Caroline Koppelman

Best Undergraduate Colleges for Investment Banking Internships

If you’re someone who knows at the age of 17 that they are dead set on making a lot of money, investment banking is probably a good path for you. But it’s not for the faint of heart. Being a first-year analyst at a major bank can be beyond grueling and many people burn out or decide they’re unfulfilled along the way. Those who stick it out are rewarded in ~dividends.~ So, if you’re looking forward to the luxurious life, you might want to consider applying to one of these schools that feed some of the nation’s most competitive I-Banking internships.

USC Deferral Rate

The University of Southern California’s, or USC, acceptance rate has been dropping steadily for years. In 2022, they only accepted of students who applied — the first time under 12% for the university ever. Over 69,000 applications were reviewed by 65 people. That’s over 1,000 applicants per reader, so when you wonder whether your applicant reader remembers your essay…picture that stack of 1,000 applications. Unless you’re really strategic, it’s hard to stand out.

Columbia Deferral Rate

Columbia College, the undergraduate college of Columbia University, is incredibly difficult to get into. In 2021, the overall acceptance rate was a minuscule . If you want to get into Columbia, your best chance is to apply Early Decision, which came with in 2021 — but if you were deferred you already know this. You don’t need to know that your best shot was ED; you need to know what’s next.

Strategy for Regular Decision to Duke

Duke is a popular school and we always work with a ton of students who hope to get in. This popularity usually drives down their acceptance rates. In recent years, Duke has had a lower acceptance rate than schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, and UPenn. So what do we tell students who are dreaming of Duke? Well, one is to demonstrate interest and the other is often to apply early. Fun fact: all of our students who applied to Duke ED last year got in.

Stanford Deferral Rate

You’re a brave soul — you applied to Stanford. Getting into Stanford is tough regardless of what you’ve accomplished, what your grades look like, or whether you invented a new flavor of ice cream. After the Stanford acceptance rate rose (a tiny amount) , they did an about-face in 2021 with a record low acceptance rate of . Despite this up and down, we have no reason to believe it will be easier to get into Stanford this year.

Brown Deferral Rate

In 2021, Brown its lowest acceptance rate on record for the fourth year in a row. While it’s the overall acceptance rate they’re pointing to, the statistics for early applicants were even tougher. Brown rejected more early applicants — 60% of them — and only deferred 25%. That was a 5% drop from the 2020 deferral rate. It’s likely that the 2022 statistics will only continue the trend with even lower early acceptance and deferral rates, and higher rejection rates.

Strategy for Regular Decision to Michigan

The University of Michigan is on a short list of extremely popular public universities. We love public universities but when students are looking at elite schools there are only a couple of names we hear over and over. UMich is high on that list. If you are from out of state and you are applying RD, you need a strategy when applying to UMich.

Princeton Deferral Rate

Princeton didn’t release their admissions statistics in 2021, but based on the 2020 overall acceptance rate (4.38%), it’s safe to say that if you were deferred from Princeton this year you are far from alone. The reasoning for not releasing the stats, by the way, was that having the numbers freak students — and their parents — out and may discourage them from applying.

The Best Colleges for your Astrological Sign: Capricorn 

Once again let us remind you: we absolutely do not recommend making your astrological sign a primary consideration in your college search. But, with up to 5,000 schools to choose from, creating a college list can be really hard! What do you look for? How do you know if a school is for you? We thought, why not use the traits of astrological archetypes to help you break it down:

Regular Decision to USC Strategy

This year was USC’s first year of offering. Previously the school only had a regular decision option. This is pretty big news given how much more competitive to get into USC it has become over the years. Last year they had about acceptance rate. Adding an EA option is going to make regular decision at the school even more competitive. You might be wondering, why is that? Well, let’s break it down.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) Deferral Rate

If you were deferred from the University of Pennsylvania, or Penn, you’re in luck. Penn is kind enough to give you clear guidance on what to do next, which is a very Penn thing to do. We aren’t surprised that a school that attracts analytical go-getters who like to look before they leap would provide their applicants with the very information they need to do so. Which is to say, good job Penn on being Penn-y.

Yale Deferral Rate

Over the past few years, colleges that offer early paths to admission have gotten into the habit of deferring the vast majority of early applicants — but there are a few exceptions. Yale is one of them. In , Yale deferred 31% of early applicants, while denying 57% and accepting just under 11%. 31% may sound like a lot, but compared to other Ivy League schools, it’s a minuscule percentage. We’re telling you this because this is really good news for you if you were deferred from Yale. You genuinely have a chance, and we don’t say that lightly.

Regular Decision to Stanford

Stanford has one of the lowest acceptance rates out there. Because of this, we get a lot of questions about Stanford from students and parents alike. For the Class of 2025, Stanford had an overall acceptance rate of 3.9%. That is already very low, but there is more to this story. The overall acceptance rate is a combination of early acceptances and regular decision acceptances.

Read this if Rejected Early Decision

Rejection is always hard. Getting rejected from your early decision school can feel like the end of the world, but it's not. It’s the end of the road with that school but not with this process. We work with students every year that come to us after getting rejected from their ED school. We sometimes call it our “everything's going to be ok” package. Because, we promise even if you have gotten a tough rejection, everything is going to be ok.