Josh, those student rationales were the same for being an investment banker (pre-2000), day trader (1999, 2006), private equity (2004–06) when those were the cool sectors in finance.

Underlying theme: undergrads and grad students still believe in the get-rich-quick delusion which warps their perspective about how a career path in finance actually plays out (i.e., 2 years of long shitty-hours of grunt work for what calculates to embarrassingly low hourly pay > 1–2 years of long shitty-hours of 80% grunt work & 20% managing the new associates under you for what calculates to slightly less embarrasingly low hourly pay > a long-ass time (like a decade or more) of long shitty hours of 30–50% grunt work for a nice salary in absolute terms yet still shitty when translated to hourly pay > hopefully you start your own firm so you can call some of the shots).

In other words, they want to be the Josh Felsers and Chamath Palihapitiyas without first wrenching their souls on the battleground of experience (and winning!). IMPOSSIBLE.