How Important is "Brand Name" For Internships?

I'll be a sophomore this fall looking to either get into consulting or investment banking. I'm leaning more towards consulting, but I want to explore more during the school year. My school would be considered a semi-target for IB, and not sure for consulting but there's not MBB recruiting and a large Big 4 presence for consulting roles.

This summer, I'm interning with an independent wealth management firm. I'm in a small town, and since there's not really official programs for freshman students, I just reached out to pretty much every financial adviser or firm in the area and only got one response cause it was kinda late. Several responded though, saying that I could interview for next summer.

One of these is an accounting/consulting firm that might be around top 10-20 in size for accounting and has an office in my city and the other is a commercial development firm in our local region. I'm wondering how doing one of these would compare to trying to get an internship at a bigger company in a major financial city like NYC. Does name/location or experience matter for freshman/summer internships? For example, will my PWM internship with a small independent firm look "lesser" compare to someone that did a PWM internship at say, Merril Lynch or MS even if its the same work? I would really like to get that consulting internship, but I'm not sure if I should be trying to slowly start networking more in NYC instead of staying in my small town for these summers now.

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Also, my school has an "intern abroad" for the summer. I really wanted to study abroad during college, but with recruiting and networking happening pretty much all the time starting sophomore year, I thought summer might be a smarter option, and if I intern, then that kills two birds with one stone.

Other than that, I guess I could network with some alumni at more reputable firms, but even sophomore year I don't think there are much programs outside of diversity(don't qualify for any).

 
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