How to Decide Between Wall Street Mastermind and WSO Academy
Some students evaluating investment banking recruiting programs compare Wall Street Mastermind and WSO Academy when deciding which option is the best fit for their goals.
Wall Street Mastermind is designed to provide high-touch, ongoing guidance that gives students premium support throughout their recruiting process. Additionally, pricing for Wall Street Mastermind is flexible and competitive to other offerings–we can usually create a package that works for each student.
Let’s dig into some of the key differences between Wall Street Mastermind and WSO Academy.
First, Just a Quick Note on How This Page Works...
Hear From a Student Who Joined WSMM After Not Getting Results From WSO Academy (Applied to 50-60 Firms and Got ZERO Interviews)
Resume Coaching
- Unlimited revisions / edits on your resume
- No time limit on when you can ask for edits (recruiting can last UP TO 4-5 years)
- Not just resume edits; we help you find legitimate finance internships (not "pay to play")
- Each edit counts for 2 hours against your 25 hour limit for 1:1 meetings (will deplete quickly)
- Your 1:1 meeting hours expire if unused before the deadline
- Does not help you find real internships, only unpaid "internships" with WSO
Networking Coaching
- Detailed networking course 3x longer than WSO's course
- "Done For You" networking option available for students who are too busy and need the additional help; we will take all the grunt work of networking off your plate
- WSO's networking course is only 5 hours long
- Lacks the breadth and detail needed to truly master each step of your "networking funnel"
- Must do all of the most time consuming and tedious aspects of networking yourself
Technical Interview Coaching
- Detailed technical course 5x longer than WSO's course
- Deep dive into each topic w/ the detail needed for interviews
- No need to memorize hundreds of questions from interview guides, and no need to take confusing modeling courses
- Technical course is only ~5 hours long in total
- The entire course is made up of 240+ "lessons" that are only 1-2 minutes each on average (!!)
- Almost impossible to learn the technical concepts with enough depth this way
Behavioral Interview Coaching
- Includes over 15 hours of content that explains in detail what top firms are looking for
- Focuses on up to 20 of the most common behavioral questions
- Former bulge bracket global head of recruiting meets with you 1:1 to review your stories
- Experienced banker assigned to rewrite your answers line by line
- Behavioral course is less than 20 minutes long in total (!!)
- Lacks the breadth and detail needed to ace your behavioral interviews
- Prep focuses on just 1) Tell me about yourself, 2) Why IB, and 3) your "7 stories", and that's it
- Missing many of the common questions that can be asked
Mentor Support
- Unlimited support with no hourly cap; includes 1:1's with former global heads of recruiting at bulge bracket banks
- No restrictions on how you spend your time with your coaches (mocks vs. coaching)
- Unlimited resume edits that do not count against your hours
- No expiration on the coaching; this is crucial because recruiting can last longer than expected (i.e. if you go through summer > full time > lateral recruiting)
- Not truly unlimited, 1:1 time with coaches capped at 25 hours
- The only 1:1 sessions that are "unlimited" are the "peer-to-peer" ones, which are with other students and not coaches
- Most of the hours allocated for mock interviews; doesn't leave much time for 1:1 coaching
- EACH resume edit uses 2 hours
- Cancelations within 24 hours still count against your hours
- All hours lost after 18 months, even if you're still recruiting
Guaranteed Internship
- Do not recommend our students put anything WSMM-related on their resumes; it hurts credibility
- Instead, we help you secure legitimate finance internships even with no prior experience
- We don't use the word "guaranteed" because these are legitimate internships that are not "pay to play"; and therefore more impressive to bankers
- But it's "virtually guaranteed" with a 100% success rate even after thousands of students
- Offers two types of "internships", but bankers know you paid WSO to get these, which actually hurts your credibility
- "Finance Research Internship" is just writing articles to help WSO boost their rankings on Google; no relevant skills acquired
- "Equity Research Internship" is writing reports sold by WSO for $9; slightly better but WSO is not viewed as a legit ER firm
- Both are exploiting you as an unpaid intern to line WSO's own pockets while offering little to no relevant experience
Company Database Access
- Lifetime access to a database exclusive to WSMM members
