Chance me for Fall 23

Transfer Students
1

Demographics: Sophomore, African American, Male, First Gen, Low Income, (School ranked around 185)

Intended major: Econ/Philosophy

HS GPA: B-

College GPA: 3.9

Coursework: Should have around 45-50 credits

Awards: Dean’s List, Freshman honor society,

Extracurriculars:

  1. ⁠Incoming Sophomore Investment Banking Intern at a Bulge Bracket
  2. ⁠Equity Research Analyst at a national student run hedge fund
  3. ⁠Did a fellowship at a Hedge Fund and am doing one currently with a Private Equity firm
  4. ⁠Started a finance club at my school
  5. ⁠Created a diversity program for BIPOC freshman trying to break into finance (expanded to over 20 states and 30 schools)
  6. ⁠Did a symposium program with an Elite Boutique bank and PE Firm
  7. Started a student-run hedge fund
  8. Participated in a Freshman Enhancement Program with MS
  9. Apart of the Economic and Finance society and National Society of Leadership and Success

Essays/LORs/Other:

Essays: Did the process last year and spent a lot of time reading successful one’s and trying to craft my own one

Econ Professor- Have a very good relationship with him and he’s served as a mentor for me with a lot of things. He told me he’ll write a very strong LOR and even personalize it to the schools

English Professor- Less impactful but I have a good relationship with them so hoping to highlight good personality traits

Schools- Georgetown, UChicago, Northwestern, Duke, Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, Columbia, Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, Baruch, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, UPenn, Stanford, Amherst

Extremely open to suggestions on schools and would love any feedback!

2

Congratulations on your achievements. I can’t chance you, but expect you will see some acceptances.

Did you put in transfer apps last year as a first year? If so, Did you apply to any of the schools in your OP? What were the outcomes?

Georgetown sometimes meets full need for transfers with large parent loans, so just know that. (IMO that makes the school unaffordable for limited income students)

Are you an NY resident? If not, will Baruch be affordable?

It seems like most of your schools are urban, so Dartmouth, Cornell, and Amherst seem to not fit that way. Some of the schools on your list don’t take many transfers, but you may fit what they are looking for depending on their priorities and the rest of the transfer pool.

The only other thing to consider is if you want to be on the west coast, or southeast, or Midwest considering your apparent career goals. Not that those schools don’t place in Banking, but OTOH it could make sense to be on the east coast if that’s likely to be where you will end up after school.

Good luck to you.

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3

You have some nice college accomplishments…but this is a very top heavy list.

What exactly is your academic reason for transferring schools?

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4

Thank you! Yea I applied to Georgetown and got waitlisted 2x last year. Also, I am a NY resident so Baruch was an option because of the affordability. I will most likely be done recruiting for IB intern positions by the time I would attend my “new” school, so I’m not really using it for the name to recruit. Also thanks for the info on Georgetown’s financial aid with loans, as I didn’t know that!

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5

Thanks for the response. My academic reasons for transferring are that my institution is very limited in class availability, and it’s been prohibiting me from being able to take my major-related ones. We’ve got a very big student population and a small number of classes, so I want to be able to study Economics and Philosophy at the best school possible to really challenge and push me. Also, I’m really interested in conducting research on Econ and my school doesn’t have many opportunities in that field.

6

And presumably denied for admission…IOW not accepted off the waitlist. I’m not sure I would apply to Georgetown again.

7

Have you declared your major, and do you have an advisor in it? You will be a junior. Getting classes as a junior is usually easier. And especially if you are a declared major.

Back in the Stone Age when I was a transfer student…I was at the bottom of the class selection pecking order my first term at my new school. Maybe things have changed in terms of that, but that is definitely worth checking if it’s a reason you wish to transfer.

8

I’m not sure how a school can waitlist you twice? Did you apply out of HS and were waitlisted, and then applied for transfer as a rising soph and were waitlisted? If so, I wouldn’t apply again. If you have also previously been denied for some of the other schools on your list I would rethink spending the time and money to apply again.

Likely true, and this thread will be instructive for people who think one can only get IB jobs from T20s. Because you don’t need a more prestigious name to get the job you want out of college, I still am struggling somewhat with why you want to transfer, so on to my next comments…

It sounds like you are saying you want to transfer because you can’t do econ research at your current school, is that right? You are going to have to be careful in your essays to address what the new school has that you want, and that your background and experiences offer a good fit. Meaning, don’t talk about the shortcomings of your current school, because being in a school that’s as highly ranked as 185 (not kidding, that’s a top 10% school) I expect there are plenty of academically challenging classes, econ research opportunities, and econ classes there. Anywho, in your transfer apps you literally have to say things like ‘I want to do X research with Prof X because that’s exactly what I am interested in doing’, blah blah blah.

I also agree with Thumper’s points about it being easier to get classes as a junior at your current school, and transfers will pick classes last, at least for the first semester.