<p>I know this may sound dumb, but I am interested in entering the field of investment banking, and am curious to what would be the BEST possible combonation of things to enter the field.
What would be the BEST university to attend?
-Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn Wharton, Georgetown SFS? Or Are they all equal in opportunity?
What would be the best possible combonation of majors/minors?
-What would be the best combonation of a major and minor at a school that offers undergrad business like Upenn?
-What would be the best major and minor at a liberal arts college such as HYPS, Dartmouth, and Columbia?
Do you HAVE to have a connection to successfully enter the field?
-I know this probably helps, but how many people have "connections" besides those of their professors? </p>
<p>Here are the stats without all the crap I went into on that thread...</p>
<p>-Native American male(URM) from Oklahoma at a top 300 school. I dont<br>
know how. School never sends kids to top schools...one to Duke this year but that was a miracle. </p>
<p>-2100 SAT, 32 ACT-WIlLL DEFINITELY COME UP. I am studying very hard for the SAT...very hard. From Practice Tests, I am scoring in the 33-34 range on the ACT(I know these tests are not very reliable though)</p>
<p>-3.7cum GPA(3.5frosh year), about 3.8 from then on. Rank is iffyrobably top 4-8% if not higher</p>
<p>-AP Scores: All 4's and 5's, but no AP Calc or AP Physics. Hardest was probably AP Chem </p>
<p>-Only 2 years of a foreign language(terrible counselor advice), and math through Pre-Calc(not an option) </p>
<p>-ECs: I have a few passions
1. Tennis-I am a nationally ranked tennis player at a top 10 junior club in the US. This takes up a ton of time, and I play on varsity as well-I have been the only player from our team to make it to state..ha we are terrible, but state is actually a big feat here
2. Stuco-Leadership-I am a student council officer at the school and I am one of the few kids to stay involved for so long. I LOVE doing this at school-It makes the day/months/years so much fun and I wish I could do it forever. Im not sure if colleges will realize it but this takes A LOT A LOT A LOT of time. Like hours and hours during the school year. I have been to 4 leadership camps BASIC/Advanced leadership, all of which are invite only and highly selective. I was also the district 7 represenative for our school(One person picked per school to represent school in entire state student council convention).
-I had a small art business but it was really nothing spectacular and I doubt I will even mention it as it really does not tie into anything else.</p>
<p>What would be the BEST university to attend?</p>
<p>In my opinion, anything in New York, Boston, or the surrounding areas. Internships in New York are Godlike.</p>
<p>What would be the best possible combination of majors/minors?
Truthfully you can major in anything and kick ass in finance as long as you know what's going. Aside from the obvious finance, accounting is up there along with economics. Minoring in computer technology would be very helpful as well.</p>
<p>What would be the best combination of a major and minor at a school that offers undergrad business like Upenn?</p>
<p>See above</p>
<p>What would be the best major and minor at a liberal arts college such as HYPS, Dartmouth, and Columbia?</p>
<p>Major in economics with minor in computer technology.</p>
<p>Do you HAVE to have a connection to successfully enter the field?</p>
<p>You'll make them when you intern...hopefully.</p>
<p>No, New York does have some advantages. For instance, internship opportunities during the school year that may not be available at other schools.</p>
<p>go to Harvard, failing that, YPSW will work fine.</p>
<p>btw, Investment banking is hardly considered a prestigious job out of a top school like HYPSW; so maybe you should set your sights a little higher, assuming you get in of course.</p>
<p>Just curious, but what jobs higher than IB(I'm not saying there aren't any, i'm just asking) do grads land right out of college that would be more prestegious?</p>
<p>No one takes banking jobs during the school year. Dartmouth might have the biggest advantage because of the quarter system. Dartmouth literally has a monopoly on school-year internships for this reason.</p>
<p>The only jobs more selective than IB are perhaps in venture capital.</p>
<p>stoneimmaculate: What would you consider more prestigious? </p>
<p>Slipper: I could imagine that some venture capital and hedge fund positions could be slightly more difficult to obtain. Were you only regarding business when you said venture capital positions, or were you referring to the entire career field?</p>
<p>This is of course going to differ by the person but I think that MC for M/B/B is a far more desirable position than IB. Nowhere near as many hours, incomparable benefits, travel (although it of course gets old), and the three firms I mentioned usually pay for B school which makes the overall compensation pretty even if not better than a BB IB position.</p>
<p>Again, these are entirely different fields but to me I can't see why anyone would choose IB at a BB firm over M/B/B. </p>
<p>Blackstone, KKR, other PE and hedge fund jobs are far more desirable positions than IB but unless you are a top student at HYPWS you may as well forget even having a shot.</p>
<p>This may sound silly but what exactly is M/B/B. I remember running across that phrase a few times in some of the other threads but the search tool didn't work for me and I was hoping someone could elaborate on them. Thanks.</p>