How to make myself competitive enough to get into IBD M&A or should I just give up hope?

I am a student at a non-target school who initially was pre-med. After struggling in these courses and not enjoying them either I made the switch to Finance. I am technically a senior this year, however I will be taking an extra year to graduate for the switch. Having taken so many pre-med courses and having received C's in the majority of them my GPA is currently a 3.16. My goal is to get it to around a 3.5 by the time I graduate.

So far I have done extremely well in my business courses with the exception of one. I had a bad semester in which I faced some problems in my personal life which impacted my ability to perform and affected my attendance. This, along with misunderstanding of the professor's grading policy, resulted in me receiving a D in a beginner marketing course despite the fact that by the third exam, I had the second highest combined exam score in the class. I intend to retake this course for a GPA recalculation and am certain I can get an A in the course this time though the D will still be on my transcripts.

In addition, I am the vice president of a student organization and will be the president of it next semester. I used to voluntarily work in the writing center at my school. I was the youth coordinator of a cultural organization and am now the program coordinator of that organization. Also, I am the youngest person to have ever taken on the role of program coordinator in the association and while there are supposed to be 3 program coordinators total, 2 resigned saying they did not have the time commitment leaving me as the youngest program coordinator ever and sole program coordinator to plan events for 300 people.

Furthermore, I am currently interning for a UBS wealth managment group and even though these internships typically involve cold-calling, luckily, I have not had to do any thus far. Before I graduate, I intend to find another internship, as my UBS internship is only a 6 month position. I also am considering joining the Young Financier, a student run school newspaper that informs students of business news. I would also like to read books such as common sense on mutual funds by John Bogle and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham before graduating.

Is it possible for me to get a position in IBD? Are there any suggestions of how I can better position myself to start a career in IBD?

 

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