So you’ve decided that you want a career in asset management. Maybe you were rejected by the Ivy League schools you applied to – and every other prestigious private university on your list. Or maybe you’re unsure about your financial-aid package and unwilling to take on hundreds of thousands of dollars in student-loan debt. Either way, all is not lost, because plenty of public universities in the U.S. still feed into the asset management industry.
In fact, even Larry Fink, the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, the largest asset management firm in the world, graduated from a public university.
A select band of public universities lead to asset management jobs.
That said, where you get your degree certainly matters a lot. Not all state schools will help you get your foot in the door at the mutual fund shop or hedge fund of your choice.
Public schools were well represented in the 2015 eVestment Education Report, which tracks the alma maters of asset management professionals in the U.S. The University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and University of Virginia all have a large number of alumni across the fund management industry.
The report found that regional bias was a beneficial factor, with lower-ranked public schools still getting attention from local fund firms, with alumni of Midwestern state schools the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, prime examples of beneficiaries of that effect.
Here are the top 10 public universities in the U.S. to position yourself for a career in asset management, based on data from our resume database.
Mike Cho, senior analyst at eVestment, says that despite the proliferation of public universities on the list, the size of their student bodies meant that – proportionately – they weren’t well represented.
“The strength of various school’s networks within the industry, and strong alumni networks can be key to connecting with the right people for interviews and for landing jobs at top firms,” he said.
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