Thinking of becoming an ibanker. Stern @ NYU and Columbia Business School are both top-tier target schools with reasonable acceptance rates (vs. Ivies) from what I’m reading. What kind of ECs should I do? Just applied for Treasurer for NHS and then plan on running for Pres next year to gain leadership experience. Plan on running for Math Club president next year. I peer-tutored this year and plan on doing it the next two years in HS (am Soph ATM). What else is there? I see kids with dozens of awards and leadership achievements but have no idea how to get into most of them? My school doesn’t offer that much but I don’t want to not do anything. I want to find really good ECs for these/similar/better schools. My GPA is ~4.2-4.3 (weighted), I plan on taking around 8-9 APs in my HS career. I got a 1280 on the PSAT (literally didn’t study at all, I’m gonna actually study for the SAT next year and I’m aiming for a 1500+. Am I on the right track for these schools?
Isn’t Columbia’s business school for Master’s schooling only? I hate to rain on your parade but you may have to cross that one off your list for now.
School sponsored EC’s are great, but the EC’s that make you a killer candidate at top-25 schools are ones that you do on your own. You could do something to build up your investing prowess. I know a kid who took $500 of his own savings, then doubled it in the stock market, and doubled it again to the tune of a $1,500 profit. He was in 8th grade at the time- impressive, right? The thing is, he loves stocks. He eats, sleeps and dreams to the tune of the closing bell.
Find something that ignites you like that. You’ll know when you’ve found it because doing whatever it is won’t feel like work, even when you go way past the point of what your peers are doing.
I know that that’s a lot to think about, and you can’t sit down one day and decide that thing X is your passion. If I were you, I would do a lot of banking work on a volunteer basis. See if you can manage a couple hundred dollars of cash at a time for people, go to workshops, write opinion papers on the market and submit them to you local paper, or use the ideas of banking in more abstract form, use metaphor, draw parallels, and submit to international writing contests. Lead the charge for legislative reform to solve a banking-related-problem in your state. Volunteer your time towards organizing and establishing a program to educate low income kids on financial literacy-building up credit scores, avoiding predatory lending, etc etc.
There’s a whole world out there just waiting for you to make your mark on it. Kickass EC’s are your way to do so (and get into a great college at the end of it all)!