How Wall Street recruits so many Ivy League grads

Unlike GP, I would say that at my school, TFA and I-banking attracted students with similar credentials, at least on paper (same majors - economics, poli sci, histories, etc.). I can't speak to their motiviations or if any students were considering both, but I will point out that TFA uses the same recruiting timetable as the investment banks and consulting firms, as well as many of the same recruiting strategies, so TFA does appear to view themselves as competing for the same pool of applicants to some degree.

I agree that TFA largely serves as a resume pad - some people do TFA because they want to teach in the long run, but many (I think the majority) view it as a "stepping stone" to law school or business school, and TFA certainly doesn't make any attempts to quell that belief with their recruiting.

TFA also has questionable results - here is one op-ed written by a former TFA fellow who explains some of the problems with the program[0].

Teach for America receives a lot of money from political groups and individuals who oppose unions, because (for better or for worse), they essentially undermine teacher unions in their districts and reduce their power.

Teach for America certainly started off with very nobles goals - they may still have the same goals today, but whether the actual net impact they are making is a positive one is less clear, and is a very political question.

[0] http://www.policymic.com/articles/62487/this-former-tfa-corp...

Some quotes from the article that you should remember:

1. "so many kids who could seemingly do anything choose to work 120-hour weeks"

2. "something like a third of Ivy League graduates going to Wall Street"

3. "They're not just getting finance-minded kids but they're getting the smartest kids from all fields."

4. "give us two years of your lives, don't see your friends, chain yourself to your desk, but we will give you this glorious life where you're making many times what you could ever imagine."

These are kids really really smart, socially adjusted (enough to be accepted by Ivy League), and hard working. If they entered science/medicine/engineering/etc, they would've added great positive impact. Probably not immediately but eventually years down the line. And now they are abandoning these vital industries that actually produce something for an industry that is basically pushing papers around and printing money in the process.

Seriously, WHY would anyone choose to enter a field where you have to work up the ladder (or spend years in grad school and in poverty life) and possibly live in some small towns with a hope of making a few million a year salary ONLY near the end of your career, when you can enter Wall Street and live in NYC (great city but really only for the super rich) and start making 6-7 figure salary/bonus almost from the beginning?

Other major economies do not have Wall Street equivalent and so their top engineering/science graduates don't join finance but instead actually enter the vital industries. And these smart kids actually produce something that is tangible. I think we are already seeing the effect of this trend showing its result slowly.

I know we live in free economy society and all that but I think we need to find a way to 'regulate' how the wall street recruits.

Lastly, I believe the ratio of liberal-arts majors entering Wall Street is way lower than the article seems to suggest. From what I hear, overwhleming majority of the graduates entering Wall Street after graduation are science/math/engineering majors.

This is a common misconception, but not true. It's not true on an absolute scale (many people in NYC survive on what are modest salaries elsewhere) or on a COLA-adjusted scale (NYC has a salary-adjusted lower cost-of-living than many other "cheaper" cities).

> and start making 6-7 figure salary/bonus almost from the beginning?

Even when you factor end-of-year bonuses into the equation, an entry-level I-banking job pays about as much as Google or Facebook would pay an engineer right out of school. The hours are also a lot longer than at Google (not to mention less flexible).

It takes a long time to work your way up to even half of seven figures, and that's if you get there (the vast majority burn out, change professions, or have their careers stagnate).