Prospective IB Student Looking for Advice

Hi everyone, I am currently a sophomore at a semi-target (UVA, UT, UNC, etc.) studying finance. It has been my goal since getting to school to break into IB. I think the work is super interesting and I have always been a grinder. I was just recently rejected from the combined MSF program that my school offers after initially being waitlisted. It has been my goal since I started at college to get into this program mainly because of the interesting classes that the program offers. In addition, this program has most of the IB networks for alumni of my school. This was a huge blow to me and I feel that my chances of breaking into such a competitive area such as IB are dwindling. I believe the main reason for my rejection is the fact that I had to drop a finance course this past semester due to my job. I work a full-time remote job to help support my cost of attendance, and I honestly did not have enough time in the day to do well in this class, manage my other coursework, participate in extracurriculars, and still work.

I'm now reevaluating my options and need some feedback from people in the industry, and potentially people who have been in my position. I decided to move on from my job as I cannot continue to prepare for recruitment and maintain my academic course load while working 40 hours a week. In replacement of this, I have started a part-time internship at a boutique capital group that provides angel investing, business brokerage, and M&A advising services to their clients. This experience is great so far and I have the offer to remain with them for my sophomore summer, however, it is unpaid. I also have a Corp. Fin. offer with a highly respected Fortune 500 which is another option.

In terms of my resume, I have a 3.7, and am a member of two of the most competitive finance clubs on campus. One is a student run investment fund where I have become very close with other investment banking interns, a large majority of which are in the MSF program. The other club is a consulting group that works with local businesses.

Although I want to break into IB so bad I’m really starting to doubt myself. I have put a year and a half into learning more about banking and setting myself up for recruitment. I’ve talked to dozens of people in the industry and sent hundreds of cold emails. I just feel like it could be all for nothing at this point.

Now to the part where I am looking for advice:

• Should I continue looking for another internship either in PE, or a boutique IB where I will have more of a focus on transactions, or should I stick with one of the options I have now?
• Should I continue to prep for interviews and go through recruitment this spring, or are my chances of getting an offer really low?
• If I don’t get an offer, would it be worth it to graduate early and apply to a true prestigious MSF program and try to make it into banking from there?

Apologies for the long post, but hoping this community can provide some insight and advice.