Looking for advice on my current list of transfer schools! Interested in high finance!

College Search & Selection
1

Rising Junior – Econ Major

Basic Rundown:
Current School: State School out West
College GPA: 3.872
HS GPA: 3.6UW/4.4W
ACT: 27 (In HS) – Plan on retaking it Feb 6th… Expecting a conservative 32+
Need for Financial Aid: Yes

Extracurriculars in College:
(1) Residential Realtor for a large brokerage locally
(2) Two Private Wealth Management internships (8 weeks) & (10 weeks) + Another I may be starting during the Spring
(3) Extern Finance-group founder, organized and planed trips to local firms with fellow students. Went to Vanguard and Edward Jones.
(4) Two part-time jobs: Server/Busboy & Valet
(5) Investments Club & Financial Management Association member
(6) Founded an online e-commerce business, did 2.5k in sales in November.
(7) Amateur Day Trader (stocks)

Sophomore Year Courses:
1st Semester: Econ200, Accounting200, Statistics276, Gen ed tier 1, Gen ed tier 2 (15 Units) – Received a 4.00
2nd Semester: Accounting210, Statistics 277, Finance417, Gen ed tier 2, Gen ed tier 2, Business Ethics (19 Units) – Expect a 4.0

College Rec:
(1): My Career Advisor/Professor who I meet with regularly and have a great relationship with.
(2): CEO of the firm I interned at.

I know a lot of these are reaches, so what are some other quality schools I can apply to that place well into finance?

2

Whoops, forgot to include my current list of schools.

(1): USC – Don’t require test scores for transfers.
(2): Northwestern
(3): Cornell – Don’t require test scores for transfers.
(4): Duke
(5): Rice
(6/7/8): Columbia, Harvard, Yale (Let me dream! :p)

3

A few comments:

  1. I would not bother to re-take the ACT. That is a college entrance exam meant for high-school students. I don’t think colleges will take into account what a person already in college got on this exam.
  2. What can you afford? Merit aid as a transfer is highly unlikely.
    3)Many top schools do not have a lot of room to take transfers.
  3. Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Duke (and possibly other schools on your list) do not have undergraduate busienss programs. Hence many of your courses may not transfer to that school as there is no comparable undergraduate course offered.
  4. Other ideas (not taking into account cost) are NYU - Stern, Notre Dame - Mendoza but again, you are unlikely to get merit aid as a transfer

GIven that you need financial aid, that you are doing well, and that you have a good relationship with your career adviser there your best bet may be to stay put and graduate top of your class. You can always work for a few years and then apply to MBA programs.

4

^ +1 to @happy1’s post.