I’m a freshman in high school and want to work in IB. What are some things I could do right now that can help me in the future?
I learned about investment banking after watching Suits and I researched more on it, leaving me with a new interest. The more I read about it, the more it caught my attention. I know that this career has so many opportunities just from being a first-year with the amount of highly valued people you meet and the insane amount of money you work with. I’m not completely sure if I want to fully commit to this yet, but I do want to explore it more and see where it could take me.
Any advice or opportunities you all can share would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Read, read, read, and keep reading.
What do you recommend?
You’re a freshman in high school. Explore other facets of finance as you might find something else you enjoy more then investment banking. Hedge funds, private equity, equity research, trading, etc… list goes on. Figure out what each one does. Read the markets daily. WSJ, CNBC, Financial times, etc. If your truly enamored with IB though, lots of companies posted their mergers & acquisitions market outlooks for 2025 so read those. Ensure you understand what investment bankers actually do. Reading will help you understand the lingo in finance as there can be numerous terms for one word so it seems confusing when all thrown at you. Subscribe to liquidity newspaper as that gives M&A deals that happened throughout the week and other various transactions and capital raising
Already a freshman in high school? Too late, pal. Should've been thinking about this in elementary.
Get a good ACT/SAT score and get into the best college you can
Do these test scores have a higher impact on apps more than ECs and classes?
Anymore, to get into a target school for NYC banks you'll need to be the complete package. Impeccable grades, elite test scores (top 1%), and an extracurricular package that's interesting.
Source: worked in Princeton admissions
Having early ambition is good but dont let it consume you- not saying this is u but make sure your enjoying your time in hs. Dont be reading up on dcfs when you should be chatting next to that cute girl in science class for example. Just my 2 cents
I’m definitely enjoying high school and making time for the fun stuff but finance in general just caught my interest. I’m just trying to learn what i can because it’s something I’m genuinely interested in. I truly appreciate your insight though!
Awesome man good luck to u. Def get a good view on what colleges are best options too - i wish i had found out which ones are actually targets and applied to more schools; kept a more open mind about where to go
Did you go to a target pre-school? If not it might be UBS for you bud
Currently at UBS, can confirm
Get into Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Yale. The rest will be easy from there. Get a perfect GPA in high school, take as many APs as possible, but most importantly, MAKE FRIENDS. This industry is all about who you know. Get everyone to like you because you don’t know who knows somebody in finance through the grapevine. Now, if you meet that person post senior year and tell them, “I’m going to [insert school from above] and I want to do finance” they will take notice and be willing to help you.
Thank you for the advice, I’m definitely working on my academics, but I don’t really have anything going outside of my grades that would help me get into one of those schools. Do you have any recommendations for things I can do outside of school to increase my chances of getting into one of those schools? Thank you once again!
Honestly, I was someone who was lucky enough to get into a T15 school without many ECs, but to get to the top tier you'll need them and you'll need to be great in whatever you do. My best piece of advice would be (1) find somewhere you can volunteer and consistently Saturday/Sunday, tutoring preferred (2) Find what you are the most skillful in and lean into the ECs associated with that (If you're not good at math, no need for math competitions you'll place 10th in, it would be far more advantageous to enter writing competitions or something journalism adjacent) (3) Try to become a research assistant to a professor at your local university, you may be young for this now, but create a profile that makes someone say "why not bring this kid around to see what he can do."
Demonstrate real interest, admissions officers can sniff out the fakes easily aka the kids with 10 ECs that they're just mediocre in.
The only thing a freshman in high school should be worried about is enjoying their high school years and getting into the best target school possible, period. Everything you do should revolve around that. Passion projects, test scores, extracurriculars, AP classes, letters of recommendation, productive summers, etc. Start working on your college application now. There's nothing else you can do at your age that will have a higher return on investment.
And read this: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Job-Wall-Street/dp/0071778535
I recommend it to every kid who is thinking about IB and Wall Street.
I’m definitely focused on building a strong application. Are there any specific classes or extracurriculars you’d recommend that stand out to colleges?
a couple ECs that you can do without too much (although it may be a rough start) experience are things like, cross country running (its mainly just a mind game, not to skillful but very difficult and shows endurance and determination.) you need a lot of time for training though, you will be running 60-70 miles per week.
band, but an uncommon instrument, like a euphonium instead of a tuba or trombone. make sure to practice and be good at it, AOs love students that have high spikes in areas, like a top 1% distance runner with a very good gpa and test scores that's good at their instrument, rather than a kid that is mediocre at baseball, swimming, and piano, with a good gpa and test scores.
i'm still a prospect in highschool, and one of my ideas is doing a science fair experiment where i make my own orthodontic headgear that applies pressure on the palate while I sleep. I have been doing things like pressing my tongue against my palate and pushing with thumbs on my palate, and I have found that it promotes maxillofacial forward growth which is generally more attractive. if the orthodontic headgear works, then I could have invented something that could revolutionize the industry. i am also developing a method for quick mandibular growth, i have a overbite currently and the mandible seems to follow the maxilla equally in terms of growth, but i am getting elastics and braces for my overbite soon, so i will test if my mandibular growth method works by seeing if i can fix my overbite faster than my orthodontist thinks it can be fixed with just the elastics and braces.
with the amount orthodontic research i have been doing i wonder if really want to work in finance.
i probably sound like a schizo after saying all this
Qui aut quam sit dolor ut deleniti error. Autem non est molestiae repellat dolor. Repellendus sit sed omnis aspernatur dignissimos. Sunt quo molestiae id sapiente laudantium. Porro a debitis illo voluptate sit veniam nihil. Rem sit sint aut est voluptatem doloremque. Eos dolor id ea aut.
Ex est debitis quos autem aut ex. Aut qui aut totam saepe ut dolore. Ut quis voluptatem ex dolor sequi dolorum ipsam.
Corrupti minima quibusdam sed dignissimos magni. Aut sit quae blanditiis laboriosam sequi nihil. Voluptatum veniam explicabo non dignissimos et. Omnis non deserunt aut facilis debitis mollitia doloremque dolores.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Est sed dolores temporibus totam ratione aspernatur. Unde perspiciatis ipsa et aut eum.
Cum odio eius dolorem doloremque distinctio at sed alias. Qui nulla labore sit beatae non animi vel alias. Qui laborum exercitationem quibusdam doloribus.
Blanditiis quasi molestiae cumque et. Libero eos nemo delectus ratione sint dolorem. Quo et repudiandae sequi aut.