Calling all Cornell (Johnson) Fall 2011 applicants!

Great questions, perseverance. Cornell is a core school at three bulge brackets and places on average 1-3 graduates at each of the rest of the bulge brackets every year (I think the exception being Credit Suisse, who hasn't taken people from Cornell for IB in a couple of years from what I've heard). The Old Ezra club on campus is currently working on enhancing relationships with smaller boutique-style firms as well, there's a fair number of Johnson grads at those (considerable untapped potential). Out of all the 1st years who were interested in Finance this year, 100% got internships in finance. It has been a good year employment-wise for Johnson and I'm sure that information will be made public sooner rather than later.

The downside here being (which I'm sure is a downside for some, but perhaps not most) is that if you are set for career in IB, you're most likely going to end up on Wall street. Clearly, most IB is in NY anyway, but I find that most finance people at Cornell end up on Wall Street on way or another. The only exception are managerial finance folks. If you wanted finance on the west coast or say the mid-west, you're going to have to do a fair amount of off campus search. As an aside however, there's been a tendency (at ALL schools, not just Cornell) to have more and more applicants every year who engage in off-campus career search. It's something like 50-50 right now or even 40-60 (on campus-off campus) these days, but it's a good thing to keep in mind.