My Four Year Plan

I am currently in the process of laying out my college career. I recently decided to pursue investment banking, and when I began the application process for SA 2019 I realized it was far too late. I did apply to all the BB’s and top tier MM’s, however I realize with my 0 networking and non-target state school status, it is safe to assume these will be out of the question for summer 2019.

The fortunate thing is that I have 2 semesters worth of college credit from AP classes. This allowed me to spend fall semester at a corporate finance internship, combined with my current internship at an insurance broker this summer to give me 2 internships as a sophomore. Because of the classes I’ve been taking during my internships, I currently could still graduate in 3.5 years even though I took the summer off. This will give me another shot for a summer analyst position in 2020. My current focus is obtaining the highest-level internship possible for 2019 to allow me to have the best chance of a summer analyst position in 2020. I have applied/cold emailed about 100 firms these past 2 weeks (in addition to the BB) consisting of lots of IB boutiques, private equity firms, asset management, and some hedge funds.

1. Which of these types of firms would set me up best for a BB/MM SA role the following year? (which should I focus my time on/accept if I receive an offer)
   Ex: Boutiques, then PE, then hf, then asset management (please rank according to pedigree)

Also, from looking at summer analysts at BB’s I’ve noticed it is very common for them to take multiple semesters off from school to take as many internships as possible. That leaves me with my next question:

2. I am now leaning towards extending my graduation to an even 4 years and taking a second semester internship to leave me even more qualified for a 2020 SA position. Perhaps I would do this next year during the fall so that I could have it on my resume when applying in 2020. Also, if I were to do this should I look for different exposure? (if I did a PE firm in summer 19’ should I look for a boutique in fall of 19’?)

Here is the layout of my plan so it is easier to follow:

Summer 17’ - Enter university with 1st and 2nd semester complete (AP credit)
Fall 17’ – complete 3rd semester
Spring 18’- complete 4th semester
Summer 18’ – (First) internship at small insurance broker
Fall 18’- (second) finance internship at fortune 500 company
Spring 19’- complete 5th semester
Summer 19’- (third) internship at Boutique/PE/HF/Asset mgmt.
Fall 19’- (fourth) internship at lower level MM/Boutique/PE/HF
Spring 20’ complete 6th semester
Summer 20' (fifth) summer analyst at BB/ higher tier MM
Fall 21' complete semester 7
Spring 21' complete semester 8
Summer 21' Graduate and become full time analyst

While this may sound overboard, trust me when I say my university is the opposite of a target school (average act 23, 80% acceptance rate, state school) and judging from Linkedin there are less than 10 alumni at the top banks such as Goldman, CS, etc which is somewhat disheartening. I really feel like my first 4 internships (in addition to networking, strong GPA, leadership in extracurriculars of course) will be my leverage to snagging that 2020 IB SA position, which I can then leverage into a full time offer at likely a lower tier of the BB/MM. From there I will likely work for several years and then go back and get an MBA at a top tier business school, which would open impressive opportunities for me later. I realize this is long winded, but I feel like I must execute this near flawlessly to beat the abundant number of ivy/ semi target students fighting for the small number of SA positions. Any answers to my direct questions, general comments, or other bits of strategy are greatly appreciated.