This is, by my count, the third thread you’ve started on more or less the same topic. Let’s get one thing clear. Having UW Madison on your resume doesn’t hurt your chances anywhere. Not in investment banking. Not in law. Not in academia or any of the fields you’ve expressed interest in. Anywhere. At all. No matter what you want to do, you will be able to get internships, pre-career advising, professional connections, and alumni support in doing it. Do exactly the same investment banking firms show up to recruit students at Wisconsin, Michigan, Williams, and Harvard? I have no idea. Maybe some, maybe not. Maybe at Madison, you’ll have more access to financial firms in Chicago versus New York. Maybe not. There are a lot of students from the Northeast who attend UW-Madison, and they can’t all end up in Chicago.
What I do know is that you’re in an excellent school, one of the top universities in the country, and all that matters now is what you do with your opportunities. Yes, you will meet people who have trouble finding jobs. You won’t know why. Someone at Williams described the advantages he has over you? Did you not say he was toxic? Well, I guess so. The fact is that no school you attend will lay out a red carpet to guide you to the career of your dreams. No matter where you go, you have to take advantages of the resources available to you and make your own luck.
Every college at UW-Madison has a career services office. Find the right one for you and make an appointment: Career Services for Undergraduate Students – Career Services at UW-Madison – UW–Madison Start looking into opportunities. Spend less time here complaining that your university doesn’t measure up (yes, it does), and more time actually investigating and creating opportunities for yourself. Start now.
One thing I know for sure: if you keep it up with this attitude, you will waste what could be an incredible four years at a wonderful university in a fantastic city. There’s a reason (many of them!) why UW-Madison students are blissfully happy. It’s your job to find out why that is.