I’m currently a freshman in Villanova School of Business and the honors program, have a 3.88 GPA after first semester. I’m looking to major in finance and economics and go into investment banking. I’m in the equity society (student run investment club) as well as treasurer of the corporate finance society. Although I feel as though I’ve had a lot of great opportunities already and am doing well at nova, I still am not satsified being there. I feel like the work load is not nearly as rigorous as I had hoped it would be, and I just don’t feel like it’s an exceptionally intellectual environment. I want to be motivated and challenged by my peers and my classes, and I don’t feel as though I’m getting that here. I also am thinking about the future and careers, and while I know people have gone to Wall Street and IB from nova, it’s certainly not a target school for recruiting. I am very happy socially, but I can’t help but think there is a better academic opportunity out there for me. In terms of transferring (I am pretty down to the wire with applications due in about 2 weeks), I am really only thinking about Penn or Georgetown. I was just wondering if anyone has any opinions either way, whether it would be better to stay at nova and my impressions are perhaps incorrect about prospective recruiting/careers, or if I should try to transfer (and if I have a chance at either of those schools). Thank you so much!
Hey! I’m a current undergraduate student and will be able to help you out with this question. I actually came to this site to see when my brother finds out if he gets in…but since I can resonate with you, I felt obligated to help. Now I won’t give you much background about myself for obvious reasons, but I will be very honest with you. If you want to discuss this further, please send me a message and maybe we can chat about it some more (maybe I know you!). Anyway…
So firstly I would say that you’re totally justified by not feeling intellectually stimulated enough…there are quite a few people here in which don’t really push you as hard as you think you should be pushed. What I would say is to recognize that this happens at every school. Teachers can contribute to this just as much. Therefore, I get it. believe me. I have a very high gpa too and have had those same feelings. I was going to recommend the honors program but I see you’re already in it (I hear it’s life-changingly good). Now of course you want to be intellectually stimulated, that’s a must. But in reality, what really matters come IB recruiting time (in which I know much about)? It comes down to GPA, extracurricular stuff, and intervening skills(technical skills)…that’s pretty much it. Something that maybe you don’t realize yet is how powerful our alumni network it. It’s true that we don’t have the most amount of people at each bank, but those that are there are determined to bring us in. Each Villanova recruiter (typically alum) is allotted a certain amount of people they can bring to super days. So most banks end up picking 2-4 kids each. Maybe 2 get the end job. That might not seem like a lot, and maybe it isn’t, but let me tell you, with that GPA, unless you’re doing nothing intetesting outside of class, you’re EASILY going to get interview after interview. I can almost guarantee you that. The same kids get all the interviews (which sucks for those who have lesser GPAs) cause they apply for jobs they aren’t even interested in just so they either have practice interviewing or simply to increase their odds at landing something. From a pure numbers perspective, we don’t have the strongest ib recruiting out there. However, maybe you have heard of M&A society? Everyone in that society who wants to do investment banking gets investment banking. I know that for sure. Now to connect this to my original comment about what ib recruiters look for and what really matters, let’s consider the gpa. Yes, you may not seem as intellectually stimulated as possible (which maybe you can push yourself a little harder). But I will say, the better school you go to, the more competitive it becomes. There may be more spots to grab, but there will be more dedicated students with GPAs and extracurriculars probably better than your own, it’s going to be equally as tough (maybe not for a boutique, but definitely for a bulge). So do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond (of course there’s the argument of big fish in big pond…whatever haha you get the idea). Right now you’re in PRIME position to land all the ib interviews you want (idk how your resume looks).
Now of course it seems like I’m promoting Nova hard right now. What I should make clear is that I’m promoting YOU, not nova. You must be a smart kid and I want you to be as successful as possible. Having had much experience myself, I’ve spent countless nights googling the same thing about investment banking on Wall Street oasis: “Is Villanova a target school?” “What GPA do I need to be considered?” “What’s my exit opportunities?” I want to stress that IB isn’t everything…without rambling on. Anyway, I think you should apply to all the schools you mentioned and then some. You should feel no obligation to your Villanova. It’s just a school. This is your life. Apply and the have this dicussion again. You have no idea whether you can be accepted into any top school to begin with (not kidding)…it’s tough. So do that and then revisit this conversation. Until then, it’s all just smoke and you’re wasting your energy on something that’s isn’t even a possibility at this point.
I hope this helped, I could go on and on about this and give you even more insight…but not through this board. I spent a lot of time writing this so please take into consideration all that I said. I’m not BSing any of it…considering I’m going through most of it now. Let me know if you’d like to talk more outside of the website. I’ve advised a couple people already that have transferred, so my loyalty is with the person, not the institution.
Best of Luck
(btw, I didn’t read this over so idk how many typos I made)
don’t leave after first semester!
Totally agree! Don’t leave after one semester!