I just realize that it haven’t posted about the placements of the Washington University in St. Louis program in some time. Apologies for this. The programs placements have continued to shine and last year was no exception. I am will also show placements for the quantitative finance track as well as the corporate finance track. One of the best elements of this program is the ability to choose how quant you want your MSF education to be.
Below is a summary of the placements for the 2015 class, but you can find the published report here.
Masters in Finance (Corporate Finance Track) Stats
- Number of Students – 29
- Median Base Salary – $65,000
- Median Bonus – $7,000
Industry Placements
- Investment Banking 20%
- Capital Mkts./Research 14%
- Asset Management 14%
- Commercial Banking 13%
- Private Wealth Mgmt. 13%
- Industry Finance 13%
- Mgmt. Consulting 13%
Organizations Hiring MSF (Corporate Finance Track) Students
- Cicero Group
- Comprehensive Wealth Solutions
- Cristalpet
- Cultivation Capital
- Dimensional Fund Advisors
- Gardner Capital Partners
- Health Capital Consultants
- JPMorgan Chase
- KeyBank
- Raymond James
- Robert W. Baird
- RubinBrown
- Stifel
- SunTrust Banks, Inc.
- TAP Advisors
- Wells Fargo
Some key takeaway’s I got from looking at these stats are the diversity in placements, the quality of firms hiring graduates and the fact that 75% of placements came outside of traditional OCR. The program places students throughout a spectrum of finance roles, including management consulting which is pretty unique. The names on the list of firms also show the range (Bulge Bracket, Middle Market and Boutique) as well as depth of annual program placements. As far as how these jobs were secured, the fact that 25% came from OCR and 25% came from personal networks (with the rest coming from alumni and internships) shows the hustle students have.
Masters in Finance (Quantitiative Finance Track) Stats
- Number of Students – 20
- Median Base Salary – $60,000
- Median Bonus – n/a
Industry Placements
- Asset Management 23%
- Capital Mkts./Research 23%
- Commercial Banking 18%
- Diversified Services 18%
- Investment Banking 12%
- Strategic Planning 6%
Organizations Hiring MSF (Quantitative Finance Track) Students
- American Enterprise Institute
- Avondale Partners
- BlackRock Kelso Capital
- BNP Paribas
- China Investment Securities
- CITIC Trust
- Deutsche Börse Group
- Discover Financial Services
- Encore Capital Management
- Fidelity Investments
- Goldman Sachs
- Markit
- NISA Investment Advisors
- Quasar Trading
- Reinsurance Group of America
Some of the takeaway’s from the above list include how banking and capital markets still made up a significant percentage of placements, the addition of strategic planning and diversified services to the list, as well as some of the firms hiring students. Students looking for optionality might be suited focusing on the quant track instead of the traditional corporate finance track. The names on the list also impressed be, building on what the corporate finance placements.
All-in-all, I think the 2015 placements were very strong and diversified. Overall, the program has a Midwest/Mid-Atlantic bend to where students work (50% in each track fall into this category), but I wouldn’t let people this fully dissuade those looking for NYC positions from applying and accepting an admittance into this program. The program does a great job both educating and placing students and in my opinion, is one of the top five programs currently out there.
Here is a link to the Washington University in St. Louis Masters in Finance Program
