To Ask Connections or Apply Randomly

Hello,

Thanks for your time. I'm a freshman at target school with 3.85 GPA and have previous experience at a relatively well known investment firm which I luckily got through connections.

This year, I am hoping to have an investment related summer internship and am not sure where to start. Should I ask the few connections I have whether they know any openings for freshmen, or should I randomly start cold-emailing and applying to different companies around the area? My worry was that if the cold-email – which would show great enthusiasm for the job – leads to an internship and I reject it later, I do not want to be in bad standing with the people in the firm.

On a related note, when do most summer internship deadlines end? I see that some end in late january, while some late february.

Thanks so much for your advice!