Question by Wrestler135: What is the best way to become an investment banker?
I am currently a freshman in high school. I recieved a 4.0 GPA during my first semester of high school. I wrestled for the JV team, and even though this year was my first year, I expect to become the captain my senior year. I am also going to play baseball for the school team. Last year, I took part in a 10-week stock competition using fake money and I was 4th out of 110 individuals/teams. During that competition I became VERY interested in stocks and business. I want to know what I should do to become a investment banker (that includes what activites, work, volunteering I should do, what are the best colleges to go to, and if I should go to an MBA school). Thank you for taking the team to read and answer this question.
Best answer:
Answer by xo379
You should get into the best undergrad business program as possible. This includes schools like Wharton (UPenn), McIntire (UVA), Mendoza (U Notre Dame), Cornell, Goizueta (Emory), Ross (U Michigan Ann Arbor), Stern (NYU), Haas (UC Berkeley), Kenan-Flagler (UNC Chapel Hill).
The most important thing in getting a job is getting an internship the summer after your junior year at an i-bank–preferably one of the really prestigious ones–JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs…if you do well, they will most likely (hopefully) hire you right out of college.
If you don’t get into one of those programs, it will be very, very hard (maybe almost impossible) to get a job at one of the big places.
They will usually send you to business school after you have worked there for 2-3 years.
Give your answer to this question below!
Aim for a businessfinance undergrad degree with perhaps a major in math, then a masters in applied finance. Concentrate on math and English at high school. Off hand I can’t think of any extra curricular that would be of value. Maybe working for a financial adviser or something like that.
The school I recommend is MIT’s Sloan business school. But most schools recommend you do your masters at a different school. I don’t know why but I seem to get thumbs down when I mention Sloan. It has an awesome rep with my mathematics of finance professors (out of curiosity I asked the best school – they all like MIT) – possibly because of MIT’s mathematics reputation. Because of that checked and it still has a number one or two rating – so go figure.
Thanks
Bill