The opportunities investment banking opens up are fantastic. It's the easiest way, and often times the only way, to get into private equity, hedge funds, or corporate development, and make a ton of money while doing so. It also helps get into a great business school. The modeling/valuation work is also something that I and most finance people find the most interesting, even though that is probably 5% of the job for an analyst. It's something I was and am still willing to do but it's very hard to get an interview if you didn't go to a top school or know anyone in banking, neither of which I have going for me.

I enjoy what I do now, corp finance for a tech company, but banking would be ideal.