I’m thinking about Private Equity after my Analyst program. Will being in certain groups help me more than others?

The best advice I can give is that given the option, go to the group where you will get the best deal experience, and the most modeling experience.  Having said that, yes, certain groups will likely give you an advantage when applying for private equity jobs.  These groups include M&A, Leveraged Finance (Lev Fin) and Financial Sponsors.  M&A and Lev Fin, are two groups that are typically more analytically intensive.  Financial Sponsor Groups cover private equity firms so being in a Sponsors group will likely get you some direct exposure to PE firms, which will help your job search later on.  If you want to join a PE firm that specializes in a particular industry, by all means, look to join that industry group.