Wall Street Prep vs. BIWS (M&I)

Wall Street Prep vs. BIWS (M&I): Course Comparison

Many students and professionals considering a career in investment banking, equity research, or private equity think about enrolling in a financial and valuation modeling training program.

Understanding exactly what investment bankers do every day is quite helpful for those trying to break into the industry because it makes them stronger, more confident interviewees and more effective once they get the job.

Prior to 2003, when Wall Street Prep pioneered the Investment Banking Self Study Program, this type of training was not available outside a formal investment banking training program.  The program became a hit, and since 2003 several other companies have emerged to offer similar programs.  Two companies that actively promote their products on the internet are Breaking Into Wall Street and Wall Street Training.

How to Select the Program that is Right for You

While all three companies offer multiple products, all three have a version of a “complete” flagship product which includes what typically represents the “core” investment banking financial modeling skill set.  In this article, I will try to lay out some differences and similarities between the three programs, and explain why Wall Street Prep remains the best choice.

Product	Premium Package	BIWS Premium	Packs 3-6
Price	$499	$497	$1,650
What you get	Online videos Comprehensive soft copy manuals that can be used as desk reference after program completion Model templates and supporting documents	Online videos Short PDF summaries Model templates and supporting documents	Online videos Online presentations Model templates and supporting documents
Macro Toolkit	Boost Excel Add-In: The essential macro suite for power Excel users.	None	WST Macros Add-In: A small set of macro shortcuts, far less robust than the powerful Boost Add-In.
Support	E-mail	Email	Email
Used at investment banks to train analysts and associates?	Yes	No	Yes
Does company run live training at investment banks?	Yes	No	Yes
Certification available?(Details)	Yes	No	Yes

WSP vs. BIWS: Course Quality

When considering in which financial modeling program to enroll, factors such as price, support, content format (online vs. physical books vs. a combination of both), and access to a macro toolkit are all important.  But perhaps the most critical factor of all is the quality of the content – a financial modeling program is useless if it does not teach material effectively.

Given the considerations stated above, Wall Street Prep’s program provides the highest quality training out there.  Wall Street Prep invests heavily in ensuring that materials reflect current best practices and are taught in a way that is intuitive. Training follows a very clear, step-by-step approach where trainees build models essentially from scratch, starting from a blank Excel spreadsheet and working sequentially through a model.

There is no better way to determine which approach works best for you than to actually sample the programs. These 3 videos, taken from the LBO Modeling portion of the course, provide an informative glimpse into the teaching approach of the three providers:

LBO Model: Sources and Uses (11:30)	LBO Model: Debt Repayments (17:38)	LBO Model: Sources and Uses (8:24)

 Which program(s) do investment banks use to train their analysts and associates?
Investment banks, private equity firms, and top business school programs hire Wall Street Prep to conduct analyst and associate training in-house. This enables our instructors (all former investment bankers who are also involved in the development and refinement of the self-study program) to receive continuous feedback about materials and integrate the latest best practices into the training material. Below we lay out how all three firms compare to one another:

Partial list of current clients: Investment Banking Unless noted otherwise, clients below are for formal summer analyst and associate training. Stifel Nicolaus Weisel FBR Capital Markets Raymond James Lazard Asia Goldman Sachs (cont. ed.) Miller Buckfire Sagent Advisors Private Equity Cerberus Thomas Lee Partners Vista Equity Partners Francisco Partners Other Institutions Boston Consulting Group FTI Consulting AlixPartners Deloitte Fidelity MBA programs Wharton MIT Kellogg Columbia Cornell CFA Societies Washington, DC San Francisco Boston Calgary	Firms do not hire BIWS for in-house training to our knowledge.	Partial list of current and past clients:http://www.wallst-training.com/clients.htmlWST includes non-current clients and training engagements outside of the formal summer training programs in the list.