High School Senior - Need Advice To Tailor Myself For Wall St. While (Probably) Attending A Non-Target
FYI, this is undergrad. I’m graduating from a Catholic school on Long Island; I played varsity lacrosse, was secretary for model UN, part of two honor societies, and had a summer internship with a congressman. As wonderful as that sounds, my overall GPA isn't as stellar at 3.2, which isn't ideal for target schools. I only really started giving my best effort during sophomore year. Now, as a senior, I'm taking 5 AP courses. (which isn’t amazing but it’s not terrible).
I'm applying to 20+ East Coast schools, with my top picks being University of Miami, Wake Forest, Villanova, Clemson, NYU, and Princeton. My choices are mostly based on alumni networks, business program rankings, and graduate placement history. However, I'm also considering the overall college experience. I don't want to focus so hard on one metric that I forget to consider what my day-to-day life will look like for the next few years. Most of my other options are essentially safety schools in my case.
Transferring after freshman year isn't off the table. I've thought about Big 10 schools, but if the transfer acceptance rate is incredibly low, it's a bit of a long shot. I'll still take prerequisite courses that align with bigger business schools just to keep my options open.
Any practical advice to help me navigate this would be greatly appreciated.
My advice: The world is bigger than finance. Don’t mentally pigeonhole yourself into one single career path while you’re still a teenager.
You are not gonna get into NYU or Princeton with a 3.2 unless you a) got crazy money b) insane legacy at Princeton c) cure cancer d) are recruited Your ECs really aren’t that great either. I’ve known kids with everything you had, 4.0, 10 APs and more get rejected from lesser schools.
I would honestly set your sights towards state schools with top business programs and work your ass off in trying to get into the selective IB feeders there. An example might be IU Kelley — not a top school but the IBW has insane placements.
Also definitely think about transferring if you are really serious about high finance
I did consider being recruited for lax (and sailing) at a couple of schools but I honestly don’t see myself playing in college. Regarding Princeton, I have links to a few donors and the admissions department but no insane legacy connection, and to be honest, this isn’t a situation where Im choosing to apply to Princeton, Im being told to. It’s funny you bring up IU Kelly, I just sent in my EA application.
Why not save some money, do a year of community college, ace all of the easy classes now that you're more mature and motivated and then go wherever the hell you want? Save yourself $30K and end up with a better degree.
Im definitely not ruling it out. I just heard from some recruiters a school like Suffolk is a one way ticket to the back office.
Ohio State- Fisher Futures Investment Banking Program
Im gunna assume you go to Ohio State, If you guys beat Penn State saturday I’ll apply.
You’re right. Remember this on Saturday. The pipeline is getting better. We are ranked top 20 for Finance in the country. Football. GREAT food. Good looking girls. Everything.
Candid, cold truth: The best way to tailor yourself is to go to a top school and you're not gonna sniff any of them with that background. You can either (1) join the military and get that sweet, sweet GI Bill and go to an Ivy in ~4 years (2) Go to the best school possible for a year, get a 4.0 with leadership positions, and then try your best to transfer to a top 20 school and figure out a way to do 4 years there.
Im definitely considering option 1; Im applying to the Citadel in SC just to leave that pathway open.
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