These are the top 9 investment bank internships

REUTERS/Andrew Burton

Investment banking is one of the most competitive areas of finance.

In order to break in, young Wall Streeters need smarts, tenacity, and the wherewithal to handle the work load and notoriously long hours. Internship experience is also a must.

To help you find the best internships on the Street, Vault.com has surveyed 12,000 investment banking interns to compile a list of best internship programs for 2017.

The respondents were asked to rate and review their own internship experiences based on various factors, including compensation and meaningfulness of assignments. On a scale of 1 to 10, respondents rated their internship experiences in five main areas: interview process, quality of life, career development, compensation and benefits, and full-time employment prospects.

Vault then averaged those five factors for each company and ranked them in order. Following are the rankings for the top nine investment banking intership programs along with comments about the internship we gleaned for each bank.