I am currently a freshman at Emory University and I am wondering whether or not it is worth it to transfer to USC Marshall. Emory is a great school, but it doesn’t appeal to me as much as USC would in terms of an all-around college experience. For investment banking, I know that Emory is a very good semi-target on Wall Street, while USC is a big target on the west coast. I live in NYC, so connections will not be a problem for me when it comes to internships. I am also fine with living in LA or SF if I am offered a job out of USC. But is it really worth it in the end? People say that you have to network harder at USC, but wouldn’t it be even harder for an Emory student to compete with the thousands of applicants from ivies, umich, uva, duke, etc. with 4.0 gpas? Idk I would just like some insight on the situation.
I never thought of Marshall as a place you went for investment banking. Business schools on the west coast seem to be more focused on things like high-tech startups.
To be honest man, there are a lot of great schools on the East Coast that are better than Marshall for investment banking… Georgetown, NYU, Cornell etc. are great, but I wouldn’t say Emory is one of them. It’s true getting into banking on the West Coast is harder in general, but you’re also right that at Emory you’re competing against tons of students from more competitive schools, and you know how pretentious investment banking recruiting is.