Current Highschool student who eventually wants to go into investment banking, tips?

First off let me start with I know I'm young and lots of things may change, but in my current life I feel like investment banking is something I want to do. I'm a really competitive person by nature, I love competition and I strive to be the best at what I do. Also the money is insane and I want to earn money when I'm young and then transition into a less intense industry when I'm older and already have a huge stable amount of money behind me.

I know everyone says not to do something for just the money and I'm not. As I said the competition and difficulty are honestly a plus to me, but the money is a large part I can't lie. I personally think I can stick it out for 3-5 years in the industry at the very least before completely burning out, just knowing how I am as a person.

I'm not trying to sound cocky although I know I may come across that way, I just feel like I would be able to handle it as a career, especially when I'm younger.

Anyways my problem is investment banking is something, at least from what I've read, is only really achievable if you go to an elite school. I'm a good student, I've only gotten one B, I'm top 5% of my class, took almost every AP class offered (I'll have something like 13-16) and I'm in a decent amount of extracurriculars. The problem is it's just not good enough for schools like Harvard or Stanford.

My ACT doesn't seem to be good enough for those schools (I got a 34) and I only have 2-3 leadership positions because honestly I'm known as a student who gets good grades without working so none of my fellow students would vote for me as president or vice president of clubs like NHS or Beta Club. I know this is a problem and I've tried to change others views of me but it's too late in high school to do that. So my question essentially is, is it possible to get into investment banking by going to schools less at the level of Harvard and more at the levels of NYU, University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, and maybe Georgetown?... (these are the main schools I'm applying to)

Anyways thank you for reading the post, I know I may have rambled a bit I was just trying to give everyone a complete view of my situation.

4 Comments
 

You have good stats. Be sure to apply to schools like Harvard. You never know because you could get in. I suggest that you do a little more research on this site about IB. There are a ton of threads by high school students who want to go into IB and some people give some great advice on those previous threads.

Also, while Harvard and Stanford may be great schools, other schools like Wharton, University of Michigan, MIT, Dartmouth, Columbia, NYU, etc. are all target schools that have a reputation of sending many kids to great banks.

 

I will apply it's just these schools all seem like complete crap shoots and it feels as though I'm pretty much as likely to be rejected by them all as I am to be accepted by one.

 

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