Not to pile on (but, okay. I’m piling on.) But one of my besties is an analyst and has managed to make it through middle-age mainly by keeping his head down and not making waves. Wealthiest person I know, but at such a sacrifice! Unmarried. Will probably never have children. Not even 50, but already on blood pressure medication. Can’t bring himself to retire early.
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Interesting use of the word “fun”.
OP: To bolster your future transfer applications, earn a high GPA during your first semester/quarter/year of college and write an essay giving specific reasons that you want/need to transfer to that particular university.
I missed this connection with the earlier thread. OOps.
I was a math major. Thus when I think “investment banking” I think of the more quantitative aspects of this. At least the quantitative parts require quite a bit of math. This is not something that you can fake. This is not an area where you can jump ahead. You have to take the time to learn this one step at a time. This led me in my previous post to think about the quantitative / mathematical parts of this.
My experience with quantitative economics is limited, but at least I have some. This is another area where you need to take the time and put in the effort to learn it. At least when I took quantitative economics a strong and intuitive understanding of linear algebra was just straight out required.
There is an important point here: You should not be focusing in “investment banking”. You should be focusing on your skills and your learning. You need to be an excellent student first. Then later you can see where this takes you.
And in terms of “investment banking”, be careful what you wish for.
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Did not apply ASU.
For LAC admits I got rejected from Williams, Amherst, CMC and waitlisted at Middlebury.
- I think the main reason I aim for investment banking is when I reflect on my 18 years of life thus far, the things I regret the most aren’t not spending enough time with my friends, family, etc but rather not winning enough awards, not having a higher GPA, sat score, etc. This leads me to believe that I am quite competitive internally, even if I didn’t realize I was before. So I guess what I want isn’t investment banking necessarily, but to be the best and beat all my peers around me in terms of academics, which is where banking, consulting, tech, etc would come in but I’m not interested in consulting/tech fundementally so that is where I land on banking.
- Also another reason is that my direct family is decently wealthy (nice house, all the amenities, etc), but many of my family members and family friends back in my home country are extremely wealthy (10+m dollar high rises, private drivers, first class, PJs, etc). I think over time this has led me to have a chip on my shoulder and made me extremely materialistic and superficial which also led me to want to pursue a career in IB.
- The final reason I think I want a career in IB is because to be quite frank, I am quite a loser in real life for a lack of better words. I have friends, but am picked on quite often, had little to no romantic life, below average looks, etc. This led me to have literally zero hobbies in my teenage years besides academics and even that took a hit due to my mental health. As a result, I have so much time, and nothing to spend it on. I have friends, but we don’t meet every single day for every single hour of the day, so oftentimes (especially as senior year is coming to an end) I find myself having literally nothing to do besides read a book (genuienly) or play some strategy related video games inside my room. As a result, I have come to the conclusion that at least I could spend my time making money which will maybe bring more enjoyment to my life as right now I’m not really satisfied.
I think the reasons for wanting to work in PE are the same. Those are the three main reasons, but in terms of order I think #3, #2, and then #1 would be the correct order.
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Deleted.
I see. Are health issues typically common in IB? Would you say this person was happier after all the money than prior?
OP, your post is heartbreaking.
You have your reasons for your focus on making money and I won’t bother to point out all the other ways a person can make a lot of money at a young age. (I don’t know how much money people make in my city- obviously- but I can tell you that the most generous young people (recent $10 million dollar gift to the local hospital for a cancer center; $15 million dollar gift to an art museum, that sort of thing and we’re talking 35 year olds) are either personal injury lawyers (medical malpractice– very lucrative and they don’t work nearly as hard as anyone in banking) or real estate developers (ditto on the hard work– they seem to play a lot of golf and go to a lot of black tie benefit dinners). But you do you.
However, the lack of interests outside of school is concerning- and not just from a mental health perspective. The top tier institutions often rely on the “airport test” when they interview- i.e. if an MD is stuck at an airport for five hours due to weather, mechanical issues, etc. is this person going to bore them to tears, or be interesting enough (hobbies, interests, reads cool books) to make the time go by. You CAN be that person– even if you aren’t right now. And getting past the first resume screen requires some evidence of leadership (which isn’t just being president of some club or other). These institutions are looking for sophisticated “soft” skills- ability to persuade, be charming, quiet influencing skills when tact is required, or more overt aggressive leadership when that’s what’s required. And these skills are hard to demonstrate based on classroom experiences. Volunteering in the community, organizing a campus-wide “reduce, reuse, recycle” initiative, joining a political campaign and adding value due to your statistical modeling skills– these are the things which distinguish a college student from the person sitting next to them, gunning for the exact same job.
Best of luck to you.
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Agreeing with @blossom. My friend had the type of childhood that from any layman’s POV would have qualified as psychologically abusive, IMO, and the road to financial security was a white knuckled experience for him. He could never take his eye off the road ahead. But for the kind of money he’s making, I think he could have taken a lot of different directions. The guys who make the really big money, the ones who get tapped for partnerships, are the ones who, like @blossom said, who know how to carry on a conversation, who always seem to have something interesting going on in the background. I hate to say this - but they tend to have well-rounded interests. YMMV.
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Hmmm - there are many competitive fields that employ many brilliant people.
And you are not a loser. You have a great record and got into schools many can only dream of.
I hope you find a subject of interest vs this plan for the craziest of reasons.
Believe in yourself !!!
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second this
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I would say go to the school that you vibe with the culture more and gives more aid (if that matters to you). I would personally choose UF, seems like a fun school with good weather and a beautiful campus. IU Kelley is known to be super grindy and I personally don’t like the location as much. As for transferring, yes you should absolutely try to transfer to a better school if your goal is IB. As you know already, IB is super competitive and you need every single little advantage. But to be completely honest: if you are truly exceptional, you can break in from anywhere. Example: there’s this one UF guy who broke into Evercore as an INTERNATONAL student. Transferring only raises the floor, the ceiling doesn’t change.
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Not really a loser anymore lol. Much more social now and go golfing regularly, etc. But back then I was so that’s why I wanted to do IB and that transferred over to the present.
Looking on the UF website for the one 3+1 MSF program thing it seems that UF sends 2-3 kids to evercore per year. UF doesn’t seem that bad for IB and I might just stay if I get into some finance clubs, as I would graduate debt free there.
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So if one doesn’t do IB, they’re a loser?
I don’t think IB has anything to do with whether one is a loser or not.
I hope you find a path enjoyable for you, IB or otherwise and you don’t use ‘loser’ status as the determinant for any career you ultimately end up in.
And I hope you like the school you choose. If I recall originally, you wanted an LAC. Are there any possibilities there (and I’m not talking about Swat - I remember many others were listed by posters that would get you to your budget).
Yes, go, kick butt and take advantage wherever you are.
Good luck.
that sounds great! Good luck!