My goal is to become an Investment Banker on Wall Street. I am well aware of the competition in trying to achieve such a job, which is why I would like to attend an Ivy League school (to better my chances) My high school grades are absolutely awful due to my lack of motivation and focus being primarily on soccer at the time, however I will be attending community college next year and say I do receive a high GPA (3.8+) how badly will my low high school GPA effect my chances. My goal is to transfer after one year at community college.
High School GPA: 2.6 Cumulative
Intended College GPA: 3.8+
Major: Economics
Intended Colleges to Transfer: Harvard, Penn, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkely, USC, Duke, Georgetown
Do you have any standardized testing scores to leverage your GPA? If those aren’t that high, I’m not sure that your performance in CC would be enough to help you get into universities of the caliber you’ve stated. The bigger question I think is if you’ll have the motivation while at CC to get the high GPA you want given your performance in high school; even though you played a sport (which many others have done and still maintained a high GPA), I still think that you’re reaching too high if there were no other inhibiting circumstances. Try to not focus so much on brand and instead work on improving yourself to become a more appealing candidate for future jobs, regardless of what university you end up attending.
Edit: I just saw your standardized testing scores on another thread, unfortunately I don’t think you’ll be able to make the Ivy League/equivalents because they’re too low, even if you transfer. That being said, if you really want to better your chances at finding a career in investment banking, I’d say do the absolute best you can in whatever school you go to, even if it’s not a “prestigious school,” and let the chips fall where they may. Don’t get so hung up on brand as you can be successful at whatever university you attend, as long as you put in the work necessary and then some.
To be honest, transferring to an Ivy or most of the schools on your list will be more difficult than breaking into IB. If you go to a CC, get a good GPA and retake the SAT. 1470/2400 will not cut it 99.99% of the time. You’ll probably need a 1500+ on the 1600 point scale.
Realistically, it may be difficult to adjust to the intense workload that these schools (and investment banking as a career) require. Apply, but keep academic and professional backup goals in the event that things do not go your way.
My performance in high school was clearly below average the main factor was my lack of motivation. I’m sure people state this all the time but I understand the material, however had no motivation to complete the work, which brought down my GPA. Senior year I took AP Literature and AP Statistics i hope of conveying my true potential. I finished first semester with an A in AP Literature and an A- in AP statistics. My overall senior GPA is a 3.91. So, now with the proper motivation I am absolutely certain I can acquire a top notch college GPA. Do you know of any other Universities that I could potentially transfer to that are of high academic stature. I am thinking USC, UC Berkely, University of Washington. Are there others?
My high school GPA was purely based off of lack of motivation and lack of effort. I am certain I can handle the rigor of University curriculum if I put my full effort into it. My senior GPA thus far is a 3.91 and I believe I can carry this into college. Are there any other universities you have in mind that are high caliber that I may have a chance to transfer to?
not really a lot to go on with an intended college gpa. Also, if you plan on transferring after one year of college, your high school stats will be weighed heavily. All the schools you listed are extremely difficult to transfer into, and some are practically impossible. Schools such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT have transfer acceptance rates below 1%. I think it will be more worthwile for you to come up with more realistic transfer targets rather than wasting time and money on applying to these schools.
Also, it is possible to become an investment banker without going to an ivy league or top 20 school. Firms recruit at schools like Baruch too.
Wait. So you’re going to finish high school this year with a 2.6 GPA but you “plan” on getting a 3.8? It’s definitely possible of course, but that’s quite a big leap. I hope you’re going to be adding some match schools and safeties to that list.
Also, @Dontskipthemoose is correct, but through my research it seems like getting onto wall street is best achieved by 1. Ivy League caliber schools or 2. Schools that have good proximity to NYC so Cuny Baruch, Fordham