Pre-Med Student needing advice for 3rd year SA internship

Hello Fellow Monkeys,

I am currently a premed student who has just finished my 2nd year in premed at The University of Western Ontario in Canada (known in the finance world for our Ivey Business school, which is a major target school in Canada). However, I am not planning to do the dual degree (BBA + BMSc) as it is 5 years and that is way too long. I am expecting to major in Physiology and I have a cGPA of 3.97. I have the typical extracurriculars for med school like shadowing, volunteering, lab research experiences etc.

Getting into Canadian Medical schools is much more competitive in the US as everyone in Ontario is competing for spots in 5 medical schools (very rarely are you accepted to out of state med schools, usually 2-3 spots available for each out of state uni). In order to keep my options open, I am planning to apply for summer analyst positions at BB and MM IB, boutiques, and healthcare bank boutiques in Canada and the Hong Kong my junior year summer. I have always been interested in finance (read bloomberg daily and part of the school's finance club and capital markets club).

Would my participation in the clubs alone be sufficient evidence of my interest in finance? Problem is I don't have space in my schedule this year to take an accounting/finance/econ course, so I will not have taken any formal courses related to finance before. However, I am self studying financial modelling, valuation etc. What are my chances to breaking in as a SA given that I am competing against Ivey, Rotman and Queen's commerce kids who have a formal finance education?

 

5 years is just one extra year, I think your prospects for finance and med school both are better doing a double degree. You have really good marks indicating strong work ethic, so you should do quite well in the HBA program.

 

I'm really not sure right now. Hence, the 3rd year internship.

If I decide to go into med and they ask me in the interview why I took the 3rd year summer to intern at a bank, I could talk about how I am wanted to pursue some of my personal interests and how the IB experience is relevancy to med (keen eye for details, quick, critical thinking, team player etc.) If I decide to go into finance, the 3rd year SA position will be critical for my getting a FT position after graduation. I don't want to do 5 years, unless it will be a significant disadvantage for me as an applicant, i.e, if i go into finance, I would rather just do my 4 years premed science degree + mba later on.

In the end, I want to have the choice of med or finance senior year and make up my mind then.

 

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