I am planning to graduate early from college (in three years), what should I do with internship recruiting?

By way of background, my plan is to study math along with either philosophy or EALAC at a target school (maybe semi-target? It's not one of HYPSM or Wharton but pretty much right after them. My school does not have an undergraduate business school, so recruiters are typically chill with majors). I took a gap year for 20-21, so I will enroll in fall 21 as a freshman. During the gap year, I've been doing internships at several PE investment shops and am set to intern at a family office that invests in hedge funds. My hope is that I could break into a hedge fund right after college.

Summer 22, technically, will be my freshman summer but I'm also planning to graduate in 3 years with AP credits from high school and all. If my plan to graduate early goes through, I will only have one summer left after summer 22, so it's probably necessary for me to seek out some legit summer 22 opportunities (basically like other sophomores). In this case, here are a couple of questions:

1. Should I say that my expected graduation year is 2024 even though it should normally be 2025?

2. What should I do with my transcript which will not even have my first semester's grades up by the time a typical IB recruiting season ends?

3. Are there any firms that you are aware of that will consider situations like my case seriously? (I'm mainly looking at banking/hedge funds/quant shops)

4. If applications to big names don't fall through (which is very likely), what other options are there so that I could build up to securing a desired junior summer internship in 2023? (Most diversity programs don't apply to me, but feel free to drop them in case they may be helpful for other people in my shoes)

Thanks a lot. And you responses are appreciated by everyone who plans to graduate one year early (many people do this to save tuition costs) yet hope to break into the finance industry which is having this increasingly squeezed timelines.

1 Comments
 

Pariatur aut nesciunt dolorum. Sit accusamus sunt omnis velit praesentium. Natus laboriosam mollitia rerum quod.

Et in cum aut excepturi rerum aut. Alias et autem eveniet quas tempore. Error eum ut maiores amet accusantium. Soluta ipsum corrupti necessitatibus tenetur itaque nulla. Voluptas nulla qui repellendus qui debitis.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 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

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.9%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 98.3%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.7%
  • JPMorgan 01 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (15) $434
  • Associates (46) $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
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
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...”