Do I have a chance at a BB?

Bullshit. Many people have equal if not better than a 3.98/4.00 from Georgia? Jesus fucking christ you have been brainwashed that only smart people go to Ivys.

Why the fuck did you get so many degrees? How many years in college? Full time gig with no WE is going to be hard. Whats your SAT, esp your math.

Unless your father is Dick Fuld or John Mack, it takes a lot of planning and sacrifices to land a gig at a BB. I think having the work experiences and having the personality outweight other factors in the equation. Your resume must show that you have a geniune passion for finance. Everyone's got a story to tell and you've got to make your story more creative and logical than other candidates.... do you know what I am saying?

Here is the work sequence of my resume. I started off as a "Marketing Associate" at a local magazine company. I spent a summer folding letters and picking up phone calls without making a dime. My job led to another marketing gig at a startup. I did that for 2 semesters. With two business-related gigs on my resume, I was able to get a private wealth management internship at a BB during my junior year. To be honest I really didn't really do shit, but the name itself got me a BB summer internship, then I got a full-time offer.

the personality is contingent upon the firm that you interview with, but first thing first... you've got to get the first-round interviews!!

if you have a strong background in math, i think you should take the quantitative route and do derivatives trading. I would suggest you to take a look at the Msters in Financial Engineering program (such as http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/MFE/). In the mean time, try to get a couple of finance jobs whenever you can. A lot of people (myself included) can't handle the heavy-math stuff, so you'd definately stand out from the rest of your peers. After a couple of years in trading, I am sure opportunity will present irself if you are still interested in banking...

You need to get interviews... once you get to that stage, the ball is in your court.

Bottom line: network, go to Emory's recruiting if you can, and hustle - those are the only ways.

I dunno, I've seen resumes of ivy kids who got started reaaallly early. Like finance/RE/strategy internships freshman summer, BB IBD sophomore year early...

They have a very respectable career services division. I'm not sure where it can be found, but go to the business department, tell them something like you're preparing for enrollment for the summer and additionally you want to try and secure some type of experience during the summer or in the fall. Just be creative...

Additionally, I know you may not want to hear this, but I did pro-bono work at a boutique for a few months and it helped me tremendously...Just a reccomendation if everything else falls through...

Ok well the math major is going to help you tremendously. Best way to go is to get a part time internship at a boutique (well, bb if you can) during the SCHOOL YEAR next year. Getting a school year internship is a lot easier than a summer one. If you are really dedicated, I know bulge brackets have some night analyst positions, but that would require you to be superhuman to pull it off. Get some work experience under your belt, and by the time you apply to full time jobs hopefully you'll already have an offer from your part time gig.

try to land a gig somewhere else finance related if this is full-time (i.e., corp fin at a company) then try to lateral

Summa, can you be a bit less arrogant when people are trying to help you? And also the mocking comments about analysts, their personalities, and their work hours are annoying. If you are asking for help, then be nice, not a dick. Most people on this board can get a 3.98 at UGA. I am from GA and I know how "challenging" those classes at UGA can be

Summa, you're not showing much respect for the way things are done in this biz, but perhaps that's because you don't know.

This is a resume-padding business. Beyond that, I personally had to angle towards bulge-bracket IBD for years... starting in 2003 for a start date in 2006. I worked four finance-related internships before landing my offer, starting at an Atlanta branch of Wachovia wealth management and ending with a summer at Goldman that got me an offer for my current firm. You'd better bet that each of these experiences was padded to the max, and that I didn't think I was too good to do the filing and make copies. If you're not willing to take years to get there, if you're not willing to pad your resume, how do you plan to compete against the people who do? Don't think your high GPA will save you; I had real difficulty getting where I am with a 3.97 from a far better school than UGA. Though I eventually ended up in the bulge bracket, I got turned down by the following (bear in mind, this is with a 3.97 GPA in a BBA program with a finance and investment banking depth, superb extracurriculars, great interview skills, work experience and glowing references):

Bear Stearns SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Wachovia Siemens corporate finance Several boutiques whose names I don't remember

Clearly, even with all your ducks in a row, getting an offer is by no means automatic. Think about it. There are at least 500 UGA applicants for every bulge bracket banking offer given to a UGA grad. Moreover, there are no concrete slots saved for UGA people -- they are only given to those who are good enough to displace your standard top-5%-HYPS-grad, which is what banking is full of.

I'm not saying you can't do it, but I am saying that you will need to pad out that resume, work some internships, perhaps delay graduation for another year (as I did), put in your time in the filing room, and most of all, learn how the business works. Unless you know powerful people, there is no back door into banking. We provincials have to follow the system or we get nothing.

Agree with the comments about ivys over UGA regardless of your GPA...a bank is going to prefer a 3.5 at an ivy over your 3.98 at UGA, sorry.

