Advice on preparing for Summer 2025 EB internship

Hey everybody, I wanted to come on here and ask for advice in preparing for an IB summer internship role.

Background:

I’m a rising second year at a solidly prestigious school but not considered a “target school” for finance specifically at all. Worked extremely hard and interned at a very small regional investment bank and am currently working in a regional fundamental analysis driven capital management firm. I was able to place in an EB for summer 2025 which I am extremely excited for but also pretty nervous about even though I am around a year away from it.

I wanted to ask what the most optimal preparation would be in terms of getting ready for it and positioning myself in the best way to lock in the return offer. I read many old posts on this site and it seems there is a large divide in people saying "Make sure you are extremely strong in technicals, modeling, excel, and get ready to put in insane hours" and others saying "Be likeable and intelligent, basic technicals are good but do not sweat it much, just be genuinely excited and ask questions". I know many of these threads were from BB summer interns, but I was hoping to gain some perspective on what might be the most beneficial for me since I have a year. I was wondering if it would help to go extremely deep into modeling and technical information for some time over the next year. 

I was planning on beginning to reach out to many other Summer analysts I am connected with, but the vast majority are in their respective roles right now so I will likely get more clarity by late August from them. 

Summary : Ultimately, I just wanted to get more advice from people who had a similar EB summer role and what is the best practices for landing an offer since this site seems pretty divided on how to prepare.