Investment Banking Internships 2028: Which Banks Are Hiring and When to Apply

TL;DR

• Investment banking internships for summer 2028 are expected to open for applications between December 2026 and January 2027, roughly 18 months before the internship itself starts, following the same compressed cycle that closed the 2027 class in January 2026.

• Investment banking recruits earlier than almost any other industry, so if you're a sophomore now, this cycle is yours and preparation starts well before applications post.

• 19 banks below across bulge bracket, elite boutique, and middle market, each with our full guide and the bank's own campus recruiting page.

• The three tiers run different timelines and select on different things. Applying to all of them the same way is the most common mistake students make.

• Includes what banks screen for, how superdays work, and what to do if you miss the cycle.

An Externship is a short, remote, project-based program run with a real company, where you build professional experience and finish with work you can actually show someone. If you're trying to prove deal and valuation ability before you have a banking internship on your resume, start here:

• Yinan Zhao Investing & Financial Modeling Externship

• HP Tech Ventures Deal Sourcing & Startup Analysis Externship

• Mangusta Capital Investor Strategy Externship

Explore all Externships

What Is an Investment Banking Internship, and Which Divisions Hire?

What Is an Investment Banking Summer Analyst Internship?

An investment banking summer analyst internship is a paid nine to ten week program where undergraduates join a coverage or product group and work on live deal materials. JPMorgan's investment banking summer analyst program opens with five days of orientation covering accounting fundamentals, financial modeling, valuation, and Excel before interns join a team.

What does that orientation tell you? Exactly what the job is. You're there to build models, assemble pitch materials, and run analysis that ends up in front of clients.

Coverage, Product, and the Divisions You Can Intern In

Most students say "investment banking" and mean one thing. But banks mean several, and they hire into them separately.

Coverage and M&A are what most students picture. And the others are less contested, which often makes them easier to convert from.

How This Differs From a Career-Path Question

This guide is about landing a 2028 summer analyst seat: who's hiring, when applications open, how to apply. If you're still deciding whether banking suits you at all, is finance a good career path covers that question properly. Read it first, then come back here.

When Do Summer 2028 Investment Banking Applications Open?

The 2028 Cycle, Month by Month

These windows are projected from the observed 2027 cycle. Treat anything not yet posted as expected, not confirmed.

Why Banking Recruits 18 Months Early

This is the single most useful fact on this page, and it's the one students learn too late.

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and Wells Fargo all opened and closed their summer 2027 analyst applications between December 2025 and January 2026. That entire class was decided about 18 months before the internship began, and our finance internships summer 2027 guide documents how that cycle played out.

So apply the same math to 2028 and the window lands around December 2026. Waiting for junior-year career fairs? You're already about a year behind the process.

Sophomore Timing and Diversity Programs

Main summer analyst programs target penultimate-year students, which locks most sophomores out of the primary application. But that isn't the end of the road.

Sophomore insight programs and diversity programs run a cycle earlier and exist specifically to identify students before the main process. For many students they are the actual entry point, because strong participants get fast-tracked into the following year's summer analyst pipeline. If you're a sophomore reading this in 2026, those programs are your 2026 to 2027 action item.

Which Banks Hire Summer Analysts for 2028?

Two link columns in each table. Our guide is our own deep-dive on that bank: program structure, past deadlines, interview format. Campus recruiting goes to the bank's own early-careers page, where the 2028 posting will appear.

Bulge Bracket Banks

Elite Boutiques

Middle Market and Regional Banks

We also have bank guides for Centerview, Raymond James, Nomura, HSBC, and BNP Paribas. Bank links checked August 12, 2026.

Bulge Bracket vs Elite Boutique vs Middle Market: Which Should You Target?

How the Three Tiers Actually Differ

Why Targeting All Three the Same Way Fails

A generic application performs badly at all three tiers, for different reasons.

Bulge brackets run structured, high-volume screening, so an application that doesn't clear the mechanical filters never gets read. Boutiques read closely and interview hard on technicals, so vague interest gets exposed fast. Middle market banks weight genuine regional and firm-specific interest, so a copy-pasted cover letter reads exactly like what it is.

Pick a mix across tiers, then tailor per tier. That's the whole strategy.

What Do Banks Look For in a Summer Analyst Applicant?

The Screening Signals That Actually Matter

Banks screen on a fairly consistent set of signals: academic record, evidence of quantitative and accounting fluency, specific and provable interest in banking, and some proof you've done analytical work before.

Notice what isn't on that list. Prior banking experience isn't realistic for most applicants, and banks know it. They're looking for evidence you can do the work and that you understand what you're signing up for.

If you want the numbers on how selective the top programs are, our investment banking acceptance rate guide covers that in detail.

Class Year and Eligibility Windows

Eligibility is the filter that quietly removes most applicants, and it's published.

Bank of America's global investment banking summer analyst posting requires a penultimate-year undergraduate or master's student seeking a summer internship with the opportunity for full-time conversion, plus the ability to complete a ten-week program. That penultimate-year requirement is close to universal across bulge brackets.

So read the posted window before assuming you're eligible, or before deciding you're not.

How Do You Actually Apply for a 2028 Summer Analyst Role?

Build Your Bank List Before Applications Open

1. Pick your tier mix. Choose banks across bulge bracket, boutique, and middle market rather than concentrating in one tier.

2. Confirm eligibility. Check graduation year against each posting before you spend time on it.

3. Finish your resume early. A finished resume in November beats a rushed one in December.

4. Set up alerts. Follow each bank's campus recruiting page and LinkedIn so you see postings the day they go up.

5. Apply in the first week. Rolling review means late applications compete for fewer seats.

Applications Open on Rolling Review

But the posted deadline is not the real deadline. Banks review as applications arrive and fill seats continuously, so a class can be effectively full while the posting is still live.