- Includes tens of thousands of questions from actual interviews in recent years, crowdsourced by our students
- Includes questions from every top investment bank plus many of the top buyside firms
- Shouldn't be a major factor in your decision
- Does not come with unlimited lifetime access
- Anyone can buy the database separately from WSO Academy for just $19/month or $97/year (it's cheap)
- You also get 1 month free by making a submission yourself
- Shouldn't be a major factor in your decision
Financial Modeling Courses
- Don't want you to watch 300+ hours of irrelevant courses
- Instead, we want you to do the minimum viable amount of work to get the offer
- Because speed matters in recruiting; the best banks finish recruiting the earliest (elite boutiques first, then bulge brackets, then middle markets, and lastly regional boutiques)
- We provide you with relevant modeling resources only AFTER you've gotten the offer
- 300+ hours of courses; majority are not on things you need
- You wouldn't buy 90% of these courses; but if you asked for a discount instead of these "free bonuses" WSO would say no
- WSO requires you to spend at least 50 hours on the modeling courses, despite none of the top banks doing modeling tests
- Eats up your most valuable resource (time), which could've been spent on more useful things (raising GPA, internships, networking, and interview prep)
Unlimited Support (24/7/365)
- Truly unlimited support with no cap on the number of hours
- No expiration date on any of the support; we will help you for as long as needed until you're done with recruiting
- Private group chat with you and at least 4 coaches that are dedicated to helping you and answering all the questions you don't want to ask publicly
- Guaranteed one former bulge bracket global head of recruiting in your private chat
- Dedicated coaches get to know you and truly understand your profile and ongoing challenges
- 1:1 coaching capped at 25 hours, most of which are reserved for mock interviews
- All coaching calls have to be used within the first 18 months
- No private chat with dedicated coaches assigned to just you, only public messaging in a group forum with no privacy and 2-day response time
- Each time you have a question, a different mentor answers. So mentors lack the proper context and history on your full situation
- "Too many cooks in the kitchen" leads to conflicting advice and no continuity in help received
Deep Roster
- Unlimited access to the entire coaching roster, which includes dozens of coaches
- Multiple coaches on the roster who have combined 70+ years of experience serving as global heads of recruiting at top tier banks including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, UBS, Houlihan Lokey, and Lehman Brothers
- You get at least 4 coaches who are dedicated to you personally, including a former global head of recruiting amongst them
- Limited access to the entire coaching roster, which includes dozens of coaches; cannot exceed your 25 hour cap
- None of the coaches are dedicated to just helping you or getting to know you on a deeper personal level
- Coaches also coach WSO users who are not in WSO Academy; people can simply book hourly sessions through WSO website
- The coach to student ratio is significantly worse as a result
Track Record / Other Considerations
- Founded in 2018; we are the pioneer in the high finance coaching space
- As of mid 2024, we've coached ~1,500 students and counting, and have the largest and best alumni network on Wall Street
- Have placed alumni into every bulge bracket and elite boutique bank, plus many of the top buyside firms
- We have the most verifiable client testimonials and case studies
- We are a small company with just one product and very few clients, which allows us to give our all into making this the best service on the market and give you the personalized attention you deserve
- WSO Academy started in mid 2023 as WSO's newest product line
- For WSO's first 17 years in business, it focused on selling interview guides and financial modeling courses, NOT providing hands-on 1:1 coaching
- Tried to copy WSMM but lacks the secret sauce; it's the difference between an innovator vs. an imitator
- WSO is a huge company that sells dozens of interview guides, courses, and bootcamps, all while running a forum that has 10M+ visitors per month; its team has to allocate a ton of resources to other products outside of the Academy which means a more impersonal, high-volume, one-size-fits-all service
Tuition Options
- Positioned as the best (but not necessarily cheapest) option in terms of quality and value
- Various packages customized based on your needs and your budget; including some with lower upfront cost than WSO
- Money back guarantee options available for those who qualify
