How to spend free time in college after recruiting?

Title says it all, I have been so busy these first two years with clubs and recruiting that now I am starting to ask myself what to do with all this free time. Any advice? I don't want to spend my last two years of college preparing PE recruiting but don't know what to do.

I don't like sports so that's not a good advice ahaha

Any ideas of productive and enjoyable things you monkeys did while in college?

 

I worked part time at a startup and used my internship money to trade options and invest in real estate - was interesting to see growth and different asset classes. Took some industry certification tests, went to professional events in the city - helped provide perspective and expand network. Found a few mentors to pitch ideas to and get feedback from - helped with pitches when recruiting for buyside.

 
Most Helpful

Here are a few ideas:

1. Take a non finance related class that you think sounds interesting. Don’t take anything to boost your resume. Think art history, Arabic 1, intro to marketing, Chinese literature, botany or whatever.

2. Read a book for fun

3. Go make 3 new friends. (Preferably ones who have no idea what banking is). It is so hard to make good friends once you leave school. Never again will you be surrounded by so many people who are the same age on a very similar path. When you start working, you’re going to want to have a couple of friends outside of the industry to keep you sane and not feel the need to talk about whatever deal you’re on. Meet these people at frat parties, in a random class you take, volunteering, etc.

4. Give back. I don’t necessarily mean mentoring a freshman or doing mock interviews although you could. You’re in a super fortunate position and you have lots of time on your hands. It doesn’t have to be a lot, even just 20 hours over the course of the school year working on whatever you find interesting (habitat for humanity, volunteering in a local school, dog walking, knitting hats for kids with cancer, handing out donuts after church, if you need ideas ask your community service club/office)

4. Go on a trip for a week/end. Go surf in Mexico for a week, visit nyc for a weekend, go skiing, spend the weekend in Vegas. Go do something fun. Once you start working you can’t just go on vacation.

5. Most importantly, have fun and don’t stress too much. Keep your gpa around a 3.7. Don’t stress your grades too much. A 3.81 and 3.83 will look the same to HBS and MF pe. Say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Your friends are going to a party, I hope you are too. A cute girl (or guy) asks you to get coffee, say yes. If you don’t like them, just don’t get coffee again. 

 

I'd recommend finding a hobby that you can do outside. I'm super into fly-fishing, but you can get into any variety of things (surfing, hiking, biking, running as a hobby, even golf). For me, getting outside and having a hobby were I'm not using screens and can put my phone away is awesome. Also depending on what you choose it's something you can get super passionate about and spend a lot of time on trying to get good.

I'm biased bc it's my favorite thing to do but with fly-fishing I can occupy myself for hours looking at tactics, places to go, etc. (you can do this with just about any hobby too) which distracts me but also motivates me and gives me something to look forward to on the weekends. 

 

Get a 4.0 so you have a good uGPA when applying to B school. If you can pull a 4.0 and party - do it.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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