Could I get into a target school?
I'm a sophomore in high school, and I really want to work on Wall Street. I just don't think I'm good enough for Ivy League. What are the best B-Schools I could get accepted at (preferably on the east coast) that would give me good chances at a job on Wall Street. They could be target, semi-target, or whatever will put me on the street. I've looked into NYU Stern, and I think this might be my best option. Keep in mind I go to a public school of 1800 kids in Central NJ.
My credentials:
-About a 3.8 GPA, only rising
-I was in Knowledge Bowl at my old school, and we took second in the regional tournament
-I got a 1560 on the PSATs with no studying or preparation, I got about 85th percentile, which is 1800-1900 on the normal SAT. I hope to bring it up though.
-Writing was my highest SAT score, followed by Math, reading was the lowest.
-I'm a member of the History Club
-If all goes well I will be in NHS next year
-I could possibly be a member of Peer Leadership club next year
-I plan on doing some volunteer work this summer.
-I will be joining Future Business Leaders of America next year, there were no spots open this year.
-I take all Honors classes, with the exception of Spanish, which will be honors next year.
-I have taken a few AP courses, and plan to take more
-I've got an A in all of my business classes so far
-I'm taking Marketing I next year, Marketing II senior year.
-I'm taking Principals of Accounting, and Principals of Law in High School.
-I could join my school's Ambassadors club next year if necessary
-I will start tutoring an hour a day after school next year to English I and II kids in my school's writing center
-I want to begin volunteering, but I don't know the best place to start.
I've moved across the country this past year, and it's difficult to find new clubs and things to join, especially a leadership position, because I'm not that well known in the school, and probably will never have a student goverment position because only 1/2 of my grade even knows who I am.
I still wait for the day when I see people post if his or her middle school is a target for elite prep schools which are a target for Ivies which are a target for Wall Street firms.
-_-
I'm not asking if my school is a target, I'm asking if my grades and such are good enough for a target university.
This shit depresses me. I'm not sure who is to blame for it but since we inherently like to blame someone, I'm gonna go ahead and blame the parents here because it just feels good to do that. In high school I was trying to get blowjobs and look stupid because stupid was cool... I had no clue what I wanted to do, let alone what a "target" was, or whatever the hell the "Knowledge Bowl" could possibly be. Kinda feels like a new type of Total cereal or something. Are parents putting that much pressure on their kids, or are we just at a point where you have to focus on this shit that early in life? Maybe I'm just on edge today because I'm effectively stuck doing wedding planning bullshit for the rest of the weekend and want to tear my eyeballs out, but this post was just really, really upsetting for some reason.
"-I could join my school's Ambassadors club next year if necessary"
Fuckin' seriously? Dude do what makes you happy and don't kill yourself for something you might not even want in 3 years. And don't make your college choice based on whether or not it's a "target," do it because the school has a strong program in something you're interested in, you like the campus, whatever. The "Wall Street or bust" robot students always ending falling short for one reason or another, landing in ECM for eternity or burning out and teaching math at PS 152.
/rant
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Yeah that was my bad, I got a 156, the counselors told us that to make it equivalent to the SAT's just multiply it by 10.
Also, my stats are a hell of a lot better than if I was doing what the other guy told me to do, and not give a shit about school.
Relax, I'm not trying to discourage you or anything. It's admirable that you are looking towards the future already and all that, but I think forcing yourself to follow a certain path and accomplish "goals" that just lead to being where you think you might wanna be in 6 years isn't the right way to be successful. Organic growth is better than the forced kind. I guess the main thing I'm really getting at is if you make all these grand plans for yourself (which you might not even legitimately enjoy at the end of the day) then you're setting yourself up for some massive disappointment if things don't work out according to plan. If you don't end up as a BSD on Wall Street you're gonna hate your life if your entire childhood you were planning on being this person that you ended up not being. I know I didn't end up being a pro football player or whatever the fuck my ignorant ass wanted to be as a freshman in high school, but the fact that I didn't have some crazy plan to be one probably makes my life a lot more live-able than if I dedicated every second to it, went to every camp, and dreamed about it every night.