- Longer payment plans (up to 36m) for those who qualify
- Financial aid options available for those who qualify
- Trying to position themselves to compete based on price as opposed to quality
- $6,000 to $9,000 depending on the package and payment plan you choose
- Money back guarantee options available for those who qualify
- Shorter, less flexible payment plans
- No financial aid options available
Resume Coaching
- Unlimited revisions / edits on your resume
- No time limit on when you can ask for edits (recruiting can last UP TO 4-5 years)
- Not just resume edits; we help you find legitimate finance internships (not "pay to play")
- Each edit counts for 2 hours against your 25 hour limit for 1:1 meetings (will deplete quickly)
- Your 1:1 meeting hours expire if unused before the deadline
- Does not help you find real internships, only unpaid "internships" with WSO
Networking Coaching
- Detailed networking course 3x longer than WSO's course
- Advanced networking support on best email and outreach practices, and option for automated contact list creation so you don’t have to worry about the right people to reach out to
- WSO's networking course is only 5 hours long
- Lacks the breadth and detail needed to truly master each step of your "networking funnel"
- Must do all of the most time consuming and tedious aspects of networking yourself
Technical Interview Coaching
- Detailed technical course 5x longer than WSO's course
- Deep dive into each topic w/ the detail needed for interviews
- No need to memorize hundreds of questions from interview guides, and no need to take confusing modeling courses
- Technical course is only ~5 hours long in total
- The entire course is made up of 240+ "lessons" that are only 1-2 minutes each on average (!!)
- Almost impossible to learn the technical concepts with enough depth this way
Behavioral Interview Coaching
- Includes over 15 hours of content that explains in detail what top firms are looking for
- Focuses on up to 20 of the most common behavioral questions
- Former bulge bracket global head of recruiting meets with you 1:1 to review your stories
- Experienced banker assigned to rewrite your answers line by line
- Behavioral course is less than 20 minutes long in total (!!)
- Lacks the breadth and detail needed to ace your behavioral interviews
- Prep focuses on just 1) Tell me about yourself, 2) Why IB, and 3) your "7 stories", and that's it
- Missing many of the common questions that can be asked
Mentor Support
- Unlimited support with no hourly cap; includes 1:1's with former global heads of recruiting at bulge bracket banks
- No restrictions on how you spend your time with your coaches (mocks vs. coaching)
- Unlimited resume edits that do not count against your hours
- No expiration on the coaching; this is crucial because recruiting can last longer than expected (i.e. if you go through summer > full time > lateral recruiting)
- Not truly unlimited, 1:1 time with coaches capped at 25 hours
- The only 1:1 sessions that are "unlimited" are the "peer-to-peer" ones, which are with other students and not coaches
- Most of the hours allocated for mock interviews; doesn't leave much time for 1:1 coaching
- EACH resume edit uses 2 hours
- Cancelations within 24 hours still count against your hours
- All hours lost after 18 months, even if you're still recruiting
Guaranteed Internship
- Do not recommend our students put anything WSMM-related on their resumes; it hurts credibility
- Instead, we help you secure legitimate finance internships even with no prior experience
- We don't use the word "guaranteed" because these are legitimate internships that are not "pay to play"; and therefore more impressive to bankers
- But it's "virtually guaranteed" with a 100% success rate even after thousands of students
- Offers two types of "internships", but bankers know you paid WSO to get these, which actually hurts your credibility
- "Finance Research Internship" is just writing articles to help WSO boost their rankings on Google; no relevant skills acquired
- "Equity Research Internship" is writing reports sold by WSO for $9; slightly better but WSO is not viewed as a legit ER firm
- Both are exploiting you as an unpaid intern to line WSO's own pockets while offering little to no relevant experience
Company Database Access
- Lifetime access to a database exclusive to WSMM members
- Includes tens of thousands of questions from actual interviews in recent years, crowdsourced by our students
- Includes questions from every top investment bank plus many of the top buyside firms
- Shouldn't be a major factor in your decision
- Does not come with unlimited lifetime access
- Anyone can buy the database separately from WSO Academy for just $19/month or $97/year (it's cheap)
