than jobs. The firms have to cut the list somehow. Even limiting to the top 5
or 7 schools leaves them with way too many applicants. The other thing going
on is people from the top 5-7 programs also get the right work experience
immediately post-MBA, which helps the cause. Hiring in the industry is
relationship driven, so people hire their friends....

The same thing happens in software, though perhaps to a lesser extent.
Facebook and Google hire an awful lot out of Stanford, Berkeley and MIT,
especially when they're small. Once their needs grow, they expand the schools
they recruit from. PE and VC firms never grow large enough to require such an
influx of hires.

