<p>Hey guys, I hope this isnt too much off topic but here is my situation, was hoping I could get some advice.</p>
<p>I was one of the top students in my HS but a lazy underachiever though..aced all of my tests but never did homework or really went to class and in the end went to a state school on a free ride rather than going to NYU. I was enrolled for 3 years but then had to withdraw due to some family issues I'd rather not talk about. My undergrad gpa is about around 3.85 and I have some good extracurriculars. At this time I am ready to go back to school but the problem is that I have too many credits to transfer into a target school and have been out of school for a year. I started applying to places for this spring and not all schools are taking applications.</p>
<p>So far I was admitted to:
Columbia - School of General Studies
Boston University - School of Management
Wake Forest - Calloway
and Maryland (College Park) - Smith</p>
<p>I am also waiting on a decision from Emory University and would apply as internal transfer Goizueta if admitted.</p>
<p>None of these are really targets for IB but I will still take a shot if I get the right internships. But even at targets only the very top students get IB/S&T so I definitely need a backup plan. If I am satisfied with working for middle office at a BB or in finance department of fortune 500 company can anyone suggest what is the best school to go with. Do BBs still recruit at targets for the middle office roles or can a good student from a decent school get one of those roles easily. One of my best friends is graduating from Stern this spring and took a job in MS middle office and said only the very top students at stern got IB jobs at BBs. I understand the odds of getting IB out of undergrad are real low since I didn't get into a target out of high school -- with that in mind which school would give me the best options for some good jobs out of undergrad with about 55~60 starting and a good shot into a top MBA program afterwards.</p>
<p>I was real excited about my admission to Columbia but then I started poking around and seems a lot of people are looking down at GS for some reason even though you still take classes with CC/SEAS kids except for a couple of glasses and get a different diploma (though its normal for individual schools within a university to have a different diploma).</p>
<p>I’d take GS TMT over Bain Cap, BX (unless it’s PE and not M&A/restruct), and Silverlake (silverlake hires like 80% from wharton, so unless you go there, it’s not really even an option). Also, unless you go to Wharton/harvard/princeton, a BB will typically only hire a handful of students from your school, which makes the process too random/competitive to be a backup plan</p>
<p>IvyPBear well of course for the top students of HPY the sky is the limit but the middle-50% of a class are not getting BB IB offers, there are still more people who want the job then there are people who actually get it at an ivy. At this point in my life I really do not have to option of going to HYP because I have way too many credits already and am a nontraditional student. So for my situation I have to be more realistic- IB would be a tier1 job for me and its still extremely competitive so a backup for ME (not blue chip students at HYP) would be middle office at a large BB or fortune 500 finance/rotational program. With that in mind which school would be the best option assuming similar financial aid packages from each institution.</p>
<p>Older students/transfers get into IB all the time from Kelley/IU through the Investment Banking Workshop. You won’t get any financial aid but OOS tuition/room and board is about 36k, a bargain if you can get accepted to the IBW and take advantage of campus recruiting. IBW claims “for the past six years, 100 percent of IBW members have been placed with investment banking firms.” [Playing</a> the Game: Department of Finance: Kelley School of Business: Indiana University](<a href=“Finance | Finance | Indiana Kelley”>Finance | Finance | Indiana Kelley)</p>
<p>Companies recruiting on campus in Jan/Feb 2011 for summer analyst internships include Credit Suisse, Moelis, Perella Weinberg, BAML, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Macquarie Capital, UBS and others. These companies and more recruited already this fall for summer internships and full time positions, with a list of full-time offers for 2011 grads and offers available through the link below.</p>
<p>“I’d take GS TMT over Bain Cap, BX (unless it’s PE and not M&A/restruct), and Silverlake (silverlake hires like 80% from wharton, so unless you go there, it’s not really even an option). Also, unless you go to Wharton/harvard/princeton, a BB will typically only hire a handful of students from your school, which makes the process too random/competitive to be a backup plan.”</p>
<p>What you wrote actually justifies what I wrote: the very top students pursue Bain Cap and BX (of course I was talking about PE and top buyside firms overall) because the ones who end up at Goldman TMT view Bain Cap and BX as their exit opportunity after working for Goldman for a few years. Bain Cap and BX PE also recruits at a very fe number of schools. IB/S&T at BBs along with MBB are backup options for the top students not just at HYP but also at Wharton, Dartmouth, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, etc.</p>
<p>nyleaguer -
Congrats on getting into Columbia. Although the elitist people on this board would look down on GS, it doesn’t matter because you would get the access to recruiting at Columbia. If you have good grades while there, you will get interviews, and once you get the interviews, all they care about is how you perform (not whether you to go CC, Engineering, or GS). Once you prove your intellect and capabilities by getting good grades at a top school, credential would come naturally. While people on this board love to bicker about which school is better than which, they (a lot of them being high school student and ignorant parents) often ignore the fact that how well you do at your school matters way more than which school you attend, especially among the top 20.</p>
<p>Thank you for the response IvyPBear, I appreciate it. Yeah I made a post on WSO…wallstreetoasis and some person who graduated from harvard (or is in harvard, or faker) thought GS was a continuing education school like Harvard Extension. I have to be honest with you, at first I was really excited about getting in, kinda like “man i got into an ivy league school this is amazing!” and now I am starting to question if this achievement is even worth anything because of the way people talk about GS. I assume most people on forums are college students/hs students who do not really know much about GS vs CC vs SEAS or elitist people who wan’t to talk trash (maybe arent happy with sharing columbia, want to make it more exclusive?) but I honestly have some reservations about going there. I am going to end up paying 35k per year because financial aid is awful (since it has separate admissions from CC/SEAS so you dont get the same funding)…I do not mind loans to pay this off but if in the real world employers and recruiters will not respect my diploma the same way they do with other Columbia undergrads even though I’ll compete with them in all my classes, then it makes it seem like a waste >> pay a lot for a diploma everyone will question or view you as some continuing ed./backdoor kid. I definitely know that grad schools view GS on par with cc/seas as alums have been getting into top med, law, and phd programs. Not sure about recruiters. Regardless of where I go I know IBD is something thats not guaranteed and maybe the best 25-50 kids in a class get it (dont know exact numbers but its not where the middle 50% of a class is getting IBD offers unless they are network ninjas or have connections). </p>
<p>Ive always been a bit disappointed while in school because a lot of the students were not as smart as I was and did not really get engaged with classes but just gave some stupid comments to get their participation grade. I always wanted to study in a school where the majority of the kids are really smart. Unfortunately I was not serious in high school and blew my chances of going to a top 10 school. This is basically a moment to redeem myself but I couldn’t apply to some of the other top schools because they do not want transfer students with 3 years of undergrad. So I was real excited about Columbia and being an ivy league student for the quality of education/prestige, but these negative comments really made me question if it was worth going. After all aside from quality of education the second reason (for some/many the first reason) of going to a school is prestige–if I wont be getting that Columbia pedigree to help me with recruiting and set me up for life like the CC kids get then its not worth it. </p>
<p>Also I found out this morning that I’ve been accepted to Emory. I wonder if they give me a full ride because I am low income. Will this make it a no brainier then? Im going to network and bust my butt off no matter where I go but I still feel that I have to be realistic about IB since they wont take everyone and middle office seems like a great backup plan if I cant make the IBD.</p>