Internship options for a high GPA, non business guy?

I have been considering pursuing a consulting or investment banking internship for the summer '11 (I will be in teach for america next year, and I am trying to figure out something to do over the break). However, I have no internship experience or coursework related to finance or business, so I am wondering how to break into this field.

Rough outline of credentials:

U chicago 3.9 GPA in history, highest honors, phi beta kappa, etc Teach for America Corps member Research assistant experience with a political science professor Student publications editor Dorm resident advisor

Apparently top consulting and banking firms recruit interns from TFA, so how do you present myself in a cover letter/interview? I have only taken one econ related class (though I read WSJ and economist regularly), and my quantitative background is really light (had a 5 on calc AP, so only took 1 math class in college). What do I need to do make myself marketable despite these obvious deficiencies?

Cheers, and thanks for any advice.

2 Comments
 
Best Response

You need to join so business clubs and take more business classes to show that you are really serious about finance. You don't need to know all the technicals, but if you dont have business classes under your belt/take them later it makes you look like you picked IB on a whim. I suggest taking the Training the Street course. You dont need quant as much as just general business knowledge like how to value a company, what happens to accounting statements,

I suggests purchasing their breaking into wall street interview guide. It's $97, but is a great resource. Especially for someone like you who does not have classes to teach them some of the more complicated ideas

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