Advice for younger student

Hello Guys,

I hope y'all are having a wonderful winter break and managing the internship period well.

I know that this forum is intended towards undergraduate students looking for internships, and young adults, but I thought that this forum could be of great help for me to decide on a few things and get my mind clear. 

A bit of background on myself, I'm a grade 10 high school student (sophomore) residing in Ottawa, Ontario as a Canadian PR, and I'm looking into finance as a possible career path for my future. I have very good academics, (excellent stem, decent non-stem). I like to volunteer a lot, and I hold multiple leadership positions in my school, and my community. I'm deeply interested in financial analysis, data management, and especially economics

I'm looking to go into a Canadian Target University, or T20 US, With my preferred ones being

Canada: Queen's, McGill, Western, maybe UBC,

US: Duke, Cornell, Darthmouth, Georgetown, NYU, UCLA, UCB.

I'm in a public school, No AP, No IB, but a lot of opprtunuties to get involved with ECs, like starting a DECA/FBL chapter, Youth Finance organizations nearby, starting inative projects etc. I try to outreach to a lot of people via LinkedIn especially in Canadian target schools, and ask them for advice/arrange calls.

But I feel lost when I see al these opportunuties,youth projects, published papers, awards, etc. and when I don't know where to start. I have pretty good ECs already, (and I know will get better by grade 12), but I don't know how to demostrate my knowledge in relation to fin & econ. I've applied to mutiple online youth finance organizations both in Canada, and US, will see the responses after the Holidays. I don't know how I can start my own impactful finance project to satisfy my desires of owning something big, and breaking into one of these target schools.

If any of y'all are from target, semi-target schools, can you tell me what are the ways in which I can be involved within these amazing projects, and better than all, start my own high-impact fin/econ related project? 

Any advice in relation to university admissions, career pathways, school advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for reading.

8 Comments
 

Not from the US, but grade 10 is year 10 in the uK. You're really early lol. I can't give advice for a US student, but in case any UK student stumbles across this thread - I'd sign up to as many of those early year programmes and work experience as you can so you can figure exactly what you want to do in the future. I'd also do very well in school, take loads of extra curricular and leadership roles in things you genuinely enjoy. You're young and have the opportunity to not care about things too much for a little while, so while its good you're preparing super early, make sure to not be a try hard so early

 

Thanks for the response. I try to work and learn on finance whenever I have the time after school and fitness practices, usually 3+ hours on school days, and all day durring holidays, yet I'm not getting the results i want just yet. Do you have any advice on starting a non-profit finance related website, I see a lot of younger students start with these projects and I feel late than early.

Do you know any finance related programs/internsips, preferabbly online and low cost?

Thanks again for your time.

 
Most Helpful

Not too sure on the non-profit finance website unfortunately. but for finance related internships, and I am speaking from my knowledge based on the UK, in grade 10 (year 10) thats going to be really difficult to get unless your mom and dad knows someone lol. I'd apply to things such as Morgan Stanley summer academy (not sure if they do programmes for anyone below year 12 (I think that is grade 12)) and see if you get lucky, but besides really early career stuff I think they are incredibly limited in year 10. Perhaps take a look at a local finance firm or cold mail a boutique for some work experience or to work shadow. 

 

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