Advice for an 18 yr. old

EDIT: Forgot to disclaimer this, I'm not in industry and this is just a collection of ideas that may work for you based on what I've heard talking to guys in finance.

1. Get a 4.0 GPA.

2. Try and transfer to a better school if possible. If you get a 4.0 and have a solid extracurricular or two (student club, volunteering, etc), you won't have any problem getting into just about any school. If you can't transfer schools it's not the end of the road, but it will make things much harder

3. Start reading up on investing, figure out exactly what you want to do (value investing, something more quantitatively-oriented, etc), and target your education to meet that career path. Take the math/finance/accounting/or whatever it is you need to take.

4. Start networking. Try and get unpaid internships at a HF (or asset management or equity research firms) in your area if there is one. If you can't, at least get an unpaid internship at a PWM shop.

Note that many people don't break into HFs straight out of college. The usual route is investment banking -> HF, though many people go from equity research -> HF (and consulting, trading, some accountants, too, just to name a few industries). You can do it, but be aware there are many ways to make this happen. If you want to go to a more quant shop, a good way would be to get a high gpa in a maths major, or go for a Masters in math after undergrad. There are a lot of different ways to get into HFs (although the megafunds will be a lot more standard, usually utilizing recruiters), and especially coming from a non-target you will probably be aiming for a smaller shop which have less recruiting "rules".

Good luck man, and stick around the boards. You'll learn a decent bit about breaking in and lifestyle by reading other people's questions/responses. Also, read through the older posts on this board. You need to get used to doing research if you want to work for a HF and there's a lot of information here that can help you out.