High School Senior entering Pace University (Lubin) - Need advice to tailor myself for Wall St. while attending a non-target

FYI, this is undergrad. I regret not thinking ahead and "tailoring myself" for Wall St. in high school, so that's the main reason why I'm reaching out with this post.

I realize that Pace University's Lubin school is a non-target by far, however, it is my best undergrad opportunity logistically and financially for me (paying less than half tuition).

I am thinking about aiming towards working on the buyside while attempting to avoid the back office (which seems to be common for Pace alum aiming for bulge bracket banks). To balance out for not attending a target, I'm considering double majoring in Finance and Economics or Finance and Management with maintaining no less than a 3.8 GPA (or less I've pretty much fucked myself and this post renders useless). I am planning on founding a club in my freshman year, participating in 2 or 3 clubs that are tailored for my career choice (https://www.pace.edu/mypace/pace-opoly-businesspr…), and to network the fuck out of downtown Manhattan and Pace itself.

Aside from that, I co-founded a 501(c)(3) NPO shaped around the opioid epidemic and just in the past few months have been gaining media attention on LI and occasionally in NY overall. I've been working with elected officials to revise a law regarding the opioids and do have great connections to at least get my bill sponsored.

This is a much smaller thing, but I've also founded a Business Club at my high school, got it in the biggest LI paper, and started a fashion e-commerce that generated $7,500 throughout the school year.

I work at a private country club on the North Shore on Long Island and maybe, by luck, I can get an unpaid internship from one of the members if I indirectly mention my passion. I am going to attempt to caddy this year given that I'll be closer to the members for conversing instead of my typical catering.

I'm trying to use my already established hard and soft skills in entrepreneurship, politics, and humanitarian pursuits as a way to boost my application and by double majoring in one of the aforementioned with electives, clubs, and potential internships to balance it all out. Unfortunately, my non-academic accomplishments came after I applied and got accepted into schools, so that definitely disadvantaged me. Also, my SAT and ACT was only a bit above average for Pace (I'm retaking them both over the summer and freshman year) and HS GPA was poor due to social anxiety (which I've finally got under control). My HS GPA was a 3.2, so it explains why I got into Pace and why I didn't bother applying to any big schools.

Transferring out of Pace after my freshman year is not out of the question at all. I've considered Cornell's Dyson (15% transfer acceptance rate into the B-school), Columbia, and even Fordham. Stern has a 2% transfer acceptance rate from a few years ago so it's almost laughable to even attempt that. I'll also try applying to the Big 10 schools but again, the transfer acceptance rate is just ridiculously low and it's more like a shot in the dark rather than something truly practical to achieve. I'm still going to take prereq's that align with the big b-schools for transferring so that way I'm at least playing it right.

Any advice you can give me to help smoothen things out would be very much appreciated.

2 Comments

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $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
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Mimbs's picture
Mimbs
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...”