<p>Hey guys... here's my situation. In high school, I probably could have made straight A's, or at least A's and a few B's, but I didn't know what I wanted to be. It wasn't until late in junior year that I decided I wanted a job dealing w/ finance, preferably a job on Wall Street. I'm very interested in being a IB or a stock broker. Since I didn't know what I wanted to be while in high school, I pretty much shut down and didn't do nearly as good as I could have. Now I find myself in a local community college, it's my first semester as a freshman. Right now I am majoring in Accounting and am set up for the 4 year transfer program. I know that going from a Community College to an Ivy is hard, but possible. I also feel like I can get a 4.0 in CC, and I also know how hard that is. My question is what else can I do to pad my resume when the time comes to apply to transfer. I never really did any EC's in high school, pretty much based on the reason above. A couple days ago I decided I was going to start doing community service and in two years have 500+ hours, but then I read that they choose quality > quanity when it comes to cs hours. And besides community service, what else can I do?? I'm not even necessarly dieing to get into an Ivy, I just want to get into a top 30 b-school so that I can at least have a chance for an interview. I feel that if I can make it to a top b school, then I wouldn't have a problem competing with the other students for an interview, but I need to be able to get to a good school first... any comments are appreciated... thanks :)</p>
<p>p.s I probably put this in the wrong section but I have to go to work like right now lol</p>
<p>I’m not going to lie to you - chances are slim. But that’s not the biggest problem with your plan.</p>
<p>Business school recruiting is way down. More than 80% of hires from school are from undergrad. Most, but not all, of them are from top schools. Of the business schools, the list is even more exclusive.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean you can’t reach your goals. It’s just going to take longer and you’re going to have to work harder. You will probably have to start out in some area like controllers (internal accounting) or operations (trade processing). From there, you can learn the business and network and wait for an opportunity. Or you might discover you like managing and you can stay in controllers or operations, but with broader responsibilities. You should try to find summer opportunities in investment banks or commercial banks, but don’t be too picky. When you are there, learn as much as you can.</p>
<p>Finally, get the best grades you can, and go to the best university you can. That can only help, even if it is not an ivy. Try to find something you love; if accounting is really what you love then don’t rule out the accounting firms. Just don’t study accounting because you think it is what we want. We want intelligent, hard working, aggressive, interesting people.</p>
<p>Ugh. That’s kind of discouraging… it sucks too because I know 100% that I’m smart enough to be an IBer, and I’m agressive and passionate about it, uet may never have the oppertunity because I’m not in an Ivy league school right now.</p>
<p>u can get into IB from numerous schoosl, not just Ivy League. I’d try to transfer into good schools with decent acceptance rates such as UMich, UVA, Northwestern and so forth. As long as you go to a top 100 school, there will BE A CHANCE. Don’t make your decision top 10 undergrad or bust, because odds are, you’ll bust. I wouldn’t even be thinking about B-school right now. You’ll be excellent job experience and a top application to even be considered for an m7 B-school(basically the only ones Banks recruit at). If you’re sold on banking, search google for “wallstreetoasis comprehensive list target schools” and click on the 1st result(was created on July 1 2008) and just read through the schools. Im you need any help, just let me know.</p>
<p>Wharton is ‘easier’ to transfer into, although certainly it’s not easy in any case. And I’m not exactly sure whether or not what you say is even possible but here’s what I’d advise:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get a 4.0. It’s imperative.</li>
<li>Start clubs, get involved. Put a lot of effort into on-campus organizations and make finance-related clubs if none are present. Learn your finance - try to get an internship regardless. This is unrelated to transferring but it’s important if you want a job. Study with BIWS courses online and learn LBO models, mergers and acquisitions, and everything you need to know to be proficient in ibanking already. If you walk into an interview as a CC student more prepared than an Ivy League wizard, you’ll really impress recruiters.</li>
<li>The most important one: Do something insane. Nothing bad - something so good that it will make your application stand out. This is the most important aspect - you have to note that Harvard accepted 1% of transfer applicants last year, and other similar Ivies have about the same rates. Dartmouth/Columbia/Brown are around 5% (?) and Penn has something like 15%. Stanford/MIT have around 2-3%. Start a company. Fundraise and organize a trip to India to help locals. Do something no one in the world can think of. </li>
</ol>
<p>Really I cannot stress how important it is to just go out and do something crazy. It doesn’t have to work - just show that you tried. But it could make the difference in the end.</p>
<p>Hi! I’m currently in High school (So I’m a little ahead of the curb) facing the same issue. </p>
<p>Reading your post I couldn’t help but laugh. We’re identical. I didn’t even plan on going to college until this year. I’m smart and it shows in just about every way- except my grades. Now I feel like I’m the only person int he world without a 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>SO, I too am planning on serving a year at whatever college will take me and transferring to a prestigious college.</p>
<p>On to my reply:
I guess I’m not really qualified to answer this, but I have read EVERY Ivy transfer post out there. And I mean every. Obsessively. From what I’ve gathered, it is possible.</p>
<p>-Your essays and Rec letters hold even more weight than with a freshman admission. so make sure they are good.</p>
<p>-A Harvard transfer is possible, but very unlikely. There are plenty of kids applying from other Ivies who will most likely be admitted over a CC kid. That said, being from a CC does give you an edge. You offer a sense of diversity, which ivies often look for.</p>
<p>-I say apply with the expectation of not getting in. Apply to all of the other Ivies as well (except for Princeton, of course), and some other top schools (U chicago, Northwestern.) Statistically speaking you will likely get into at least one.</p>
<p>I’d like to believe that subpar HS grades won’t hold us back forever, and that determination and hard work will allow us to overcome our apathetic past.</p>