My Best Strategy in Getting into Investment Banking?

Hi y'all.

I am currently a freshman at a top 10 STEM university in the U.S. (but in the economics/business program) but I want to get into investment banking (like desperately).

My school and its business program have decent recruitment by MBB+Deloitte+KPMG, Regional Boutiques, Fortune 500 companies, elite tech firms like Google, and I know few people have been recruited by BB offices in cities like Houston or Charlotte. However, almost no one from my school works in NYC in IB. My school is not a target school.

I am thinking about transferring to a target school and I think there are three options in front of me:

  1. Transfer to a target school by the end of this year. This is probably the best option. However, I screwed up big time at the end of my senior year in high school (I am surprised that my current school still let me in). Also my first semester GPA is going to be between 3.4-3.5, which is pretty solid at my school but is not pretty compared to applicants from other colleges. My SAT is almost perfect. I have done a bunch of extracurriculars so far in college as well. But I feel like my chance in getting into a target school is dim because of my grades (but probably still worth trying).

  2. Transfer to a target school by the end of my second year. Hopefully I can work my ass off to get 4.0 in the next two semesters and get leadership positions in school organizations. By then I should have a competitive edge in getting into a target school. However, since IB recruiting season starts at the beginning of the school year, there won't be much time for me to network.

  3. Graduate from my current school, work in MBB, or Regional Boutiques, or any aforementioned firms, and try my best to get into an elite MBA program and then IB. I'll have to wait for 5 to 6 more years to enter IB which would be a shame, also definitely put me into a disadvantage.

Thoughts and advice are much appreciated.

11 Comments
 

If you really think you have very little chance of getting into a target school. you can choose a less selective business school on the east coast aka Northeastern

and work your ass off

Or if you really think you can get into a target by end of 2nd year work hard now, its your choice if you are good at networking

 

Your GPA is too low for GU (lowest accepted transfer GPA is 3.69) and is at the avg. transfer GPAfor UVA/UMich. Not sure about Duke.

You say you have a near perfect SAT Score? That will absolutely counterbalance your GPA. Get your GPA up and if you don't get in your first year applying as a transfer, get it up to a 3.7-4.0 and transfer as an incoming 3rd year.

 
Best Response

I would attempt to transfer to a target school if you are this dead set on investment banking. That being said, boosting your GPA, getting a head start on technicals and fit questions so that you have them completely nailed down, and most importantly networking your ass off should give you a good shot at getting into IB. Also seriously consider why you want to get into investment banking and keep your options open, doing something other than IB is not the end of the world.

 

If you are already having to work your ass off to get into a target school at this point, wouldn't it be in his better interest, to get into a less selective business school and working hard there and then getting a shot at IB?

 

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