Fall Internship - Full Time School

Right now I have the opportunity to choose between a few fall internship offers that could seriously help build my resume (think boutique banking, consulting, prop trading) but I'm seriously concerned that taking one might ruin my grades as I will be studying full time with a tough course load.

I'll be taking

Calculus I Pre Med Physics Financial Accounting Game Theory or Intermediate macroeconomics Intermediate German

which will be about 17-18 credits (German can be 3 or 4 depending on which professor's class you enroll in) along with a 10-15 hour internship. I can't switch these classes up as I'll need to take them in order to graduate on time, but I was wondering whether it would be worth taking an internship this semester or whether I should wait until spring semester. The thing being that my second semester is going to be much harder with 17-18 or so credits (think calc ii, econometrics I, advanced german, stats with calculus, etc) but banks only know your fall gpa during recruiting and so it wouldn't be as big of a concern letting the gpa drop by .2 or so after receiving the offer. I have never encountered financial accounting or calculus before (which concerns me as I have no idea what's coming) and so it might not be "easy" just because I've been exposed to equity research, stock analysis, looking at financial statements etc

14 Comments
 

Calc and financial accounting is a joke. As long as all you do is study/intern/sleep for Monday-Friday and you only party once a weekend, I think you'll be fine.

 
Husky32
kidflashCalc and financial accounting is a joke. As long as all you do is study/intern/sleep for Monday-Friday and you only party once a weekend, I think you'll be fine.

Damn so would that mean studying saturday nights? lol

I mean not so much studying, but I'd take it easy. Every time I drink, I end up drinking until 4-5 AM, and I wake up at 3-4 pm the next day. So, I get nothing done until like 8 pm that night.
 
kidflash
Husky32
kidflashCalc and financial accounting is a joke. As long as all you do is study/intern/sleep for Monday-Friday and you only party once a weekend, I think you'll be fine.

Damn so would that mean studying saturday nights? lol

I mean not so much studying, but I'd take it easy. Every time I drink, I end up drinking until 4-5 AM, and I wake up at 3-4 pm the next day. So, I get nothing done until like 8 pm that night.

I've also been elected as vice president (likely president next year) of a non finance related, "social" club on campus that i'd a) really enjoy and b) would establish 'leadership" on my resume. I hate to ask this, but throwing that into the mix as well, does that change your opinion on getting the fall internship?

 
Best Response
Husky32
kidflash
Husky32
kidflashCalc and financial accounting is a joke. As long as all you do is study/intern/sleep for Monday-Friday and you only party once a weekend, I think you'll be fine.

Damn so would that mean studying saturday nights? lol

I mean not so much studying, but I'd take it easy. Every time I drink, I end up drinking until 4-5 AM, and I wake up at 3-4 pm the next day. So, I get nothing done until like 8 pm that night.

I've also been elected as vice president (likely president next year) of a non finance related, "social" club on campus that i'd a) really enjoy and b) would establish 'leadership" on my resume. I hate to ask this, but throwing that into the mix as well, does that change your opinion on getting the fall internship?

Also would it be dumb to ease the semester by taking financial accounting second semester and not ever taking managerial? I've heard that managerial isn't needed for investment banking.

 
Husky32I've also been elected as vice president (likely president next year) of a non finance related, "social" club on campus that i'd a) really enjoy and b) would establish 'leadership" on my resume. I hate to ask this, but throwing that into the mix as well, does that change your opinion on getting the fall internship?
Lemme guess, a frat?

What year are you? Judging from courseload you're most likely a sophomore or something.

Fall internships are usually pretty flexible in terms of days you want to come in and hours you can work; they know you're a busy student with inflexible academic schedules, so I wouldn't worry about that. In terms of your classes themselves -- financial accounting is a joke. I never once went to class and I killed it; it's all equations you can memorize, easy. Calculus I (single variable, I assume?) is equally easy; things don't really get wonky until you get to multi. Good luck dealing with the premeds, but if you're only a sophomore or so I wouldn't be worried - all of the stupid premeds haven't been weeded out yet so you can hope for a bit of a curve.

Don't drop accounting. It's a good thing to take it early if you want to progress into finance later; good launchpad for future classes (especially any type of corpfin class, etc.)

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 
kidflash
Husky32
kidflashCalc and financial accounting is a joke. As long as all you do is study/intern/sleep for Monday-Friday and you only party once a weekend, I think you'll be fine.

Damn so would that mean studying saturday nights? lol

I mean not so much studying, but I'd take it easy. Every time I drink, I end up drinking until 4-5 AM, and I wake up at 3-4 pm the next day. So, I get nothing done until like 8 pm that night.
Holy shit, use an alarm man....

But really, accounting is pushing numbers around, it's a joke. Calculus is a moderately difficult class depending on your uni and cause you have never taken it before. Pre-med physics is a complete joke if you're not retarded. Game theory is difficult, at least at my school. And German depends on well how good you are at German.

10-15 hours is essentially another class as long as you know they won't ask anything over that of you, you would be pretty busy. Blowing off the weekends probably won't be a choice.

 

You should be able to get an 'A' in calc and financial accounting. I doubt (assuming 6+hrs of sleep) you can pull off a 4.0 that semester. A 3.6+ with discipline is doable.

The difference between successful people and others is largely a habit - a controlled habit of doing every task better, faster and more efficiently.
 
mhurricaneYou should be able to get an 'A' in calc and financial accounting. I doubt (assuming 6+hrs of sleep) you can pull off a 4.0 that semester. A 3.6+ with discipline is doable.

What if I drop the accounting, take intermediate economics instead (i'm pro at anything related to econ), take the internship and run the club as vice president? I'm honestly only concerned about accounting as the professor has crazy requirements and makes his tests very very difficult, and I'm only concerned with calc as it is also with a lot of pre med students. Language is easy for me, and game theory is largely non quantitative which shouldn't be too bad.

 

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