Need advice - Senior in High School


Hey everyone!

I'm a senior in high school, and I'm pursuing a career in finance and business. I want to work in Investment Banking, private equity, wealth management, or perhaps work as a broker.

I've currently been accepted in Fordham University, Babson, Northeastern University, Baruch College, and Binghamton University. I'm also waitlisted from Cornell. I plan to transfer to NYU Stern, Wharton or Cornell after my first year should I be rejected from Cornell.

My main choices right now are between Fordham, Northeastern, Baruch, and Babson (unless Binghamton is good), so I was wondering which school would be the best choice, in terms of name recognition, placements, and job opportunities! Northeastern & Babson would leave me with a substantial amount of debt, but Fordham should be affordable since I live in NYC and don't have to dorm.  I also plan to transfer to an Ivy no matter what college I go to, so I've been planning to go to a cheaper school (Fordham or Baruch) and work as hard as I can to get after my first/second year.  Decision day is in 4 days so I really wanted to post this.  

I also wanted to ask what I should be doing right now, as a senior in high school. I've begun trying to network extensively, reaching out to people and having talks with family connections, some professionals, and people in these schools studying finance, as well as trying to develop my interview and coffee chat skills, reading up on finance, and hunting for internships. Are there any books I should read to understand finance, and are there things I should plan to do as a freshman in college to optimize my chances at landing a job at a big firm?  I really want to work in investment banking, real estate, or private equity after graduating.  

I'm currently reading Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People, and Hill's Think and Grow Rich.  I plan to read Investment Banking by Rosenbaum and Pearl, and Security Analysis by Klarman and others these upcoming months.  I've had a few calls with some successful people I know and an owner of a relatively large wealth management company.

 

Forgot to add - I have a 35 ACT, a few internships (nothing major though), a first place in a DECA regionals (our DECA club was just started so I didn't really move forward), and am planning on getting an internship this summer.  

 
Most Helpful

imo the universities that you’ve been accepted too are not targets to IB but imo if you are interested in finance overall there is a lot of careers for u to consider like asset management, corporate/commercial banking, equity research, structured finance etc.. yes compensation and exit opps will be lower but at the end of the day they are pretty decent career paths. Now if you get accepted to cornell thats great obviously thats the #1 choice but even if u didnt dont stress dude enjoy college because u wont enjoy it if you are always stressing about transferring and imo its just to much pressure. its possible to break into IB with these colleges that you’ve been accepted with u need to network like crazy, do alot of internships anything finance related would be great and join a finance club and try to achieve a leadership postion and dont forget gpa matters so focus and do well in school and work towards a good resume and remember this is really important lets say u have a 3.7 gpa did two relative internships and good extracurriculars maybe u would have a tough time joining the IB division but u have a decent chance in the careers I stated above which u can later transfer from asset management for example to IB if thats your goal

 

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