Ivy League Varsity Athletics Boost Elite Hiring Odds

A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that playing on a varsity sports team at an Ivy League university substantially increases a graduate's likelihood of being hired by elite firms, especially within the finance, insurance, and consulting sectors. Tracking 120,306 graduates from 1950 to 2020, researchers from Harvard, Duke, and Wharton determined that having a former teammate at a firm boosts a candidate's hiring odds by 193.7%.

This teammate multiplier far exceeds the 4.6% increase associated with simply sharing the same university. The effect persists even when the alumni did not attend the university at the same time as the candidate. The findings suggest the existence of a potent network-driven advantage often characterized as an old boys' club.

Study co-author Paul Gompers suggests the preference for athletes may also be linked to human capital, noting that sports teach discipline, goal-setting, and how to deal with failure. Co-author Sachin Srivastava characterized the athletic network as looking less like a traditional club and more like a roster of shared intensive experiences.