<p>I am a sophomore at UW-Madison and currently double majoring in Finance, Investment, and Banking and Mathematics. My GPA is a 3.8+ and I am in a few business clubs. I transfered after my freshmen year from a small, yet very good academically, liberal arts college. I did this because I at first wanted to be an actuary and Madison has a good actuarial program. Now I hope to one day become a trader at a BB investment bank. I was wondering if I should transfer (again) to a college that is a bigger target (NYU, U of C, etc, if I can get in) to the bigger investment banks. Just wanted some input on it. Thanks.</p>
<p>i wouldn't. you're already at a school where banks recruit and you're doing really well so you should be fine. the social consequences really outweigh any potential recruiting benefits.</p>
<p>Its up to you. If you like where you are I would just stay, because madison is not bad by any means.</p>
<p>Transfer. If you don't you will always wonder what if and if you really want to work in IB learn to aim higher, want more and get greedier. If you start to settle now when your still in college then you will learn to settle for middle market over BB's as well and it starts an entire chain reaction.</p>
<p>Yes, a chain reaction leading to a better life. There is WAY more to life than working for an IB in NY. Nobody on their death bed ever said they wished they spent more time at work. "Get greedier" does that have any meaning or are you a parrot speaking silly shibboleths from bad 80's movies?</p>
<p>Pre-medwannabe is a high school student who learned his morality in the wall street movie. </p>
<p>I thought everyone knew.</p>
<p>I'm not planning on being a workaholic, over-greedy IB that works in Corporate Finance. Thats why I'm choosing trading because they work less and I would much rather deal with numbers than clients. Family is very important and my work would not get in the way. However I will still be very dedicated in whatever I'm doing.</p>
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If you start to settle now when your still in college then you will learn to settle for middle market over BB's as well and it starts an entire chain reaction.
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<p>Settle for middle market? There are MANY GREAT middle market firms that will train you well and offer great exit opps. You speak as if it is BB or bust, not true.</p>
<p>haha I am actually starting college now and for the "get greedier" comment I meant it in a way for them to raise the bar for themselves and I believe the slogan from the movie was "greed is good."</p>
<p>You are talking about the movie "Wall Street" and the quote was said by Michael Douglas (who was basically paraphrasing from a quote Ivan Boesky actually made).</p>
<p>Here's a site that discusses this in more detail:
<a href="http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Wall-Street%5B/url%5D">http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Wall-Street</a></p>
<p>The point the movie was actually making is that "greed is not good"--but just drives power-hungry people to do illegal things because they feel they are above the law (which they eventually find out, they aren't)</p>
<p>Here's more from another site:</p>
<p>"Ivan Frederick Boesky (born March 6, 1937, in Detroit) was notable for his prominent role in a Wall Street insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States in the mid-1980s. Boesky was born to a Russian-Jewish family. He is a graduate of the Detroit College of Law (now known as the Michigan State University College of Law).</p>
<p>By 1986, Ivan Boesky had become an arbitrageur who had amassed a fortune of about US$200 million by betting on corporate takeovers. He was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for making investments based on tips received from corporate insiders. These stock acquisitions were sometimes brazen, with massive purchases occurring only a few days before a corporation announced a takeover.</p>
<p>Although insider trading of this kind was illegal, laws prohibiting it were rarely enforced until Boesky was prosecuted. Boesky cooperated with the SEC and informed on several of his insiders, including junk bond trader Michael Milken. As a result of a plea bargain Boesky received a prison sentence of 3.5 years and was fined US$100 million. Although he was released after two years, he was barred from working in the securities business for the remainder of his life. He served his prison sentence at Lompoc Federal Prison Camp near Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.</p>
<p>Boesky has never recovered his reputation after doing a stint in jail, and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and compensation for his Guinness share-trading fraud role and a host of separate insider dealing scams.</p>
<p>The character of Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street is based at least in part from Boesky, especially regarding a famous speech he delivered on the positive aspects of greed at the University of California, Berkeley in 1986 (where he said in part "I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself")</p>
<p>His involvement in criminal activities is recounted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Den of Thieves by James B. Stewart."</p>
<p>Ok. Anyone care to give any more answers to my original question?</p>