For Investment Bankers at the Associate Level and Beyond: I need your advice regarding my post-MBA opportunities

It should be pretty easy for you to land a banking gig. B-school is a fresh start. Nobody will care about this stuff, only your preparation and motivation

Your summer internship won't even be on your resume (which by no means should be more than a page long) so no one will even know that you gave it a try and decided not to do it. It may raise questions from the admissions committee but even then it should be pretty easy to spin as you got a taste of it, wish you could have pursued it and now are going back to school to course correct. The analyst job is so much different than the associate roll anyway.

As far as volunteering, banks like volunteers, they like passion....tell the story why you took time off to pursue that route (and better yet spin it for leadership). There are tons of MBA banking candidates that did Teach for America, Peace Corps, City Year, etc...

If you're worried about profile and the internship on your resume, I wouldn't be. I included my internship from college years on my resume (went into a different industry FT), only received maybe 1-2 questions about it over 40+ networking meetings/informational interviews with bankers. If you are still worried about it, just leave it off your resume.

One of the misnomers about MBA is that it's a fresh start but in my view it comes with a ton of caveats, particularly for banking recruiting (it is different for other industries for a variety of reasons).

In general you go to b school to rubber stamp your cv, get the network, and get a fresh start in terms of career direction. Unfortunately a b school decision may also exacerbate the prestige and perception issues associated with education in general. At best it doesn't help and at worst it takes away from your other accomplishments.

I say this because It depends on the school - going to a top 5 b school will be viewed with the same light as a top undergrad program. the opposite is also true. Going to a sub 10 or even 15 school - why bother. Banks and most other institutions want the credibility of an HBS or Wharton and they target that for b school hires. Lower schools fall out of targets and the hurdle goes up considerably as you go below the rankings list.

I have seen some instances of a guy going to top 10 undergrad then a not so great b school and it is viewed negatively. It raises questions of motivations, drive, etc

Unfortunately and fortunately this is just finance. In other areas mba is still a sign of maturity, advanced professional and academic skills and network and for some a meaningful change in course in careers.

However I would decide on which MBA program with a very discerning eye and frankly if your goal is just IBD, then pick a top mba program. We are no likely to pick a tier 2 MBa program as we are a tier 2 undergraduate institution.

The only benefit at them back level is that your the benefit of your cv and the fact that there are fewer Mia programs so more of them are "ranked"

This is not meant to encourage or discourage you but want to give you a pretty realistic view of how much of a reset mba actually is if you want to be a banker

I wouldn't be too worried. I went to a top 15 MBA program that isn't known for finance and every domestic student got an IBD internship if they kept their head down and did all that was recommended by the MBA 2s/Finance Club

Thanks everyone for the responses. Also for those in the know, I've been accepted to Yale SOM (no money) and Cornell Johnson (with 80% tuition scholarship). I am leaning towards Johnson as they seem to be very strong on the Street, but Yale seems to be on the upswing. What are your perspectives?

Go to Johnson. Yale is a great school, but Yale's reputation is as more of a feeder into think tanks and non-profits whereas Johnson is a finance feeder.