Advice for incoming UChicago student
Hey everyone,
I’m an incoming first-year (Class of 2029) starting this fall, and I hope to break into IB/PE after college. I’d love to hear from current students and recent grads about what you wish you had done differently at UChicago to make your journey easier. Are there any specific clubs to join, programs to do, or opportunities to take? Are there any big mistakes to avoid?
I would love to hear any advice, ideas, suggestions, or regrets you have from the past. Thanks in advance!
Step 1: Get a life
Step 2: Speak with a woman
heavy emphasis on this
Bump: looking af u chicago, probably not gonna get in lol
I’m actually giving you genuine advice. Lucky I caught this while on the pooper. If you listen to my advice you will do well, however, you are probably going to be too arrogant to listen.
1) Relax. The #1 reason kids don’t get offers is bad culture fit. This is even more true for university of Chicago kids. If you go to uchicago, you have the alumni network, academics, access etc that will allow you to get almost any job in the country. However, Chicago has a horrible stigma for you guys not showering, being awkward, and inappropriate. It’s a huge turnoff to any finance professional if you can only talk about finance or are too aggressive. Business is often about subtlety and reading social dynamics, so if you are too much of a hardo and don’t ease into business topics you will irritate people. Let me be clear too, I’m saying this as someone who works 7 days a week and is obsessed with markets having done IB earlier in my career. You have to be able to small talk and behave appropriately.
2) Take easy classes your first quarter. I cannot begin to express the advantage you have if you take easy classes out of the gate. Since you are a hardo, you won’t do this and you will arrogantly take like turbo Econ or some class with an over the top name like advanced quantitative stochastic methods. The simple truth is GPA is going to be the first barrier to any internship or job early on. Learning how to study and manage a social calendar is a large adjustment in college. Also, the adjustment first quarter of joining clubs and meeting new friends is a huge time sink. So, stack the deck in your favor rather than being an idiot. First quarter recognize your priority should be 1) getting good grades 2) socializing and figuring out the clubs and friends you want to have for the rest of your 4 years. Taking the hardest classes available will make you fail at both tasks and you will end up stressed, failing to enter or explore the clubs you want, and trying really hard to end up with a middling GPA making recruiting an uphill climb. No one cares about the rigor of your classes or your transcript, they care about your gpa and major. So take some easy core classes and maybe repeat a math class or something so you can have the free time to socialize while also getting A’s.
3) Network and begin looking for internships. Recruiting for IB now begins sophomore fall/winter. The early timelines are horrible, but it is what it is. As a result, having a freshmen internship and having your ducks in a row can go a long way.
4) Keep an open mind. I don’t know why you are so set on IB, but in guessing you really have no clue and just want to make money. Consulting or hedge funds can yield better life paths imo. So, I would suggest learning about multiple fields.
Thank you!
I’m not set on IB though, I know that’s a burnout environment, so I think of doing 3-5 years IB before going into PE or HF. I have some experience in super small local accelerators and I really liked it, that’s why I want to go into finance generally or IB/PE/HF more specifically.
Only thing I disagree with in your posts is the consulting/hedge fund advice for better paths.
Consulting = non-stop travel to boring cities while not having too much time to explore them. Moreover, work life balance is not the best and comparable to banking hours, especially in top tier consulting shops like Bain/Mckinsey, and comp is drastically worse. You are glued to your hotel room and client site.
Hedge Fund - Training programs in most places are not great. Culture is harsh, and you learn a very specific skillset (not transferable). If you end up underperforming or get let go for any reason, it's very hard to break into another hedge fund.
But I do agree coming from a school like UChicago you have ample opportunity. Just don't be weird, and work on social skills. Is there any acting/dance clubs at your school? I think that would help a lot.
