Advice for a Rising Sophomore

I’m a rising sophomore at a top liberal arts school (Amherst/Williams) from the UK. Feeling a bit behind as I had a lot of family issues to deal with over the past year and so wasn’t able to take full advantage of extracurricular or networking opportunities (info sessions and the like) at my school. Thankfully, this will change next academic year. I’m also confused about recruitment timelines, so was just wondering if anyone had any advice on where to go from here/thoughts on my plan of action.

Where I’m at now

GPA for first year was a touch over 3.7, will probably be able to boost it to at least a 3.8 come end of sophomore year. Part of a club sport and some other clubs, but no leadership positions yet. Hoping to get at least one by the end of next semester. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a ‘real’ freshman internship. This summer, I’ll be working part-time both at a retail store and also as a college admissions mentor for disadvantaged high school students. I also managed to swing a rather informal one/two week ‘work placement’ at a decent PE firm in London. As a slight advantage, I have several internships/work experience placements with commercial law firms in the UK – one of which dealt with M&A. Finance network is small. First Gen Low Income Student – so probably URM?

Plan of Action

Network hard over the summer Use spare time to build technical knowledge, develop stock pitches, learn modelling to try and compensate for lack of a freshman internship Apply for SA 2019 positions (long shot, I’m aware) and Diversity Events starting now and over the summer Apply for SA 2019 positions in London as well Start reaching out to smaller boutiques about internships next summer (is it too early to start doing this now?) Keep ear to the ground so I’m well ahead of the game for SA 2020 positions

Additionally, would anyone mind briefly explaining exactly how recruiting timelines have worked this year? For example, I see that the GS online portal doesn’t open til July 1st, but have also heard that they’ve already filled some SA 2019 positions through ‘early recruiting’. How does early recruiting work – is it OCR or had the portals also been open earlier this year? Can you still get a position through these portals, or are they essentially exclusively for a small number of students from non-targets or filling less desirable branches?

I know the above is a lot of info/questions, but if anyone has the time to advise on anything at all, I’d greatly appreciate it!