However, you have one huge advantage that I'm surprised no one has paid more attention to: you're Hispanic. This will help A LOT. I would try and get contact info at the BBs and send out your resume. The key is to shoot for a large public company, because that's where your minority status is going to be valued. A small company won't be held accountable for affirmative action hiring, so they don't care that you're Hispanic and aren't going to give you any extra consideration. If at all possible, can you delay your graduation until December 2007? That way you'd have a chance at interning somewhere this summer..possibly even a bulge bracket firm. There are a bunch of programs what place minorities into ibanks for internships...SEO is probably the biggest one. These programs are definitely willing to look past what school you go to. A 3.98 at UGA would probably be above average stats for SEO, in fact. So, if possible, I'd definitely apply.

I think Mis Ind's post is one of the best about this subject. It should probably be a sticky.

By the way, I once sent a friend to an Emory career fair. He was turned away at the door because he had no student ID. Also, you're probably not going to be able to take advantage of Emory undergrad b-school recruiting -- it's a very small school; everyone knows everyone. Those opportunities are valuable and they probably wouldn't look kindly upon students from another school trying to dip in and grab Wall Street jobs. You should probably try to work with UGA's recruitment center.

Agree with Mid Ind--you should also explore any networking opps; for example, do you know any friends or even loose connections that are currently at a BB?

Definitely do more EC's and work experience. Those are the items that differentiate you from other candidates. They also tell the recruiter something about you and your personality.

The quadruple major and the minor is impressive, but still doesn't substitute for some substantive work experience or extracurriculars.

Fuck ibanking. Seriosly 3.98 GPA and hispanic, take the LSAT and apply to law school. Law allows you to work anywhere you want, not just NYC. 1st year associates in NYC get 190k (160k is base salary) for working 70hrs a week. Or go to DC or something, make 160k (145k base) for working a 55/hr week.

Partners still make 7 figures. Fuck ibanking, do law. Law has a lot less "networking" and "resume padding" things. Intellegence and law school attended is what matters, with you 3.98 and hispanic, you are good. With a good LSAT, you might get a full ride to a good school.

first year lawyers work more than 70hrs/wk ...especially corporate. The only thing worse than being an associate is being a corporate law associate, or so i've heard.

100 hours a week in LAW? lol fuck hell no. that MIGHT happen a week or 2 before a deal or before a case goes to travel, that will might happen 2-3 weeks a year. at the biglaw firms in nyc, the average for 3-5 year associates work 70hrs a week in NYC, watchell the firm that bills the most work per assoicate by far is about 75/hrs a week (they make 300k first year). NYC biglaw = about 70 hours a week. 12 hour days plus 1 weekend day is the norm.

Fuck NYC though. Go to DC, work 55/hrs and make 160k or Dallas and make 160k there. Live like a king on 160k in dallas.

3.98 hispanic will easily get u to gtown. who knows, maybe YLS/HLS/SLS is in ur future.

for the hours though, ive heard that corp law has their 1st 2nd and 3rds yr assocs working 100 a week. thats just what ive heard.

100% false on the hours. there are only a few at the top firms that work that much. thats one way to try to become partner but def not the usual way

everybody going out is shooting for cravath or skadden. once ur there ur shooting 4 the top. so those are the hours.

billing a lot of hours does not make on partner.

again cravath and skadden's 3-5 year assoicates work on average 70/hrs a week. working 100hr weeks isnt even the best way to make partner, client interaction and brining in business is much more important, as is legal skill

100/hrs is not the norm, even for people gunning for partner

Yeah 3.98 GPA + hispanic...law school is a great idea. You'll just need to score something slightly above average to get into a top law school, since you'll get a GPA bump of around 0.3 thanks to being hispanic plus a LSAT bump (quiero ser latino..errr). Plus, law schools don't place a ton of stock in where you went to undergrad..it's much more about your numbers (GPA and LSAT). I have a friend from my high school who is hispanic..she went to a school I'd never heard of (Kenyon College) and had a slightly lower GPA than yours (low 3.9)..scored 160 on her LSAT and was admitted to Yale and Harvard law school (keep in mind, the average LSAT score at these places is about 170, although I've generally been told that you need to score 173+ to get into Harvard or Yale law school).

Associates in corporate law do not work 100 hours a week, although neither do banking analysts (on a normal week). Banking analysts regularly work 80-85 hours a week..a corporate law associate works less...maybe 70-80 hours a week.

kenyon isnt ivy league but its a hell of a lot better than UGA

School name does not matter in law school admissions. Law schools only want the smartest and hardest working students. A 3.5 from Harvard who scores a 165 will always be rejected over someone who has a 3.5 and 166 from bum fuck university.

I love how you guys just completely diverted the original poster from what he's asking to do into something completely unrelated that requires an additional three years of expensive schooling.

Ha, I think its because I am a minority. And the UGA bashing does have some truth to it, but if one takes 21 hrs (7 classes) consistently, in clasess which test diffrent skills (think: Feminist Theory, Abstract Alegebra, Intermediate Micro, Theory of comp), and does well in them, then the rigor of the student's curriculum increases regardles of the institution.

UGA is a decent state school, it's no Michigan or Texas, but it's not half bad. I don't know why so many people trash it. The Honors program is renowned for its Foundation Fellows program and for creating Rhodes/Truman/Fulbright Scholars.

This guy got into Lehman: http://www.uga.edu/amazing/andrews2.html

So it's not impossible but difficult. Look at the guy's EC's. Clearly standout.