As a finance and real estate double major from a state school in Virginia, should I work really hard and try to break into IB or should i got towards the commercial real estate route?
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Depends on what you think you'll genuinely like more. Also, ask yourself if you're driven enough for RE because you can make a LOT of money in CRE, but you have to hunt for all your own deals early on, whereas you don't have to hunt for deals until you're a bit more senior in banking.
Do you go to UVA or W&M, JMU, or VT? I think your answer makes a pretty big difference in answering your question, frankly.
VT
I see. In that case, I think you would have a much easier time recruiting for commercial real estate. Not to say that you wouldn't have a chance at IB, but you are going to have a much harder time without a strong alumni network and on-campus recruiting. That said, if IB is something you really want, then you should go for it by all means.
I go to a large state school on the west coast (Berkeley, UCLA) and I didn’t feel my path to IB was harder than candidates from other schools
Those are definitely really good schools with recruiting on each
I got a full time offer as analyst at a BB from a state school in the midwest. Connections, hard work, and casting a wide net on applications make it possible for anyone. If you care about IB enough to put in the work on the front side, it is absolutely do-able. All the guys on here just hype it up because they feel accomplished saying they went to a target. I have the same job, paid 10x less for my degree, and had a way better time. If you want it, go get it.
If you're at VT and want to break into IB, you would definitely need to start now. Try joining one of the student-run investment clubs as they will give you much better odds. A lot of people at non-targets end up doing 5th years to catch up on recruitment, so you may also want to try that. However, from what I've heard VT's RE program is pretty good so if you enjoy that route more I would go with that as shooting for IB will be a huge commitment and seriously time consuming.
I wouldn’t say a lot of people. I personally have never met anyone who did 5 years to recruit lol sounds more like very rare cases. Pls don’t give out bad information.
Not false Info, well over half the people at my state school who broke into IB all did 5th years, or added an extra semester. Just because your personal experience is dif than mine doesn’t make it bad info
Since VT is a great STEM school, they came out with a FinTech major which is a finance degree with more heavy math and coding work. Thoughts on opportunities I would have if I switched into that major vs a double major of finance and real estate?
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