<p>Most starting salaries for bankers are around 70k. You may get a signing bonus but the amounts have decreased due to pressure from possible financial regulation. While yes it’s possible to earn 350k within your first 3 years or even more, it is not as likely as you would think. Don’t get too caught up in the wall street banker image. Unless you end up working at a bulge bracket or middle market firm the prospects are not very likely.</p>
<p>If you look at most rankings of highest paying jobs, doctors virtually always come out at the top. Bankers would be competitive, but I do not believe the rankings take into account bonuses. Especially with the large amount of layoffs in the financial industry the competition for jobs is greater than ever. All the real money comes from actuaries in the firms. They get paid huge salaries along with their bonuses, but it is heavily reliant upon math.</p>
<p>In business image is everything, for the most part. You should aim for top tier 3 schools such as HYPMS, Penn, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, Duke, Michigan, Chicago. The math will typically not go beyond calc 1 and statistics. I would take the business electives in your high school, regardless of how easy they are, the admissions offices will not know. It should help boost your applications.</p>
<p>Finally you mentioned about working long hours in hospitals. Most people criticize bankers for the amount of money they make but very few realize that they work longer hours than most. A joke that is often heard is that instead of working 9 to 5 they work 5 to 9. Which is not an exaggeration. Work hours will typically range from 80 to 100 hours a week, trust me it’s not as easy as you think.</p>