Brown has always been known as the quirky, fun, Happy Ivy with its Open Curriculum, ability to pass/fail any class and independent concentrations. Students can be seen frolicking on the green and embracing the University’s carefree and relaxed vibe, discussing their class on anything from tai chi to metaphysics. However, don’t be fooled: Beneath this guise, a strong preprofessional culture responsible for producing some of Wall Street’s finest has ascended — and it’s rapidly growing.
Believe it or not, Brown has performed well when it comes to sending graduates to Wall Street. A 2025 LinkedIn analysis found Brown to be in the top 25 undergraduate schools for finance when adjusting for student population. While it certainly is not a hallmark of the University, there is no doubt that Brown is widely considered to be a target school for investment banking across various finance forums.
While ranking in the top 25 may not seem phenomenal given Brown’s academic reputation, it becomes quite impressive when considering our competition. Compared to its peers, Brown has reached essentially equivalent recruiting status with historically fewer resources. Undergraduate business school programs such as Penn’s Wharton and the University of Michigan’s Ross have powerful alumni networks, but even schools without undergraduate business programs have clear advantages: Duke has a literal investment banking class, and Harvard offers mock technical interviews with alumni. Neither of these are provided by the Center for Career Exploration — and yet, when it comes to finance recruiting, we rank consistently among these peers.
Brown’s finance preprofessionalism is a recent development: The University's rise to finance feeder was achieved largely without the aid of the career center’s current resources. It was only last year, in 2024, that the University hired an assistant dean of the College for careers in finance and consulting. With this initiative came other resources, such as a curated spreadsheet of opportunities to help students track the deadlines of competitive finance internships.
In this time, the University has also seen a surge in student-run preprofessional organizations — most oriented towards finance. Notably, Brown Investment Group — which received a record-breaking 243 applications this fall — has begun to partner with the career center to host workshops and student panels. Additionally, several new clubs geared towards recruitment preparation have been rapidly growing. The Brown Finance Club was formed in 2017 to offer resources and general information about finance. In 2021, the Bruno Finance Society was established in hopes of reconciling “the mismatch between the number of high-achieving students at Brown with the opportunities available to them.” And just one year later, the Brown Private Equity Club was created. Each of these finance clubs have collectively transformed their role on campus from merely serving as a finance hub to sending out newsletters, hosting structured workshops and organizing info sessions with potential employers in the past few semesters.
Given that the University achieved its current success largely without these resources, the recent explosion of finance opportunities — from student groups and the University — is sure to put Brown on track to become a force to be reckoned with in the finance recruiting scene. Not only am I okay with this newfound focus on finance recruiting preparation, I actually think that it’s necessary for the future of our institution.
Brown’s decision to invest in supporting the student finance recruitment process couldn’t come at a better time. The other two most popular career paths — tech and consulting — have been shrinking as a whole since the pandemic. With leading consulting firms such as McKinsey firing 10% of their workforce and others pushing back full-time start dates, AI has taken a big toll on the work incoming analysts are able to contribute to the firm. A similar series of events has happened in the tech industry as well. Layoffs and decreasing workforces — a stark contrast to the post-pandemic tech boom — continue to create an unsteady job sector.
At the same time, private equity firms have started hiring straight out of undergrad. Starting in around 2020, major private equity shops such as KKR began launching pipeline internship programs through which they recruited summer interns with the hope of them becoming full time analysts. The result? An increase in opportunities with more lucrative starting salaries. Given the rise in demand for younger talent across the finance sector, the University’s decision to support its students will pay dividends in the future as each recruitment cycle becomes even more strenuous.
While preprofessional schools will continue to expand investment banking factories, the Open Curriculum will allow for Brown’s next generation of Wall Street to bring in talent beyond Excel modeling. Brown students will continue to broaden their intellectual horizons by studying disciplines unrelated to finance, while receiving the support they need from the career center and preprofessional clubs. As mundane tasks start to be automated, employers will shift their focus towards applicants who have sharp critical thinking and communication skills — two areas which Brown students excel in. Brown’s interdisciplinary emphasis and collaborative culture will continue to keep the intense, cutthroat nature of the finance industry from creating a toxic campus culture. The future of finance at Brown is certainly bright, but not brighter than the culture that makes a Brown education unique.
Batisse Manhardt ’26 can be reached at batisse_manhardt@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other columns to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
