The Amherst Student • April 27, 2022
Opinion
13
The Amherst to Wall Street Pipeline
Photo courtesy of Sam Valadi
Staff Writer Andrew Rosin ’25 addresses the culture of selling out into finance, reminding students of their potential to bring Amherst's interdisciplinary perspectives to Wall Street. Andrew Rosin ’25 Staff Writer Two years ago, 20 percent of Amherst College’s senior class planned to work in financial services after graduating. That equates to roughly 90 out of the 452 seniors. This figure dwarfs the other post-grad outcomes; for reference, 11 percent of the graduating class planned to work in consulting, and only 4 percent of the graduating class planned to work in law. For most students, this statistic probably isn’t surprising; however, Amherst students are arguably less likely to know who these students are and why they’re going to work on Wall Street. While there’s research that theorizes why finance appeals to elite college students, it’s worth asking why students here at Amherst are so likely to choose careers in finance. And then there’s the question that to many students will sound paradoxical: can you create meaningful change
while working on Wall Street? There are myriad reasons why students gravitate toward Wall Street, from the size of the industry to its quick return on investment, fast-paced work environment, and, of course, the salary. The average salary for a first-year investment banking analyst is somewhere between $170,000 and $190,000. The salary does draw students to Wall Street, like Sona Kim ’22, whose goal is FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early. Kim hopes to retire by the age of 30 with the money she makes on Wall Street. Stephanie Hockman, director of the Traub Center for Careers in Business and Finance, argues that individuals should be “compensated for the value they add to a company.” However, it’s hard to justify the six-figure salaries when the average salary of a public school teacher in Amherst, for example, is only around $63,000. Hockman explained that the disparity in salaries is a “factor of government” and that “without
finance, we don't have an economy that moves.” However, she also noted that “educators should absolutely be paid more.” It’s also important to recognize that money means different things to different students, as international student Sushan Bhattarai ’23 notes. Because Amherst provides generous financial aid to low income students, he argues, there is a cohort of students at the college for whom Wall Street is a means of “securing economic freedom.” For international students, too, Wall Street provides a pathway to “bureaucratic freedom.” Working at a reputable Wall Street firm increases the chances of obtaining a visa for those who are not naturalized US citizens. The second most commonly cited reason for pursuing a career on Wall Street is job security. In the finance industry, it’s most common to work after graduating with the company you interned with during your junior summer. Junior summer
internships are decided during candidates’ sophomore year, so students going into finance could already be guaranteed a post-graduation job by their sophomore year. Emily Griffen, director of the Loeb Center, noted that students “could walk into their senior year, job in hand, and they don't have to stress … or get bent out of shape over this. They can actually just focus on their senior year.” Overall, the finance track has more of a defined playbook than the government or nonprofit paths. “Going into these other fields, the pathway looks a little bit more opaque, it's a little bit more ambiguous,” Griffen said. “The timeline can make you feel really insecure.” She also noted that nonprofits have less resources and money to recruit students. While Griffen argues that “when you really look at what the Loeb Center resources are, it's actually very small, proportionately, for business and finance,” students perceive the
Loeb Center’s presence differently. Necati Akinci ’25, for example, described the Loeb Center as “finance-oriented,” and at the end of the day, the Loeb Center does a good job of connecting finance students with career opportunities. Amherst offers programs like Hockman’s eight-week Introduction to Finance series, for example, which provide students with a foundation for careers in finance as first- and second-year students. Hockman runs an identical workshop for consulting, and it makes sense that consulting is the other big — and growing — post-grad outcome for Amherst seniors. Athletes have access to an additional set of resources to help them find work on Wall Street. Through generations of student-athletes graduating and going to work on Wall Street, finance networks have become ingrained within Amherst’s sports teams. Upperclassmen can facil-
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