It’s all relative, but since I think the discourse helps undergrads. I’m going to critique what you said and explain why I said what I did:
-I don’t agree with your comment on consulting. 1) many shops are shifting to much more local travel and in a more remote world, travel is less intense than it used to be. 2) it’s just completely false consultants work near IB hours. It isn’t close and the culture is night and day. I have 2 relatives at different MBB shops currently as juniors and have/ had good friends at basically every consulting shop but bcg for some reason for a long time. More travel than IB, but almost all had very limited weekend work and almost never stayed up past midnight. I know of many consultants who workout during the week while also having reasonable bedtimes and in banking that is tough to pull off at many places. Also, in terms of the pay, it isn’t that different today. People can peruse the bonus threads or look at the comp reports but especially for a persons first job, it isn’t significant. I have a ton of friends who have worked their way up in consulting firms over the past decade or did it for like 5 years and left and everyone in IB has been the churn and burn path of 2 years and out. Says a lot about the treatment and misery of IB.
HF- it’s harsher certainly, but for a hardo perosn who can handle stress, it can yield more life balance and higher earnings without the stress of dumb politics necessary on the IB or PE path. It also can be more fun and intellectually stimulating for the right person. I have a few friends that cleared 1m a year before they were 30 and that’s just not happening on the IB/PE path.
The IB/PE path seems to be quite a miserable one from the variety of individuals I know. It usually results in being horribly overworked without a passion for the industry and some loss of perspective and purpose which leads to an MBA program or some burnout recovery job at 28-30. I think IB is a great first job and am really glad I did it personally, but the vast majority of my peers would have ended up in the same place and likely had a better experience had they started in consulting.
Again, I loved it and it was right for me, but I think people should have a more open mind. Many IB types are there because they want to operate companies in private equity and become really bummed when they realize PE is more financial engineering and ops work sucks or is left to consultants anyway. They then end up in a startup or some operating role and while their IB experience and PE experience helps, I think many could have had a happier experience just doing consulting, then some ops work or consulting some PE work and back to ops.
undergrads get really myopic with IB careers and while it’s a great one and I did it and would recommend it for some; I think a majority should choose a different role.
The Blue Chips
What are those?
A UChicago club, “The Blue Chips”
I know friends from boarding schools in the East that thought they could survive where fun goes to die. Two of them transferred to Vandy, another wants to die.
Congrats on getting into UChicago. I would enjoy the rest of your time in high school now with your friends.
Here’s my advice:
Take easy classes. Your GPA is important. Don’t fall down the pipeline of taking harder classes than you need to. You won’t have as much time for extracurricular commitments.
Apply to as many pre professional RSOs as you can. Just shotgun applications honestly but for finance specific ones I would say TBC, Promontory, UCPE, and maybe some consulting ones like Eckhart. Some are picky about social fit so even if you are a great candidate you might not get in. All of the best ones have acceptance rates less than 8% so good luck and practice some brain teasers.
If fraternity life is of interest to you, rush in the fall. Frat connections help immensely and pledging will teach you how to make it past adversity.
Secure an internship for your freshman summer (cold emailing) and during a quarter of freshman year where you can take three classes, I would try and find a search fund internship to put on your resume (it’ll mostly be sourcing unless you get lucky and find one where you can do some work on brokered deals).
If you aren’t a total weirdo and are able to balance your academic and social life, you’ll do fine. Good luck and have fun in the Reg.
Take easy courses, maintain a high GPA, and be a normal, well-adjusted person. That third bullet point means not obsessing over IB before you're even in college. You're already in a good spot as you sound intelligent and driven. Just enjoy your senior year, and when freshman fall comes around, apply to the right clubs, join a frat, and build a strong network. The second largest reason people from UChicago don't make it in IB, after being too much of a hardo and failing the cultural fit, is just that they fizzled out by the time sophomore year winter rolled around, which is when recruiting happens.
Echoing above. Try to join the blue chips
Apply for The Blue Chips.
Current UChicago student, take easy classes. I tried to get placed into an advanced math class, and it messed up my GPA. If you are going for biz econ (which you should), unless you are really confident in math, you should take the math 130s.
Also look out for early insight programs in your first year, pretty sure goldman, and MS have some, but I didn't know about them.
First-year take easy classes so you can meet people, have a solid GPA, go to the gym, and better yourself in the transition to college.
network with the nice young men on 63rd street
Bitch we not from 63rddd
Went to UChicago. Agree 100% with the above about taking easy classes and figuring out your social life in your first year. Just take it easy and try to enjoy yourself.
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