- You also get 1 month free by making a submission yourself
- Shouldn't be a major factor in your decision
Financial Modeling Courses
- Don't want you to watch 300+ hours of irrelevant courses
- Instead, we want you to do the minimum viable amount of work to get the offer
- Because speed matters in recruiting; the best banks finish recruiting the earliest (elite boutiques first, then bulge brackets, then middle markets, and lastly regional boutiques)
- We provide you with relevant modeling resources only AFTER you've gotten the offer
- 300+ hours of courses; majority are not on things you need
- You wouldn't buy 90% of these courses; but if you asked for a discount instead of these "free bonuses" WSO would say no
- WSO requires you to spend at least 50 hours on the modeling courses, despite none of the top banks doing modeling tests
- Eats up your most valuable resource (time), which could've been spent on more useful things (raising GPA, internships, networking, and interview prep)
Unlimited Support (24/7/365)
- Truly unlimited support with no cap on the number of hours
- No expiration date on any of the support; we will help you for as long as needed until you're done with recruiting
- Private group chat with you and at least 4 coaches that are dedicated to helping you and answering all the questions you don't want to ask publicly
- Guaranteed one former bulge bracket global head of recruiting in your private chat
- Dedicated coaches get to know you and truly understand your profile and ongoing challenges
- 1:1 coaching capped at 25 hours, most of which are reserved for mock interviews
- All coaching calls have to be used within the first 18 months
- No private chat with dedicated coaches assigned to just you, only public messaging in a group forum with no privacy and 2-day response time
- Each time you have a question, a different mentor answers. So mentors lack the proper context and history on your full situation
- "Too many cooks in the kitchen" leads to conflicting advice and no continuity in help received
Deep Roster
- Unlimited access to the entire coaching roster, which includes dozens of coaches
- Multiple coaches on the roster who have combined 70+ years of experience serving as global heads of recruiting at top tier banks including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, UBS, Houlihan Lokey, and Lehman Brothers
- You get at least 4 coaches who are dedicated to you personally, including a former global head of recruiting amongst them
- Limited access to the entire coaching roster, which includes dozens of coaches; cannot exceed your 25 hour cap
- None of the coaches are dedicated to just helping you or getting to know you on a deeper personal level
- Coaches also coach WSO users who are not in WSO Academy; people can simply book hourly sessions through WSO website
- The coach to student ratio is significantly worse as a result
Track Record / Other Considerations
- Founded in 2018; we are the pioneer in the high finance coaching space
- As of mid 2024, we've coached ~1,500 students and counting, and have the largest and best alumni network on Wall Street
- Have placed alumni into every bulge bracket and elite boutique bank, plus many of the top buyside firms
- We have the most verifiable client testimonials and case studies
- We are a small company with just one product and very few clients, which allows us to give our all into making this the best service on the market and give you the personalized attention you deserve
- WSO Academy started in mid 2023 as WSO's newest product line
- For WSO's first 17 years in business, it focused on selling interview guides and financial modeling courses, NOT providing hands-on 1:1 coaching
- Trie to copy WSMM but lacks the secret sauce; it's the difference between an innovator vs. an imitator
- WSO is a huge company that sells dozens of interview guides, courses, and bootcamps, all while running a forum that has 10M+ visitors per month; its team has to allocate a ton of resources to other products outside of the Academy which means a more impersonal, high-volume, one-size-fits-all service
Tuition Options
- Positioned as the best (but not necessarily cheapest) option in terms of quality and value
- Various packages customized based on your needs and your budget; including some with lower upfront cost than WSO
- Money back guarantee options available for those who qualify
- Longer payment plans (up to 24m) for those who qualify
- Financial aid options available for those who qualify
- Trying to position themselves to compete based on price as opposed to quality
- $6,000 to $9,000 depending on the package and payment plan you choose
- Money back guarantee options available for those who qualify
- Shorter, less flexible payment plans
- No financial aid options available
