What to do about my education

Howdy all,

I’m trying to move forward with my career but am having some difficulty figuring out how to best handle my situation, it seems like there’s a lot of conflicting info out there.

I attended college out of HS all the way until my senior year, in a fairly obscure degree program. At that point (around 2020-2021) I realized that I wanted nothing to do with my major, and left. I realized pretty quickly how terribly irresponsible that was.

I worked a couple odd jobs, but have since managed to land a a role as an analyst with a commercial RE company, primarily underwriting and doing other busy work to that end.
I would consider myself pretty financially literate and well accustomed to the industry, and am now gunning for an investment sales job in NY, which I think I have a fairly good shot at getting despite my lack of a degree, mostly thanks to my company and recommendations from some of the top producers in my office (for which I am VERY thankful, no shot otherwise).

I am still concerned about my formal educational experience going forward, and would like to complete a relevant and reputable degree to help me break through to better job opportunities in the future.

I have no idea what the best approach here is - in school my grades were middling at best, and now I’ve got significantly less flexibility due to my job, and on top of it all a fiancé to take care of in an extremely expensive city. So what are my options? CC -> state school, night/flexible classes? An online degree but from a reputable brick and mortar? They don’t even typically seem to offer degree programs in highly relevant fields like finance, so I’d need to figure out which available major would be the most relevant, but I have no idea.

Trust me, I know how bad the situation looks, and I am willing to hustle my ass off to make it work. At the very least, I have real experience in the RE field and very solid connections, and a very strong understanding of everything that goes into it. I still don’t think it’s enough to be taken even moderately seriously.

Pls help.

1 Comments
 

Consequatur eligendi error quasi dolorem numquam aliquid veritatis voluptas. Voluptatem placeat qui sed labore. Id culpa consequatur ea eveniet.

Commodi ullam nobis et tenetur necessitatibus doloremque. Libero mollitia architecto voluptatem consequuntur. Repudiandae provident aut corrupti molestias. Sed sed nam autem esse quia aliquid magni vero.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (78) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (72) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”