18-month Lead Time for Wall Street Summer Internships?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

I was talking about the internship itself, not the interview.

But no, the interviews are not “very technical” either. They’ll seek out whether you have some relevant knowledge, but it’s more in a “have you prepped for this interview” way than a “do you actually understand finance” way.

A 4.0 history major at Yale who never took finance would be a strong candidate at most of the banks. The interviews are not technical unless that is all you have to talk about.

[Anonymous]

The Bucknell pipeline must be backed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:many were interested in SAT score also

Not true.

Irrelevant.

GPA? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good grief.

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The process has truly gotten ridiculous - they are fighting each other for kids. A lot of kids go into their first banking job already knowing what their second PE job will be two years later. It creates a major conflict of interest.

Schools want to regulate it but they don't want to fall behind so they can't.

All so you can go work 100 hours a week and be treated like garbage.

This. I know many who abuse drugs to handle the 100 hour load. Why do this to yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

No one will believe this but the who you know only matters if you are a top candidate. The old - dad knows somone and the dumb kid gets in is not true anymore. The story above makes sense. If the kid had a 3.7 then the MD might have been able to help. Things all changed after the pricelings cases about a decade or so ago where the banks gave jobs to children of Communist party members in exchange for work. All of the big banks redid their hiring process globally including internships to take out the who you know or what you can bring.

I can’t speak for IB but for Consulting, knowing influential MDs can get you interviews and tip the scale your way if it’s close. The candidate still has to clear the bare minimum thresholds like target school/major, GPA, and extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

My first interview for my summer 2026 recruiting cycle was on December 13, 2024. I had been speaking to alumni since mid-June

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

No one will believe this but the who you know only matters if you are a top candidate. The old - dad knows somone and the dumb kid gets in is not true anymore. The story above makes sense. If the kid had a 3.7 then the MD might have been able to help. Things all changed after the pricelings cases about a decade or so ago where the banks gave jobs to children of Communist party members in exchange for work. All of the big banks redid their hiring process globally including internships to take out the who you know or what you can bring.

That's not true. They still have plenty of rich/bold face name kids who exhibit varying degrees of competency, at least at the big-name investment banks like Goldman Sachs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

How many college sophomores and juniors have such knowledge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

How many college sophomores and juniors have such knowledge?

Many do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most firms recruit on campus so if your kid attends a school where they do, your kid will be able to navigate this.

You don’t need finance classes for a Wall Street internship. They don’t let you anywhere near anything that remotely requires finance knowledge.

That’s not quite accurate. While some entry level finance roles might not ask in depth financial questions, most Wall Street internship interviews, especially for IB, are very technical. DC went through IB interviews in the fall and had to prep for months. They asked detailed financial questions, tested understanding of valuation, accounting, and market trends, and gave case studies to assess how you think. In the end, i bet a decent amount of these internships are secured as a result of who daddy knows.

How many college sophomores and juniors have such knowledge?

Schools increasingly have clubs that help prepare students for these interviews. Based on my limited experience with them they seem kind of like ponzi scheme cults, but I could be wrong. Because you are correct that at most schools, particularly Ivies that don't have pre-business programs (other than Wharton), no one will have taken many of these classes by the time they start interviewing - they might get to a few junior/senior year.

Again, as others have stated, as one who used to work on Wall Street, I preferred to hire smart kids who might not know a lot but would be hard workers and good culture fits over the over-prepared striver types. But I knew others who loved these types.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Bucknell pipeline must be backed up.

the same angry anti-bucknell weirdo perpetuates the negativity with posts like this - incredible. Bucknell is a great school and option for many, wonder where you went hotshot - based on the smugness probably much failure in ur past

[Anonymous]

The nepotism absolutely shocked me this cycle. My kid going MBB route, where she says “who you know” may help get interview (which is a big thing of course), but then it seems to be on merit. The nepotism with banking/IB is ridiculous - she sent me three examples of kid posting self-congratulatory linkedin announcements, with daddy chiming in on the comments with “big congrats!” 2 of the top bulge bracket banks were the culprits. How this is allowed by HR at publicly traded companies is beyond me - kids have the same last names, and dad is calling attention to it on social media!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister is MD at a big bank. They start recruiting fall of sophomore year and you must have at least a 3.5 GPA at that point. She tried to get a relative’s daughter in, but HR said no bc she only had a 3.2.

No one will believe this but the who you know only matters if you are a top candidate. The old - dad knows somone and the dumb kid gets in is not true anymore. The story above makes sense. If the kid had a 3.7 then the MD might have been able to help. Things all changed after the pricelings cases about a decade or so ago where the banks gave jobs to children of Communist party members in exchange for work. All of the big banks redid their hiring process globally including internships to take out the who you know or what you can bring.

Why do we always have people who have no clue how the real world operates, and yet they always chime in and spew out things they know nothing about? I was instructed by my immediate supervisor to select two different candidates who are also D1 athletes, one from Pitt, one from Florida State University, jumping over ten other much more qualified candidates from Ivies, Dukes, and UVA for internship positions at a very well-known IB company. It is because two different managing directors are big supporters at Pitt and FSU. I was told that my annual bonus and job security depend on this. The Pitt and FSU athletes have a 2.8 and 2.9 GPAs, respectively. You're living in a fantasy world if you think otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:many were interested in SAT score also

Not true.

Irrelevant.

GPA? Yes.

Maybe you're speaking from your own experience but DC interviewed with many top IB firms and most asked for SAT score. DC attends an IVY/Target school.