13 Comments
 
Funniest

Step 1) Go to bodos bagels and order a poppy seed bagel with jalapeño lime cream cheese  

Step 2) stick your pecker inside and say wahoowa 

Step 3) get into McIntyre 

Step 4) get into The Goldman Sachs 

Step 5) profit 

 

Woah, insane timeline to be thinking about this already. When I applying to college, I had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life or even really study....wild to realize how far behind I was than my peers.

The best way to get ahead is try to get a finance internship asap. There's some kids from major cities (LA, Chicago, NYC) that have internships in high school in the same way some students have college summer courses at elite universities on their resume. If you can't get a high school summer internship (for this summer), try networking to get one for next summer. If you have access to your college career portal already, see what jobs are posted for this year and make an excel and try to network with people there for next year. 

Another idea is taking one of those financial accounting / financial modeling crash courses. Could make you more competitive for internships and also help in placing for clubs (if the ones on your campus have recruiting processes like some of the finance ones at other schools do). 

Just some of the cuff thoughts...

 

Ngl learning how to drink a beer and read a room are probably more valuable skills atp than learning how to model. At the end of the day, IB is a sales job and I think AI is only going to skew the optimal skill set more towards soft skills vs being the guy who can build a model the fastest.

 

 

These are the exact type of kids nobody wants to hire, be normal have a life gain social skill’s genuinely such a sad post. I recruited learning everything in a couple months.

 

Yeah man I don’t mean to come of rude but nobody wants to hire the loser kids with no social cues that are posting on WSO literally 5 years in advance to when they would actually start working. Just literally think about how absurd that is you realize how different things will be given AI and such in that time frame.

 
Most Helpful

Getting into top investment clubs (MII, AIF, GMG) will help the most - even more than getting into McIntire. That should be your goal for your freshman year aside from having a 3.8+ GPA (do not take hard classes there is literally no reason unless you must). The clubs have training programs that will give you good early exposure to technical material you'll need to know. The alumni from the clubs are super valuable. Hopefully there are some kids from your high school or anyone else you might know that can get your name pulled from the pile, bc at UVA getting into these clubs is all about who you know. 

I agree with what everyone else has said that social skills are the most important. Join a good frat, drink beer, make a lot of friends, crush it in school. Having that balance is key. Nobody likes those sweaty hardo types. 

Can't blame you for thinking so far ahead, as it's just a reflection of how competitive this has all become. 

 

Officiis nihil fugiat et voluptas dignissimos culpa. Natus eum et iusto voluptatem. Qui dolor eos minus et consequatur fugiat. Quod id cum qui ut et. Voluptatum voluptatibus nemo est eum qui. Libero adipisci et necessitatibus accusamus accusamus voluptatibus distinctio.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan No 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $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
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
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...”