<p>I am in between being a sophomore and junior at the school I currently attend, and am planning to transfer to a more prestigious school next fall. As it’s quite doubtful every class will transfer to the school I end up transferring to, I’ll probably remain somewhere between being a sophomore and junior next fall.</p>
<p>So I digress with my story:</p>
<p>I was decent in HS (lazy and could have done better) and had a VERY rough first semester at college. A week in, I was placed on a half-year probation for my involvement in an altercation with my then best friend… (tapes show my “involvement” was limited to yelling and creating tension, though I took a blow to the body and was also punched in the face without raising my finger… nevertheless, my record is what it is). A week later, I was caught drinking at a party and my probation was extended to one year.</p>
<p>All the while, my grades suffered. I posted a 1.92 Fall 2007 GPA and was placed on Academic Probation until I got my GPA above 2.</p>
<p>I guess something hit me as I descended closer and closer to being nothing but a sheer failure, and I got my act together.</p>
<p>I haven’t gotten anything but A’s since that sheer debacle of a half-year. As my school allows me to retake a maximum of three 100 or 200-level classes, I am retaking the two classes I got D’s in during my first semester right now, and am doing amazingly well this time around.</p>
<p>Thus, my cumulative GPA at the end of the semester will fall between 3.95 and 4.00 (depending on my final performance in my other classes). If my school indicates a level of difficulty, I attend a large state university that ranks in the top 50 public universities and top 100 national universities (barely on both).</p>
<p>I feel like I have decent college EC’s. I have about a year of work experience at one of the most renowned companies in the world, and have also advanced into a few leadership positions at my place of employment. I started my own Investment Banking club at school, and have been active in Community Service as well.</p>
<p>My high school GPA was 3.3-ish unweighted. I took several AP classes, and received two 5’s, four 4’s and three 3’s. I had decent EC’s in high school (President of my school’s Science Olympiad club, Vice-President of my school’s French Club, Treasurer of my school’s JSA club [I also won a best speaker award at a regional and national convention], and had some more Work and Community Service experience).</p>
<p>I scored a 2100 on my best SAT (680 V, 710 M, 710 W), and a 32 on my best ACT.</p>
<p>My desire to establish a career in Investment Banking (let go of the crisis here… I’ll only be done with school in a couple of years) is my biggest motivation for transferring. My honest opinion is that intelligence is nothing without an interview, and top firms recruit at the best schools. I am planning on applying to: Yale, Stanford, Wharton, Duke, Columbia, Northwestern, Dartmouth, NYU, Virginia, Berkeley and Texas.</p>
<p>So that’s the story (apologies for the WoT)… now on to my questions…</p>
<li>How should I address the question of “Why are you transferring?” I really want to transfer for the name-brand value of a prestigious school in the eyes of recruiters for the best financial services firms in the world (the ones that still exist at least), but this seems like a terrible thing to say. It’s like saying you want to work somewhere because you heard they pay well. What do I do?</li>
<li>How do I address my past? It will undoubtedly raise a concern in the eyes of admissions officials… I’m seriously considering hiring a PR firm specializing in crisis communications to write a statement for me (it’s what they’re good at). What are your opinions on this?</li>
<li>In your honest opinion, do I have a chance at any of these schools?</li>
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