Wall Street’s hidden recruiting pipeline isn’t an Ivy League diploma—it’s the teammate who triples your odds of getting hired
A new study of more than 120,000 Ivy League graduates finds locker room ties, not diplomas, do the real gatekeeping into finance's top firms
At Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America, the fastest route to a corner office might not be through the career center, but through the football roster. A new study from Harvard, Duke, and Wharton researchers tracked the first jobs of 120,306 Ivy League graduates between 1950 and 2020. They found that being a college athlete is a significant hiring edge, with the "team bond" proving more potent than the diploma itself.
"The pull comes from intensive shared experiences like a varsity team," said Will Levinson, a co-author and doctoral student at Wharton. Ivy League athletes not only out-earn non-athletes and reach the C-suite more often but also occupy a disproportionate number of positions in finance, insurance, and consulting. Former teammates from the same sport and school, even those not directly known to the athlete, significantly boost hiring odds.
These findings reinforce the perception that elite social circles restrict access to top jobs, with Ivy League athletes overrepresented in high-powered industries.
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