The 2027 cycle compressed into roughly six weeks. Assume 2028 behaves similarly and plan to apply in the first days of the window.

Where to Track What Opens

Community-maintained trackers move faster than any published guide, this one included. Students widely use the finance recruiting trackers and bank-specific LinkedIn follows to catch postings the day they open. Use a guide like this for how the process works, and trackers for what opened this morning.

What Does the Investment Banking Interview Process Look Like?

HireVue and First-Round Screens

Most bulge bracket processes open with a recorded video interview before any human conversation. You get a question, a short prep window, and one or two takes. Preparing for that format specifically matters, because a strong in-person interviewer can still perform badly on a recorded screen.

What Is a Superday?

A superday is the final round of investment banking recruiting: a compressed day of back-to-back interviews with multiple bankers, mixing technical valuation questions with behavioral and fit questions. Offers often go out within days, and sometimes within hours, of the superday ending.

The name is worth understanding literally. It's a day designed to test whether you hold up under repetition and pressure, which is a reasonable proxy for the job.

Technicals You Are Expected to Know

The technical bar is well defined and public, which means there's no excuse for being surprised by it:

• The three financial statements and exactly how they link

• DCF construction, WACC, and terminal value

• Comparable companies and precedent transactions

• Accretion and dilution basics for M&A

• One deal you can discuss in depth, including why it happened

And that last one separates candidates more than any formula does. Knowing a deal well signals real interest better than any line on a resume.

How Do You Build an IB Resume Without Finance Experience?

What Counts Before You Have a Banking Internship

The trap is assuming only prior banking counts. But if that were true, where would anyone get a first seat?

What actually reads well:

• Accounting, corporate finance, and valuation coursework

• A valuation or model you built yourself and can defend line by line

• Finance club deal teams, stock pitch competitions, case competitions

• Any prior internship with real analytical work, in any industry

• Evidence of sustained interest, like following an industry or a specific deal

And a model you genuinely understand beats a prestigious line you can't explain. Bankers interview by asking follow-up questions, and follow-ups are exactly where borrowed credentials fall apart.

Building Proof Through Project-Based Experience

The gap most sophomores hit isn't ability. It's having nothing concrete to point at yet.

Project-based experience helps close it. The Yinan Zhao Investing & Financial Modeling Externship works through investment analysis and modeling directly. The HP Tech Ventures Deal Sourcing & Startup Analysis Externship and the Energy Innovation Capital Venture Capital Deal Sourcing Externship put you on real deal screening and company analysis. The Mangusta Capital Investor Strategy Externship covers investor-side strategy.

Be clear about what this is. An Externship doesn't replace a summer analyst internship and nobody should pitch it as one. What it gives a sophomore with an empty resume is defensible analytical work and a company-endorsed credential to point at while applying.

Explore Externships with investing and venture firms.

What If You Miss the 2028 Investment Banking Cycle?

Off-Cycle and Spring Internships

Off-cycle internships run outside the standard summer window, typically three to six months, and are far more common in Europe than the US. They're a genuine route in, especially for students who missed the main cycle or decided on banking late.

Spring insight weeks are the other underused option. They're shorter, less competitive, and frequently feed the following summer analyst class.

Adjacent Roles That Still Lead to Banking

Missing one cycle doesn't close the path. These build directly transferable skills:

• Corporate and commercial banking, which teaches credit and company analysis

• Transaction advisory and valuation at Big 4 firms, heavy on the exact technical work

• Boutique and regional M&A shops, which hire later and give more responsibility

• Corporate finance or FP&A, which builds the accounting fluency banking screens for

And plenty of analysts arrive in banking through one of these rather than a straight-line summer analyst path.

Not ready to apply yet? Build the analytical work first. Explore Externships and finish with a project you can talk through in an interview.

FAQs

When do investment banking internships for summer 2028 open?

Applications are expected to open between December 2026 and January 2027. Investment banking recruits roughly 18 months ahead, and the summer 2027 class opened and closed between December 2025 and January 2026 across the major banks. Middle market firms typically post later.

Can sophomores apply for investment banking internships?

Sophomores generally cannot apply to the main summer analyst programs, which target penultimate-year students. But sophomore insight programs and diversity programs run a cycle earlier and are the realistic entry point. Those are how many students convert into a junior-year summer analyst offer.

What is a superday?

A superday is the final round of investment banking recruiting: a compressed day of back-to-back interviews with multiple bankers, usually mixing technical valuation questions with behavioral and fit questions. Offers frequently go out within days, sometimes hours, of the superday finishing.

What is the difference between bulge bracket and elite boutique banks?

Bulge brackets are large full-service banks that run big summer analyst classes across many divisions and products. Elite boutiques are smaller advisory-focused firms with far smaller classes and heavier M&A exposure. Boutiques often recruit earlier in the cycle and screen harder on proven modeling ability.

Do you need a finance major for an investment banking internship?

No. Banks recruit from economics, math, engineering, and liberal arts backgrounds every year. What matters is proven quantitative ability, accounting and valuation fluency, and clear evidence you understand what the job involves. A non-finance major with modeling coursework and a coherent story competes fine.

How long is an investment banking summer internship?

Most programs run nine to ten weeks. JPMorgan's investment banking summer analyst program is a nine-week program that opens with five days of orientation covering accounting fundamentals, financial modeling, valuation, and Excel before interns join a coverage or product group.

What should I do if I miss the summer 2028 cycle?

Target off-cycle internships, which run outside the main summer window and are common in Europe. Middle market and regional banks recruit later than bulge brackets. Corporate banking, commercial banking, and transaction advisory roles also build a credible path into banking later.