If you’ve been following our 9th Grade Summer Plans series on the blog, you probably realize that this is our third post on a seemingly related course of study after Business and Economics. Do we really need another, you might ask? Well, yes, actually, unless you want to be responsible for the next Big Short. Some of you were born during the mortgage crisis of 2005 (congrats), and we don’t want to test our luck here.
Finance is a field of study within economics that focuses on the creation and exchange of money — banking systems, lending, investing, and more. So if you dream of buying tailored suits for your job on Wall Street, this guide is for you.
Read
As always, we recommend that you get the lay of the land by learning from reference texts before swinging for the fences. So, if you’ve been crowdfunding from your neighbors to buy into a mutual fund you heard about on Reddit, we caution you to return their money and keep your piggy bank sealed until you get through a few books on your bedside table.
There’s a broad range of literature you can check out to learn about financial markets from a few different angles. Of course, there’s the purely educational format, and you’ll find lists of resources everywhere. We like this one from Investopedia, for example, which includes introductory books for high schoolers including How to Money and Rich Dad Poor Dad.
Once you have a grasp of the fundamentals, you can dive into current events and financial analysis — we suggest listening to The Daily podcast from the New York Times, subscribing to Wall Street Journal, and seeking out columns about local governance and public funding in your area. Finally, you can bet your bottom dollar that the big egos in finance love to hear themselves talk, and there’s plenty of memoirs and guidebooks from those who have already struck gold or biographies on key players. Wanna know why Jordan Belfort shows up in so many Top 40 songs? Read The Wolf of Wall Street. Curious about that name you hear everywhere? Crack open Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
Enroll in Classes
Okay, now that you’ve ransacked the Library of Alexandria, we can move on to Step 2: round out your transcript. You’ll cover some financial topics in your econ class, but the truth is that your academic options in high school will be limited. Taking extra classes — whether at your local community college for college credit or at a pre-college program geared toward future applicants like yourself — will broaden your knowledge, strengthen the story you want your college application to tell, and help you acquire targeted knowledge on a specialty. At this stage, you might find that you prefer venture capital ESG initiatives, or sustainability finance, over public accounting.
You’ve heard us say this before, but what the heck! We’ll tell you again. If, for financial or logistical reasons, in-person classes aren’t best for you, there are plenty of free college-level classes available online — some even offer credit. Look into Coursera, Yale Open Courses, Harvard Online Classes, and other virtual platforms. Here, for example, is a free Coursera class developed by Penn’s infamous business school, Wharton.
Otherwise, residential summer programs look wonderful on your transcript while allowing you to get a teaser of life on-campus and make friends who share your passions. Generally speaking, most top-tier colleges offer summer programs, but here’s a tried-and-true list of our favorites.
Get Involved
Obviously, when Kim Kardashian said “it seems like nobody wants to work anymore,” she hadn’t just lost touch with civilian reality — she forgot about the feral population of ambitious high schoolers applying to college. Kim K is, sadly, wrong about so many things, and we’re not here to tell you to “get your f*cking a** up and work,” but we are saying you should get some direct experience. Start looking for internships or summer jobs.
We’ll level with you here — competitive finance internships go to undergraduates and MBA students as a rule. Most legitimate institutions, from hedge funds and boutique banks to the bigguns like JP Morgan Chase. Basically, think smaller. The best experience you can get is working at a local business where you’re directly involved rather than getting coffee for a CFO before his 9am meeting that you can’t sit in on.
Not sure where to start? Here’s a few ways to go about it. If you can get a job at an family-owned business, you’ll have access to their profit-loss sheets and internal strategy meetings. If you have a family friend who’s a CPA, you can shadow him or ask him about his typical workday and clientele. If you’re able to do research, even better. Reach out to scholars in local academic networks; they might allow you to assist in drafting a paper or putting together syllabi.
Apply It
In this last step, we ask you to get a little jiggy with it. Be creative and design an independent project of some kind — it shows initiative and gives you anecdotal evidence and personal stories to use in your college essays.
Maybe you invest a minor amount of money across different investment apps and write a report about their efficacy and user accessibility for the average consumer. This might be too personal, so swim at your own risk, but you could even ask to audit your parents — go over their total income, annual spending, and taxes. Or not! You can do whatever, but implementing what you’ve learned — even on a minor scale — will impress college counselors when comparing your app against another from someone who wants to go into private equity but based their education on Billions and Succession. Know what we mean?
Have fun with this. There’s so much to try, and you’ve got 3 years to find your stride. And, if anyone asks, we want 5% of your ROI for our counsel, k?
If you need help capitalizing on your interest in finance, reach out to us today.