Recent non-feeder school humanities graduate needs advice on breaking into WS IB

I took a few wrong turns in life. I recently graduated with a liberal arts degree from a Top 50 state university notable for engineering, business, and science (read: not liberal arts). That should set most of the stage. Skip the section between the horizontal lines if you don’t want the details.

I came from an upper middle class area from a family of small business owners and accountants. I took about ten APs, and scored in the 99th percentile on standardized college admissions exams. I had a mediocre GPA (~3.5/4.0) and spotty extracurriculars.

I was introverted and uncomfortable around people, particularly adults, though I somehow got by on team sports. I didn't do much career research nor college planning since I was okay with just being a lawyer, the job I was anointed with at birth. I sort of just fell into university, taking the path of least resistance. I didn't want to go. I didn't know why I was going. I wasn't forced but I was deeply removed from the fact that some people didn't go to college. I was apathetic and naive, so off to school I went with no desire to be there and no plan.

The summer before college, I thought I might want to transfer into business. In high school, I took an entrepreneurship course, played around with stock simulators, and passively attended some FBLA meetings. After my first year, I fulfilled all but one prerequisite, but foolishly thought I would get in anyway because I had a 4.0 and would take the class in the fall. I was rejected, of course. I had a chance to appeal, I found out later, but I missed it. Re-applications to the business college are not accepted, so I had to think of some other way to spend $120k.

At the very last moment, I picked up a humanities major that seemed stimulating. At this point, I was already planning on going to law school and had an idea of which area of law I wanted to specialize in, so I knew that the exact major didn’t matter.

I became more outgoing in college. I earned a merit scholarship and had okay extracurriculars (STEM part-time job, a liberal arts college internship, a stint in a leadership position, and a year-long dabble with debate and volunteering). I earned a high GPA but grew more interested in the STEM field I had a job in and had taken a few classes in. I picked up a minor in it, and I blew my cumulative GPA far below the 25th percentile for T14 applicants (3.66/4.00). My advisor told me that law schools take into consideration the difficulty of the coursework. But with more reading, I suspected that that was bullshit.

I took the LSAT, knowing that I had to get an outstanding score. I didn’t. After about four months of intense but fundamentally flawed studying, I only made it past the 85th percentile. I started studying for a retake but found that I didn’t have the confidence nor energy.

As soon as I realized this, I quickly got a minimum-wage job to numb myself out, started studying for technical interviews, and applied to a slew of both technical and non-technical positions. The few interviews I got went nowhere. I graduated jobless. My plan was to work a minimum-wage job, save up, move out, find another minimum-wage job, and just try to cobble something of a life together.

Of course, I’m just not about that. I slowly started applying to more jobs, this time in lower paying, possibly less competitive fields. And then I snapped. It happened when I had to quit my parents’ health club and join, gasp, a gym. I will never forget what it was like. It so disturbed me that I came back and began to research my career options, reaching if I had to.

I settled on two primary options (excuse me for possibly smacking of naivety, but I’ll adjust them and make one of them work): A) self-study or take some classes at a community college or even obtain a relevant bachelor’s, get an internship or a job at a bank, possibly get an MBA from a feeder school (though from what I read, it seems like I don’t have a chance without one), get to Wall Street, B) study for an LSAT retake, get into a T14 law school, study corporate law, get into Biglaw, move to business once I hate my 6-minute-marked life and don’t make partner. I’m sort of kidding.

I’ve weighed the two against each other but need to do more research. Whichever I choose, I want to learn how money works and make lots of it.

At 22 and as a recent graduate, I'm just learning about investment banking as a career. My networking skills aren’t great. I have taken some quantitative courses (including calculus, micro, macro, statistics, and discrete) and have some STEM experience, but looking at the finance requirements at my alma and reading around, it looks like I’ll need some advanced statistics and, of course, valuation and modeling skills. I know my chances are virtually none, but I’ve applied to off-cycle internships at the BB anyway and I'm going to aim lower too so I can try and secure anything at all.

I’ve read splashy articles about Ivy liberal arts students or students with significant business internship experience who broke into Wall Street. From "Liberal Arts to Finance" on Mergers & Inquisitions, however, seems to be the most useful so far, though I’m not even close to being the ideal candidate.

I made this post because I need serious, concrete advice. I specifically want to hear from other non-Ivy liberal arts graduates who broke into Wall Street investment banking and other introverts who gained significant networking skills, but I welcome anyone to share their input.