FDP looking to jump into equity research/business valuation

Hey everyone,

Just looking for some advice here, I am currently a FDP at a F300 company and have always (since college investments/equity research challenges) wanted to go into an equity research role, more recently I have become interested in business valuation as that could entail a lot of the same things while also getting to travel all the time. I am certainly from a non target school, I could say I networked myself to get into the role I am in today, but I have been very successful. I am wondering what steps/things I could be doing in my free time to become competitive? I have had some tell me to get an ASA designation while also looking to try to get into a top 25 MBA program, meaning it could be years until actually making the jump, is there a faster way?