Chance Me! Fall Transfer 2019

Please give me your insight on transfer chances for Fall 2019

Current University: Top 20 Public Undergrad Business School (Top 80ish UG)
Year: Freshman
GPA: 3.70 (took 18 credits 1st sem, As in all but Calc got Bminus)
Major: Finance and Accounting
Race/Gender/Socioeconomic/Applying for FinAid: White Male, Upper-Middle, No
ACT: 31
High School GPA: 3.8 UW 4.15 W
APs/IB: None, this is why I didn’t get into the schools I’m attempting to transfer to (I think) for freshman admission

Involvement: Pretty solid ECs at current university: Current intern within fund at my business school, leadership role within health services program at school, selected as 1 of few freshman for career programs at school, career related club member, very good internship lined up for summer

Schools looking to transfer to: Villanova School of Business, Boston College Carroll School of Management, Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business, NYU Stern School of Business, Cornell Arts and Sciences, Northwestern Arts and Sciences, UPenn Arts and Sciences, Columbia. I understand everything past Notre Dame is likely a heavy reach but please give me some feedback, thank you!

Based on your GPA while in college, you are a strong transfer candidate.

If I may ask, why do you want to transfer out of your current school ? Being a direct admit to a large public university business school has advantages, and majoring in accounting & finance is wise. Are you trying to get to a target school for IB & MC recruiting ? If targeting a Big 4 accounting firm, you can get there from your current school.

P.S. I assume that you are at PSU, Rutgers or Ohio State.

Thanks for your input. Reason for transfer is because I figured out recently I want to go into IB in NYC and my school is a “non-target”. I also love the east coast and would likely enjoy the college experience out there more than where I am now. Assumption isn’t far off-think Ohio State/UW Madison/UMN Twin Cities.

For IB in NYC, your top target school should be NYU-Stern if affordable. Then Cornell & Penn. Northwestern economics can get you there, but NU’s real strength is with MC (management consulting) firms.

While Northwestern University does not have an undergraduate business major, it does have certificate programs that enable one to be very well qualified for NYC Investment Banks. A fifth year option is open to NU recent grads with one year or less of work experience. This one year masters degree qualifies one for MBB & other management consulting firms.
While similar to the Foundations in Business master’s degree offered by Duke University, NU’s master’s degree is only open to Northwestern University recent graduates whereas Duke is open to everyone.

If you elect to remain in your current school, remember that there are dozens of 10 month specialty master’s degree programs in finance which only accept those with less than one year of work experience. While not the same as an NYU-Stern finance major, they can get you placed in finance. And, yes, I understand the NYC IB focus on prestigious universities.

I was thinking Stern would be my top choice as well, but I thought my chances there (as well as Penn/Cornell) were very very slim. Hence me including Villanova/BC. Am I wrong in thinking this?

I am not sure if Villanova would be better than your current school. BC is great. NYU-Stern finance could be tough, but still worth the effort.

And as far as Cornell/Penn is my best bet to apply arts/sciences econ and hope to internally transfer to Dyson/Wharton? I figure those would be too big of a long shot to be worth direct applying to

As you may be aware, Dyson’s admit rate is about 3%.

At Penn, you can do arts & sciences with a major in economics & you will be fine, or try to transfer directly into Wharton. I believe that Penn arts & sciences has certificate programs which are very helpful for those targeting IB.

Thanks for the help. I think I am going to narrow my list to 1) NYU Stern 2) Cornell Dyson 3) Penn CAS 4) BC Carroll

Hopefully I get into 1 but if not I’m sure I can break in to NYC IB with some hard work and networking from my current school.

No reason to eliminate Northwestern University as I think that your chances for admission are strong, and NU can get you into NYC IB. This is my suggestion because Dyson may be quite difficult in light of its super low admit rate.

Northwestern is among the elite schools (Vanderbilt is another) where transfer admission is easier than freshman admission and, as word about this spreads, is likely to change.

Imo NYU Stern is unrealistic. It has a ~2-3% transfer acceptance rate and you can bet a good portion of that 2-3% comes internally from other NYU departments. I would instead apply to NYU CAS where you have upwards of 50% chance of admission and still places you at Wall Street’s doorstep, not to mention you still have access to Stern career fairs, to say nothing of general NYU career fairs that will still be attended by every prestige firm at Wall Street.

That’s the only suggestion I would make – applying Arts & Sciences at Northwestern, Penn, Cornell etc. are sensible choices and I just wanted to point out that transferring to NYU Stern is just near-impossible and your stats while good, are below even their averages. Might even suggest applying to Brown instead of Columbia given the former’s slightly less competitiveness, much greater grade inflation making it easier to apply to graduate schools/banks with a high GPA.

I was thinking of dropping Columbia altogether given how big of a reach it is. Would I really have a better shot at Brown? How competitive of an applicant am I really at these schools? What % chance do you think I’d have at Northwestern?

On average, Northwestern has a 15% transfer admission rate. I’d say your chances are about 30%~ given your strong campus involvement and career goals. Northwestern is a very career and pre-professional oriented school and I can really see it being a great fit for you.

Brown and Columbia are both high reaches. I wouldn’t say your chances at Brown are a lot better simply because based on your school choice, I just can’t see how the rigorous academic and intellectual environment at Columbia would be a good fit, other than the school’s proximity to Wall Street (which is a non-academic element). For Brown however, if you can discuss at length some meaningful activity outside of schoolwork etc. they’re pretty interested in the individual, including quirks. Honestly, I may altogether just put Brown v.s. Columbia aside and focus on strengthening any remaining applications you have. You’re going to need a lot of school research and supplemental essays tailoring for the reach schools you already have e.g. Penn, Cornell, Northwestern.

I’m actually surprised you didn’t list UMichigan or USC – Michigan’s Ross business school is easily a top 5 undergrad business school and top 10 MBA program. Feeds kids to the most elite firms imaginable and otherwise. USC is also a solid private school with a solid undergraduate business program.

Thoughts on chances of admission to usc marshall? Not applying for finaid if that makes a difference(heard it does there)

If anyone has any thoughts here is my new list that I think will be final: USC Marshall, Cornell CAS, Penn CAS, BC CSOM, Northwestern

@prspctvetrnsfr - I noticed one thing in your orginal post that indicates a mis-conception.

Since you are already enrolled as a student, you will ONLY be able to apply as a transfer student. Note that transfer admit rates are often lower than those for freshmen and financial aid is not as generous.

@xraymancs

You misinterpreted what he said imo. What he meant was he didn’t take AP/IB in high school and therefore he didn’t get into top schools that he applied to for freshmen admissions as a high school senior – and the same schools that now he is attempting to transfer into, and quite likely not for freshmen admissions…

Perhaps