Hi everyone,
I’m female about to enter my senior year of college at a non-target school in the midwest. Unfortunately, last year after doing serious soul-searching, I realized that medicine is not for me. I applied to all the banks searching for internships in investment banking and I didn’t get a single one. Most didn’t even send me a rejection. I had no choice but to do a summer research internship at a med school this summer. I have delayed my graduation by one semester and I am attempting to apply again this cycle but unfortunately, the same thing might happen again. Since I was pre-med, I chose to be a psychology major (I’ve realized it was a huge mistake) and my GPA is a 3.9. I am looking for advice here because I am panicked and don’t know what to do. I have talked with my college advising and the best advice they gave me was to do full extra year and double-major in finance. I am not sure if this is the best choice since my school is a private college but non-target and the alumni network is not that good. I’ve also read that getting an MBA with virtually no industry experience is risky and I most likely wouldn’t be accepted. I’m thinking about a Masters in Finance at a top school like U of Chicago Booth’s MSF but I don’t know if the debt will be worth it? I would appreciate any and all advice! Thank you so much.
Tbh I can’t give you really solid advice but I would say your psychology major wasn’t the worst decision. You have a 3.9 gpa which is incredibly, so that gives you some wiggle room. Investment banking internships are usually really hard to get in general, you could try interning at another financial institution to get some experience in the business world I’m positive you should be able to get some kind of internship with that gpa and taking business classes if you can would be a great. But I’m not that knowledgable in this so I’ll leave others to give you better advice but I don’t think your screwed for sure
I have also read that some suggest sticking it out and doing med school and then after getting an MD, applying for an MBA… However, that would put me into a lot of debt. Just really stressed because it’s so late in the game for me and now I have no idea what I can do to turn my situation around…
I know lots of psychology majors who have gone into business, so don’t regret the psych major.
If you’re a senior in college, you’ve got the full year to do some career services work. If you now that you’re interested in business, start getting involved in the on-campus recruiting that your university does have - even “non-target” schools do have recruiting, just not with the very tippy-top firms. However, many people make career moves into those top firms after several years working at smaller places. Others make very successful careers never working at MBB/Big 4 type places. There’s also, of course, the option of getting 2-5 years of work experience at good companies and then getting a top-tier MBA.
The worst thing you can do is panic and go to graduate school because you’re not sure what to do next. Grad school is expensive! Work for a few years first to figure out what your real desire is.
Your career services’ office’s advice is baffling. If you have time this year, taking some extra courses in finance would be a good idea (or statistics or math) but you can find a business job without that.