<p>Hi,
I wanna intern in investment banking next summer as a sophomore. My top choice is JPMorgan. However, I don't know what courses to take for sophomore year to increase my chances.. They say they don't expect students to take this and that, but I doubt that they will accept interns who took only non-finance classes.. Any suggestions from previous interns? I applied last year as a freshman to JP and got rejected. Rather, they accepted a freshman from babson. I dont want that next summer. My info is as follows:</p>
<p>Upenn
Dual Degree, Engineering & Wharton
3.91 GPA
Took Calc 1 , Calc II, Introductory Micro and Macro Econ 1st year, others were engineering classes
I know three more european languages besides English, one of which is at intermediate level.
Am planning to take, accounting, corporate finance, intermediate econ and global finance next year, introductory management as well, can take more if you suggest</p>
<p>Previous Exp,
Intern as accounting assisstant in high school in a local company
Intern in LG , did a pretty good job</p>
<p>Hobbies,
Table tennis, soccer, swimming, texas hold 'em, playing the piano, etc etc</p>
<p>Plan to join business and finance club next year</p>
<p>You’re a Wharton sophomore. You have to take Wharton and Engineering courses or you won’t graduate. I’d say try to take honors finance 100 Stat 430, and Accounting 101 next fall. If you’re really ambitious also take finance 101 and try to take upper level finance courses second semester.</p>
<p>The freshman from Babson probably had connections or got into some diversity program. You’re not likely to get a regular summer internship as a sophomore not because you didn’t take the right classes or don’t have the skills, but because banks simply don’t like to hire sophomores. There’s no incentive for them. They’re looking for juniors that they can assess and give a full time offer to, not sophomores that will need to intern again next summer. As hard as it may be to believe, banks offer summer internships because it benefits them, not because it helps a sophomore build up his resume.</p>
<p>I’m sure with a 3.9 from M&T you will have no trouble getting an internship at a BB after your junior year, but for now I would look at boutiques or other less competitive finance internships.</p>
<p>There are a few sophomore programs. Most are externships though during spring break or the beginning of the summer. If you impress them there it could guarantee you a good junior year internship.</p>
<p>I didn’t even a chance to show myself; they didn’t even interview me LOL. Anyway, I researched and found out that JPM offers internships for a high percentage sophomores (not as much as juniors) and if they are successful, they guarantee a more extensive internship program in the junior year and then guarantee a job in the bank. As for my life career, I don’t and don’t wanna picture myself working in that bank, but seriously want to take advantage of their internship programs, and maybe work for 1-2 years at most to gain experience. I recently don’t have enough connections in the bank, my sis works there diligently as an ibanker and they are gonna transfer her to new york soon. Thanks for your comments and how do you think that I can build up connections, so I am more advantageous and at least get an interview next summer?</p>
<p>Also does it matter that much that I take honors finance classes cause I already have a very tight schedule</p>
<p>Honors finance has slightly greater signaling power. Also, it’s just better if you want to take upper level finance courses to have a stronger grounding in finance from your first course. The best professor, Roberts, isn’t teaching next semester. Mackinlay is really easy. My friend who took honors with Wachter two years ago said that she wasn’t the best, but the rigor of the course probably makes up for it. In Finance 101, if you take it in the Spring, take it with Siegel. I’ve heard basically everyone gets an A, he;s really awesome, and honors again is slightly better for signaling that you’re a strong finance candidate. I could tell you horror stories about non honors finance 101 if you want to know.</p>
<p>Dude pretty sure JPM comes on-campus for sessions 3++++ times a year @ Penn, starting in September. I’m going to a semi-target next semester and they come on-campus twice a year. Just show up, get business cards, show interest, and build a rapport; it’s not hard at all. Then when you submit your resume for a position, tell them about it. They will bat for you (i.e. take a harder look at your resume / campaign for you). I’m still amazed that you could be at Wharton with those grades and not even land an interview. That really defeats the purpose of being at Wharton…</p>
<p>^Everyone in Wharton goes to those information sessions. It’s a huge cluster**** to try and get 10 words in with some recruiters. They can’t go to bat for a few hundred people at those info sessions. Also, everyone in Wharton applies for those internships (not to mention the college and engineering majors who also want to go into investment banking). JP slots for underclassmen are very few and it’s really tough to get an interview even for Wharton students.</p>
How many of those students have 3.9+ and in Wharton AND Engineering?
How many of those students will keep in touch and actually network well? </p>
<p>Don’t forget that Wharton literally has millions of alums to network with in IB… definitely more in the majors that are rdy to bat than waiting in AAA if you know what I mean. And we’re talking about an interview… not an OFFER. He wasn’t even brought in for an interview. Wharton should at least guarantee you a first round and a superday. Seriously. JPM isn’t even very selective, they have HUGE SA classes across a lot of different divisions. OP are you sure you don’t have a felony or something on your record? </p>
<p>edit:
Morris - transferring as a junior. I’m sure you can figure out from where / where to from my previous posts :)</p>
<p>Having attended UMDCP, I know that the process isn’t bad at all. You wanna know how I landed interviews and offers? Get off my dick and get on your own with your ****ty ad hominems and failed attempts to appeal to hypocrisy.</p>
<p>Morris, even if you don’t understand I wouldn’t worry about it</p>
<p>This summer was choosing between
Ops with BB in Houston (take a wild guess, right?)
Summer analyst w boutique hedge fund (sub $10BB aum) in NYC
Equity research at a known buy shop in my home city </p>
<p>Had first rounds with two other BBs in IBD. Sorry to disappoint but no offers from GS riskarb or MS M&A as you can tell (which is why I have the luxury to be home at 8 est). My old school is a traditional big4/it consulting feeder school, which made it about 100x harder to network for anything else. But if I was going to Wharton I don’t think I could somehow backslide and land 0 interviews. Of course getting an offer is one thing, but not getting an interview I just can’t fathom.</p>
<p>He was a freshman. The freshman program at JP is really really really small. I didn’t know anyone at Wharton who got it. For banking after freshman and sophomore year I know one who landed a job with JP last summer before things went to hell. My year for sophomores I think I know one who landed an externship. The rest doing finance got positions from connections outside of Penn like family friends and stuff. For juniors there are a lot of opportunities and I know a good number working at BB IBD. However, for underclassmen before the financial crisis internships were very hard to get and now they are much harder.</p>
<p>^Point taken. I certainly didn’t do anything finance-related my freshman summer.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard though, my friends and acquaintances all made out like bandits-even as freshmen-but the 05 to 07 cycles may have skewed my view somewhat.</p>
<p>No I dont have a felony or anything, thank you for your comments, I’ll def go to the career center next year and learn when JPM and others are visiting. I’ll also mention that my sis works at the NY bureu maybe that will help lol.</p>