Aspiring Investment Bankers Determined To 'Prove People Wrong'

Last summer, David Wang had an internship at an investment bank in Stamford, Conn. He loved it like a kid first learning about the stars, and deciding to be an astronaut. "I was speechless, really, at how amazing a career this was," he says. "This is where I really want to be."

But the timing's a little awkward. From Occupy Wall Street to an ex-Goldman Sachs exec's public slapdown of the money-lust at Goldman, investment bankers have become synonymous with sociopathic monopolists who have giant flashing dollar signs where their souls should be. Just this week, in the first vote of its kind, Citigroup shareholders rejected the hefty pay packages of executives.

Financial firms are losing some of their appeal to American MBA students, according to Universum's 2011 survey, while tech companies are rising in the rankings.