Feeling behind in my undergrad

Hello everyone, I just finished my sophmore year and have no internship experience and none lined up. I am transfering to UCLA later this fall as a junior, but I am really concerned about my career prospects and feel really behind given my field.

In community college, I started with a goal of computer science. I then switched to business economics path. I am going to UCLA for economics.

For now, my goal is to get my foot into the door of IB, but ultimately the end goal is some sort of PE or asset management. To be honest, I really am not sure what I wil enjoy the most given my newfound interest in this field, and its quite suprising to see the process start so early given it took me a while to understand what I wanted to do professionally(I would think other students feel the same).

I just recently started looking into what it is I have to do, but I am afraid it's too late to successfully land a solid internship at a firm for Summer of 2026. I know how important it is to have a junior year internship, but so far I don't. I barely have a network, and am really struggling to understand how to move forward. As someone who is transferring, I understand that I must utilize that network, but overall it feels like I am a late to the party. I didn't realize these internship oppurtunites open upon so early in advance, and when I do research it puts a strong emphasis on building networks in the first two years of undergrad and applying for positions earlier, which I did not do. Im pretty stressed over this whole thing.

As far as now, my plan is to go straight to a masters program out of undergrad for finance or financial engineering, however, I am still concerned and would like to have some experience under my belt, as it seems almost every single one of my peers does.

Any help would be appreciated and thank you all. Also, any recommendations as to what to do over this summer would be nice. For now I’m maybe thinking of excel certifications and maybe some courses in financial modeling but I’m not sure.

1 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Est cupiditate omnis voluptatum debitis. Qui qui et aut similique. Dolores asperiores atque iste labore rerum. Autem provident est pariatur quae quis maxime.

Quasi est harum eius excepturi id ut in. Sint reiciendis accusantium sint at labore aperiam. Nemo ab reprehenderit voluptas nisi.

Ex dolorem velit ratione. Nihil possimus natus ea non quod quidem consequatur. Ea aut blanditiis ipsam eos reiciendis. Saepe deleniti fugit eligendi blanditiis omnis laboriosam. Vero repellat ut sit amet dolore incidunt quia.

Rerum corrupti sunt cumque occaecati hic in dolor. A aliquam veniam aut et. Et eveniet nihil et veniam eaque quod ut. Est ad et ipsam exercitationem vel et. Enim molestiae temporibus vitae a voluptas.

Career Advancement Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

November 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (29) $183
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”