Got into college...what now?

Applying to College
1

<p>In high school, I worked really hard for good grades, SAT scores, and extracurricular activities so that I could make my college application as competitive as possible. Now that I've been accepted to my dream school, I'm curious whether the competition is "really over" or "just starting." I guess rather than worry about which college I'll get into, I should now start worrying about which jobs/graduate schools I can get into. So what are the stuffs in college akin to the grades, SAT, and extracurriculars in high school that can help me land a good job/graduate school?</p>

<p>Getting good grades in college is a no brainer, but what about other stuff such as research, summer internships, and recommendation letters from professors? How important of a role do they play in my future goals? A lot of my peers tell me to enjoy college and to balance my academic and social life; however, I would still like to start planning early so that I achieve my goals. I'll be majoring in Operations Research and Financial Engineering w/ a minor in Computer Science at Princeton and my tentative goals after graduation are to </p>

<p>A) get a job at Wall Street
B) get a job at Google/a well-known computer company
or
C) get into a good graduate school in case I decide to pursue a Masters/Phd</p>

<p>What can I do during my 4 years in college to improve my chances of achieving these goals?</p>

<p>Thank you CC! :)</p>

<p>P.S. I wasn't too sure where this thread belonged, so if I posted this in the wrong place I'm really sorry in advance >_<</p>

2

<p>The very first thing I would do if I were you, would be to save this thread entry on a hard drive so that you can look back at it and laugh in a few years.</p>

<p>Your goals are all admirable, but what about your high school career makes you think that you have a lifeplan already set? You might discover after taking an interesting class or participating in a cool research project (btw, research is a must if you're considering postgraduate education) that your whole world is turned upside down. You might discover a new area of the academic world that you have never been exposed to.</p>

<p>The competitive mindset never ends. Certainly not at high school graduation, not with your acceptance to your dream PhD program, not even with the letter you receive informing you that you are now tenured. If you want something a lot, the chances are great that other people will too.</p>

<p>If you're serious about graduate school - research, research, research. I don't know exactly how that works in financial engineering(?) but other social science, humanities and natural sciences love to see that in a grad school app.</p>