Freshman in Undergrad - Best Strategy for Junior Year Summer MBB Internship?

I'm a first-semester freshman at Harvard prospectively concentrating in CS and Economics (~3.9 GPA this semester). While I have a really technical background (software engineering internships/experience mostly), I really want diverse internships in college so I want a junior year MBB consulting internship. I'm planning on sticking with SWE internships at startups/hopefully FAANG? for my freshman and sophomore summers. At Harvard, I'm in the biggest/most selective consulting org so I should have some semi-real-world experience by the time I apply in junior year. What should I be doing now to prepare myself for success in my junior year internship search? I know how competitive MBB is, even from a target!

 

if all of this is true and your gpa remains high, you should have a very good shot at landing interviews. Maybe consider a product management intership at a selective firm as those are also valued by consulting firms

 
Most Helpful

Please don't optimize your entire college experience around getting into MBB. At Harvard with a good GPA, you'll get good work experience and MBBs will want to interview you. You can start working on case interviews after your sophomore year.

Do whatever's fun/interesting for you. Meet a ton of people, join some fun clubs, do an interesting internship, etc. Don't worry about doing the "things MBBs want to see in a resume," whatever that means. You'll not only have a better time in college, you'll also develop soft skills faster, and that'll be a huge differentiator come interview time.

 

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