I do what makes me happy most of the time, but at the same time I want to think about the future. My parents don't really give two shits about my college at this point, it's me that just wants to be successful in this world, and I don't know why that comes as such a shock to you. I'm probably not what you think, I'm not a nerd that spends his weekends studying for the math exam, in fact I've never studied a day in my life, school just comes easy to me. I have a decent amount of friends, especially considering I'm the new kid in high school, which isn't exactly an easy position to be in. I also don't know if you've thought about this, but if you want a good job and don't already have a lot of money in your family, the way most people start their careers by going to (a good) college. That isn't exactly easy these days, you need to plan ahead. If you don't at least try and be successful, then you always will fall short and land a shitty job for the rest of your life.
The clubs and stuff I listed don't take a considerable amount of time from my life, and aren't exactly as difficult as your probably imagining. I have a hard time trying to justify why I would even have to defend myself in a situation like this, but regardless, I did.
That being said, I agree with a lot of the things you posted about, I realize that I might change my mind about colleges and careers, and the few hours I've actually spent looking up stuff like this will go to waste, who gives a shit? It's not a considerable amount of time.
way to late man. Your Ive League preparation should have started in pre-school. Perhaps you can try finding a cure for aids or try to end world hunger to improve your chances.
Yeah, I thought so too, but there are some other semi targets and stuff I would think I could have a shot at, right?
If you think community colleges are semi targets, then sure.
step 1: raise sat score to > 2100 step 2: raise weighted gpa to > 4.0 step 3: really get involved in 1 or 2 ECs step 4: ??? step 5: profit
Particularly raise math SAT score if it's your lowest, if firms are going to ask you about anything related to high school standardized tests it's going to be your SAT and typically your breakdown just so they can see your math score. But for college apps I'd say 2100 is probably the minimum at which point you can feel like you have a 'good' score. Also try taking the ACT if you can't improve SAT, since it's a significantly different test. If you're only a soph though you have time to raise it so no need to worry.
Also agree with getting heavily involved in 1 or 2 things rather than being a jack of all trades. If you do a sport try and get leadership through that. It's more fun and way less time-intensive than being something like a student council president, even though I'm sure that's not too bad.
I'm positive my weighted GPA is above a 4.0 because unweighted it's 3.8+
You can take classes on the iprincipals[/i] in accounting and law? Do you mean, like, the principal investors in a boutique accounting / law firm? Sounds like a pretty interesting class on the history of finance and law. You might wanna take iprinciples[/i] of accounting and law, however.
All douchebaggery aside, the SAT is a game that can be conquered. Ever heard of the Xiggi method? Google it and start working. Seriously study every day. If you aren't hitting a 2200+, you won't get into an Ivy (assuming you're white / Asian. Given that you're from NJ and interested in finance, the odds are overwhelmingly good that you are white or Asian).
Just keep in mind - the Ivies want creators, not followers. My high school had a ton of kids that studied hard and got As but didn't get into any really good schools because they were basically sheep. Stray away from the beaten path and do something that would make anyone reading your college application say "wow."
And seriously, learn to spell. You'll get your shit taken to the curb if you fuck that up on a pitchbook or slide deck. It's the harsh truth.
They are two separate classes, and yeah I will look up the stuff you told me about.
I'm waiting for a middle schooler to start posting on this forum. Then I will provide thoughtful comments.
When I was this kid's age I was working at my local grocery store and hoping to save enough money to buy a $300+ ipod (don't remember price). I was happy and never thought beyond my summer plans of working, community college classes and playing basketball everyday.
Kid, I hate to break it to you but sh*t happens. Things can change. Unless you live in a bubble or happen to be part of the lucky few where EVERYTHING goes well in your life or your setbacks do not have immediate tangible impacts on your life (ex. parents dying, becoming disabled, permanent mental damage, etc.) don't expect everything to go your way 6+ years down the road.
You might learn something new and learn to love it (ex. engineering, art, history, public service, etc.). For now focus on doing well in school, staying out of unnecessary trouble and enjoying yourself. Guess what at the end of the day you do live in a bubble, at your age you still have yet to face real responsibility, and know little to nothing about operating in the "real word". I'm not trying to say your not intelligent or not, I can't - I don't know you.
Just enjoy yourself and do well in anything you decide to commit to.
I see solid academics and nothing else. No sports, nothing that makes you look interesting. You are a good candidate for Rose-Hullman or Bryn Mawr.
Suggestion: Buy a dirtbike and get into racing it. Then apply to the ivies.
I recently went through the college admissions process, so maybe I can offer a different perspective.
