Majors: Depends where you're going. Obviously somebody at Harvard would have more "options" in terms of major than somebody from Wisconsin. That being said something finance/math related is always good. No it doesn't matter what, finance/econ/math/engineering. Something that shows you can work hard and are good with numbers.
Clubs: Do something that you enjoy and try to be a leader. Remember in HS when you were told it's better to be a leader in 2 things than a member in 4 or 5? Same thing applies. Do what you want because, to be honest, your club membership isn't going to make/break you. Sure it helps to do something finance related but no bank is gonna want a kid who is 100% finance. I mean, you're going to be working alongside these people for 80-120 hours a week...you want them to be people you can hang with.
Internships: Get them, anything finance related is good. Anything in business is good. No don't expect to get an IB gig after fresh/soph year. Try to snag one in between jr/sr year cuz you'll have a huge leg up for fulltime hiring.
Life in general: If you're talking college just enjoy it. You have 4 years before you start in the real world, if you enjoy college it'll show. If you're miserable it's going to reflect itself in your performance both in and out of class.
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I have been reading numerous articles on how major financial firms are laying off several workers and are cutting back on recruiting...i recently met a U Chicago MBA alum and he told me things will be fine by 2012-2013...is this true? how long do you think this "recession" is going to last?
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Things are going to get better. This has happened before (00/01) and it will happen again. If you want my honest opinion on the future of IB I'd say it's going to regress a little. It will still be a prestigious profession, still work on huge deals, still get paid good money....but I don't think we're going to see salaries as high as they were this past year. I know I've been assaulted on this board because of this view but think of all those computer "consultants" and vc guys making 200/300k in the late nineties. They were overpaid becasue it was the .com era...well I feel like post 2000 was the IB era. Why do you think everybody wants it? Don't get me wrong, I expect IB are still going to be among the best paid people in the world, just not as crazy/high as they have been in the past couple of years.
FWIW I did a SA stint and know many people in IB. I don't know if that counts as being "in the industry" but I doubt there's a fulltime analyst/associate who's on this board and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what things are like, whether it's my personal experiences or what I've heard from numerous analysts/associates I've worked with.
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