How I've managed to break into IB from a non-target (work in progress)

I read posts similar to this a year and a half ago when I had recently transferred from a upper mid tier public university to a private non-target and they were a lot of help.

A lot of people said it wasn't worth the risk/effort to try to get into IB and to instead aim for other finance verticals (which are also great career paths), but admittedly less appealing to me personally, so I decided to stick with the plan. 

Since transferring, I just did whatever I could to make myself a competitive candidate. I'm entering my final semester now and have a 3.90 GPA and got involved in a couple of clubs. I leveraged personal connections last summer to get a F500 Corp Fin FP&A internship just to have something on my resume. I didn't have any internship experience prior to that.

Over the summer I started researching MSF degrees, and decided that this would be a good path for me to rebrand/have a second chance for IB specifically. I networked with tons of kids at top MSF programs, and decided which one's to apply to. Worked long and hard on my apps, got killer recommendations, wrote solid essays, and networked with faculty, and ultimately I got into a top MSF (maybe the top MSF) program in the US (MIT/Vandy). 

Since then, I was able to leverage the brand to get a regional boutique internship, and have been able to leverage that to land lots of interviews for a SA2022 position before my program (mid tier middle market banks in SF/Chic/NY). 

I went from not being able to land a single internship interview at any bank to having an internship and getting many interviews from reputable firms. I am excited to go the MSF next year and have a great time with smart people in a big city. Hope this can help even one person.