MBAsurfer wrote:
Question: Without being affiliated with a school or anything, where could I find a banking internship or something along those lines?
I'll just be blunt. I don't think you can. Lots of reasons, some specific to you, some not. First, clearly, without any background in the area, you'd face a pretty herculean task of actually getting an interview in the first place. Second most banks (I assume we are talking now about ibanks) have formal internship programs - very structured, very set, very organized in their recruiting. Getting in outside of that regular process (that is, recruiting through MBA channels) would be, in my opinion, very difficult. Some exceptions of course can be made, but this is usually for people with experience. This structured recruiting approach, combined with a lack of industry knowledge, prior experience, or appropriate coursework probably makes landing an internship without being in an MBA program nearly impossible. That said, better to have failed and tried than to have never tried at all. Your first step would be to contact your undergrad institution and enlist their assistance.
My advice is this:
1. Breathe
.... stop worrying about what schools are going to do to your app as a result. It wont even come up in your background check.
2. Don't contact schools and tell them you've been let go. You have nothing to gain by doing so now. Post admission, you can talk to them about "amending" your application to reflect the correct dates (if you really want to - though I still think you shouldn't bother)
And for 3:
You have two choices, and they are largely dependent on where your finances are and how confident you are you will land an admit.
3a. Go find another job in science.
3b. Don't go find another job in science. Rather, wait for your admit (which you say is coming) and immediately after you receive it, go to the school, photocopy everything you can fathom about the industry you want to join, subscribe to the wall street journal and financial times, start reading those things religiously and spend your summer preparing. Reach out to student groups in your intended areas and ask them for advice on preparing. Meet with them for coffee. Ask them if they can put you in touch with someone who did an internship in X. Then ask him if he can put you in touch with someone who did one in Y. Then ask Y for someone else. Repeat. Drink coffee every week with someone else in the industry. Network. Network. Network. Learn the jargon, learn the ins and outs. Consider other areas you might not normally consider. Read key books -- say something with Warren Buffet on investing if you plan on going into that -- start tracking stocks if you want to go into investment management, ask the school to put you on distribution lists for special events (might be hard to, but you can try), guest speakers, etc. Go listen to em. Look at courses, considering preparing a bit for those you think will kick your butt.