<p>Hey guys, so as the title states, I'm wondering what my chances are for transferring from my a solid private university to a target school. I'm not actually a student at there yet, as I just graduated from high school, but from my visits there it seems like a wonderful place. The only problem is my career ambitions lie in finance, where I'm currently planning on going into investment banking out of school, and hopefully settling in a more trading based role (hedge funds maybe?). This route will be much harder to pursue coming out of my non target school, so I'd like to gauge my chances at into a target school.</p>
<p>Just for a frame of reference, the school I'll be attending is in the top 35 on US News rankings for national universities (not that it means much, just a hint as to where I'm going, you guys can probably already guess it)</p>
<p>High School Stats
GPA: 3.4 range - used to be much lower if you can believe it, worked my ass off senior year in case I had to transfer
SAT: 2270
SAT II: World History, Chemistry, Physics, Math, all 750+
AP: World & US history, Chem, Bio, Physics C, Calc BC, Both Econs - 2 4's rest were 5's
No major ECs in high school, just some volunteering, 2 varsity sports, had a job serving ice cream, I think I had one of the AP scholar awards </p>
<p>Provided I do well enough at this school (no doubt I can if I stay motivated, and its do or die in this case) and I really get involved EC wise, do I have a shot at transferring into the following schools?
Columbia - Transfer rate seems really low, maybe I can go 3-2 route?
UPenn
Cornell
Duke
Georgetown
Northwestern</p>
<p>Reasons to transfer
target school - of course not mentioning this
Grew up right here, want to see more of the country
I have a feeling I may like the bigger research setting as opposed to my schools smaller, liberal arts atmosphere
Interested in studying operations research/applied math/applied physics, none of which my school offers</p>
<p>I know UPenn favors transfers for sophomore year as opposed to junior year. Are any other of these schools like this?
Also will a stellar gpa for the first semester of college be enough to offset my high school gpa? Or should I wait till sophomore year to apply for transfer so these colleges can see a bigger body of work over my college career?</p>