THE APEX TIMES
Goldman Sachs keeps internship selection below 1%, maintaining elite hiring bar for a third straight year
Fortune reports Goldman accepted fewer than one in 100 applicants for its 2026 summer internship class, even as CEO David Solomon argues AI will shift, not eliminate, early-career hiring.
Goldman Sachs is maintaining an extremely selective bar for its summer internship program, accepting fewer than one in 100 applicants for the 2026 class and keeping its selection rate below 1% for a third consecutive year, according to data Fortune received exclusively.
The bank’s 2026 intern class will include about 2,500 interns, drawn from more than 500 universities across over 90 nationalities who speak 70-plus languages, Fortune reported. The group arrives at a time when Goldman CEO David Solomon has been publicly weighing how artificial intelligence will affect young workers’ jobs and training pathways.
Solomon has said that AI will “probably” reduce the number of people the firm starts with over the next few years, but not in a dramatic way, and he added that Goldman would “still” hire a lot of people out of school. Fortune said Goldman told it Solomon’s comments were not specifically about the current hiring year, but about the next couple of years.
Goldman’s intern intake is also being paired with a similar pipeline of permanent entry-level hires. Fortune reported that in July Goldman plans to bring on approximately the same number of new permanent hires as interns, about 2,500 entry-level employees across client-facing, operational, and technology roles.
Fortune said Goldman’s recruiting profile has shifted alongside the numbers. The bank reported that this year’s intern class includes more than 30 elite athletes (including a three-time Olympian), nearly 50 musicians, and close to 20 nonprofit founders, indicating a push beyond the traditional quant-heavy, target-school funnel.
Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman’s global head of Human Capital Management and Corporate & Workplace Solutions, told Fortune that the firm has a “longstanding belief” that talent shows up in many different forms, and that the pool of candidates is broader in academic backgrounds and lived experience than in past hiring cycles. She also emphasized that while technical skills can be taught, qualities like judgment, adaptability, and critical thinking are harder to instill as AI tools become more integrated into day-to-day work.
Goldman disclosed to Fortune that the 2026 selection rate remains under 1% but declined to share the exact acceptance rate or the number of applicants for the year. The bank also said the 2026 intern class is smaller by about 100 compared with last year’s acceptance of 2,600, Fortune reported, suggesting ongoing balance between headcount needs and the evolving job market.
From a market perspective, the sub-1% figure underscores that the “campus pipeline” remains a high-stakes recruiting funnel for the Wall Street model, even as AI changes what junior employees do. Fortune reported that Goldman does not view interns purely as temporary labor, and said roughly 40% of partners began as campus hires, while the bank’s insistence on selective entry may influence how candidates assess access to elite training roles.
Why It Matters
- A sub-1% acceptance rate highlights how tightly Goldman is managing early-career access, even as AI reshapes the work junior staff are expected to do.
- The reported pairing of a large intern class with a similar number of permanent entry-level hires suggests the firm is trying to re-time training, not necessarily reduce the number of early-career entrants.
- Goldman’s emphasis on broader talent profiles (athletes, musicians, nonprofit founders) may affect which candidates believe they can compete, especially beyond traditional finance-centric resumes.
- If Goldman keeps AI-driven workflow changes from eliminating junior headcount, the competitive advantage may shift from basic task execution toward judgment and client-facing decision-making.
Sources
Key Facts
- Fortune reported Goldman accepted fewer than one in 100 applicants for its 2026 summer internship program, keeping the selection rate below 1% for a third straight year.
- The 2026 intern class will be about 2,500 interns, drawn from more than 500 universities and representing over 90 nationalities, speaking 70-plus languages.
- Fortune reported Goldman plans to bring on roughly 2,500 permanent entry-level employees in July, in addition to the intern cohort.
- Goldman told Fortune the 2026 intern class is smaller by about 100 from last year’s acceptance of 2,600.
- Fortune reported the class includes more than 30 elite athletes, nearly 50 musicians, and close to 20 nonprofit founders.
- Jacqueline Arthur, Goldman’s global head of Human Capital Management, said the firm is guided by a belief that talent shows up in many forms, and that judgment and critical thinking remain key differentiators as AI expands.
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