Admissions is tough, tough, tough. Every year is a record low year for admit rates. For example, this past cycle Harvard admitted 5.9%, and Princeton admitted 7.9%. And these figures are highly misleading due to the influence of athletes/legacy. Harvard RD had an acceptance rate of 3.9%. Believe it or not, these figures will drop and have been dropping every year for several years. These top tier schools are basically bumping up against med-school admissions rates. I know a 2400 scorer with leadership in community service and a NASA research internship who got rejected from Harvard and Stanford, just as an example (he did get into an Ivy, though).
I don't blame it on the parents, I blame it on the college system, and on a system where a school like Harvard is perceived to hold some abstract yet highly-desirable huge advantage over a school like UCLA, a system where top schools are associated with "making connections" where jobs fall into your lap (whether or not deserved), a system that makes every student scramble to compile the right collection of ECs to show how great of a leader and person he/she is, even though in my experience the majority of club leaders are toolish sheep (yet schools seem to love "leadership" - ignoring the fact that a 17 year old student body president probably only got elected because s/he made some outrageous speech). When you are a high school student, and everyone who has any ambition is running around getting internships, doing research in labs, doing club leadership, doing sports, etc... it's hard not to get caught up in it.
There used to be a time when, if you were a smart, well-rounded student, and involved yourself in a few activities, but generally relaxed, you could still get into top tier schools based off high grades, high test scores, and well-rounded ECs ---- no longer. There used to be a time even longer ago when you could be working at a grocery store every summer and as long as you had good grades/stats, you could get into a top school --- no longer.
Some comments on OP's situation in particular: NHS, History club, and Knowledge Bowl are, IMO, not that impressive - if you can get a leadership position, it'll even then only be "OK". - these are pretty fluffy clubs, and you probably don't do much. At least at my high school, FBLA was also pretty useless - maybe it'll only stand out if you do really well in competitions. What does the ambassador's club even do? Peer Leadership might be pretty good, depending on what you get out of it.
In my experience, the most "legit" clubs are: speech/debate and community service clubs. The former because it is impressive if you can win tournaments, the latter because it can be impressive if you are able to organize service projects, etc. This would be the best place to begin volunteering.
If you're interested in business, you should start your own. Nothing is going to teach you more about business than doing that; certainly not some fluffy high school classes.
Some of this is demographic. I think it will probably improve in 2-3 years as there will be fewer 18 year olds.
But these schools do look for interesting stories. Find something fun and interesting that a kid with a white shoe pedigree would never be allowed to do and an urban inner-city kid could never afford. That's why I suggest dirt bikes. Buy a dirt bike, do a few races, put it on your resume. The admissions committees, full of art history and philosophy professors in bow ties, will look at your application, scratch their heads for a while, eliminate a bunch of candidates with 4.0 GPAs and nothing else, kick out some legacies with drug convictions and sub 2.5 HS GPAs, and then come back to your application and scratch their heads some more.
6/7 of the H/Y/P/S/W/CHI/NW will toss your application in the reject pile. But one school will find themselves not having an easy reason to reject you and then find themselves saying "We've never had someone who races dirt bikes come to our school. Maybe we'll take him."
If all else fails, just go in-state, save $150K in the process, do the honors program, study engineering, and kick ass and take names against the ivy leaguers in a banking or consulting interview. If you feel you still need pedigree after that, there is always grad school.
Bingo. A lot of these clubs sound pretty fluffy. For someone taking AP classes, you should be doing more interesting stuff. During my summers, it was easy to find summer work, but if you aren't working, you should be able to find something much more interesting to do. Failing that, you need a sport this fall. If in doubt, just do cross country. 2nd that. I started a web hosting business as a sophomore in HS and learned a lot about accounting, budgeting, programming and marketing. Had it not been for that web hosting business, I would probably be IlliniMathematician.The best way to learn a language is to speak it. The best way to learn business is to run one.
Admission committees do not have any faculty on them. People on admissions committees are: 1) career admissions officers (meaning that has been their sole job for years) 2) college students from the same school, who are volunteering; these people WILL actually read applications 3) college students from the same school who recently graduated; they are normal admissions officers.
It's kind of ironic how the less, if not least, successful graduates from a certain college are precisely the ones who go out and have to pick who they think will be most successful.
Isn't this how Obama got elected too?
Props for figuring out how American government works at such a young age.
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