hedge fund career for college students

IB

IB for sure. In fact, hedge funds as I know it don't even regularly recruit at MBA schools. Usually it's just about headhunting and getting noticed by proving yourself.

I do know an alumnus who worked for GS in NY for one year and then moved into HF. No MBA.

I think it really depends. If you're looking at an arbitrage trading-type fund, you can often get a job earlier on during college than IBD. As the fund sizes grow, though, it become harder to do so.

Also, since hedge funds tend to have power in a more concentrated group of individuals, depending on who you know, hedge fund entry will clearly be much easier than investment banks, where recruitment can intervened in, but has a distinct group of people doing the judging.

A kid at my school is the nephew of Stephen Cohen. He interned at SAC last summer. That's how HFs work.

I don't really see that as much of an issue. If you were the nephew of John Mack I'm sure you could intern at Morgan Stanley as a sophomore or freshman. I think the issue is that at hedge funds, your influence extends past relatives. "Friends of family", etc. have an easier time getting you a job at a hedge fund, because they only really have to know one person (the PM)...