To Transfer Spring of Junior Year? (want no regrets)

Hey everyone,

Do you think it's worth transferring out to another school (Ivy) for Spring semester of my Junior year (currently in state university)?

Cons:
-loss of credits
-different major curriculum may delay graduation
-time to adjust to new school / hastle of transferring
-tuition is about $25,000 more than my current university per year (approximately $37,500 more in tuition costs until graduation //three semesters)

Pros:
-possibly better education
-better atmosphere (I dislike my school, feel majority have no focus in life at all. Are Ivy students the same?)
-probably better connections/networks
first two pros are my main reasons

Could transferring Spring semester of my Junior year also hurt my chances for employment in any way that I cannot foresee?

Thanks guys.

 
SECfinance:
I don't even think you can do this. Generally speaking transferring after sophomore year is your last opportunity, especially for elite schools.
From my understanding of the post, I think he's graduating a semester late to do this.

What kind of school are you at now/what's your resume looking like/what are your goals. Basically, ask yourself if you can achieve your goals from your current school. Is the added cost worth it?

I'm a transfer, and while I don't really regret my decision, I'm realizing more and more that while being at an ivy is great, I could have achieved everything I wanted from my semi-target.

 

I'm currently at a large (east coast) State University majoring in Mathematics and Finance. Undergraduate math program here is top 10 in country, and business school here is not so great (maybe top 60 or so).

My GPA is 3.80 cumulative, 4.0 both major GPAs, have one internship experience (brokerage), with numerous activities.

I am still unsure what I truly want to do yet, however, I am leaning towards IB at the moment. Sure, I know it is still possible to get an IB job at my current school (but I think maybe less than 5 people total got FT offers this past year for front-office positions), however, I am just really disliking my school, and, in addition, business classes here seem like a complete joke waste of time and money.

Would you say it's worth transferring to get a "better" college experience this late into my college career?

 
Best Response
ikiq:
I'm currently at a large (east coast) State University majoring in Mathematics and Finance. Undergraduate math program here is top 10 in country, and business school here is not so great (maybe top 60 or so).

My GPA is 3.80 cumulative, 4.0 both major GPAs, have one internship experience (brokerage), with numerous activities.

I am still unsure what I truly want to do yet, however, I am leaning towards IB at the moment. Sure, I know it is still possible to get an IB job at my current school (but I think maybe less than 5 people total got FT offers this past year for front-office positions), however, I am just really disliking my school, and, in addition, business classes here seem like a complete joke waste of time and money.

Would you say it's worth transferring to get a "better" college experience this late into my college career?

If you're transferring because you're truly unhappy at school, I think it's a good choice. But I'm curious at to whether you truly "dislike" your school or you just haven't explored enough. At that large of a school, there's got to a multitude of cliques, and maybe you haven't found your niche yet.

Your GPA is legit, but keep in mind that classes can be harder at a target university. Business is always a joke major (cept maybe Wharton?), but math is a lot more dependent on which college you attend. For example, I found math a lot harder at my current university, and my GPA definitely took a hit. (I'm double majoring in Statistics).

Also, if the number of students who broke in are less than 5 people, I'd definitely think about transferring for career reasons as well. So it makes sense in that aspect.

As long as the money makes sense, I'd say go for it.

 

Employers won't look down on your transfer. They'll ask you why you transferred and/or look positively on it if they even care. Unless you transfer "down".

Is it worth it to transfer at this stage? That depends on many things. Is money an important factor? Because most schools don't give good financial aid to transfers. Transfer credits are also another factor. If the school doesn't accept all of your credits, then you might have to stay another year, which costs another year of tuition. I don't think recruiting would be that big of a factor because you already have connections and can always network with alumni regardless of which school you're at. (unless you're at a college that literally doesn't have S&T and AM alumni). Some other smaller things that might be of consideration is the school's culture etc. These are some of the things that I considered last summer when I was deciding whether or not to transfer to a semi-target during my jr year. Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

by strong reputation public school, I would say U of M, UCLA, UVA, UNC stay, otherwise transfer... I don't understand why you would compare Brown and Berkeley. If out of state Berkeley is hard to get in, and Brown simply hard. Yet Brown and Berkeley are not comparable schools. just my thought.

 
dzwazy:

by strong reputation public school, I would say U of M, UCLA, UVA, UNC stay, otherwise transfer...
I don't understand why you would compare Brown and Berkeley. If out of state Berkeley is hard to get in, and Brown simply hard. Yet Brown and Berkeley are not comparable schools. just my thought.

None of the above public schools, as I stated it is a school with a strong reputation purely in-state. Not too difficult to figure out, it is in the northeast.

Brown and Berkeley are two of the best schools that I could logistically transfer to based on their acceptance of transfers without a credit maximum at the time of application.

 

I think it depends on the work experience you already have. If you've had an IB internship then I'm sure you can network hard and get IBD junior summer coming from your school (I'm assuming IB because of your status box).

If you don't mind staying for an extra year though then by all means try to transfer to Brown or Berkeley.

Just a guess, do you go to UConn?

 

If it means you'll have a better experience and have a better chance at job prospects, I would do it in a heat beat. Especially if you're not going backwards and have to retake a lot of classes.

make it hard to spot the general by working like a soldier
 

Always felt like the city was underdeveloped. Traffic jams everywhere. Don't really care for live music, and got tired of the bar scene after spending 2 years here. Public transportation is unreliable and sparse. Food was solid but nothing to write home about in my opinion. Too much empty space for me.

 

I'm in the process of going through LinkedIn right now and from what I'm seeing there's quite a few people in PWM and I'm just starting to reach out now. Not seeing a whole lot of people in IB though.

 

I transferred after my junior year from a non-target liberal arts college to a top 20 semi-target. I looked at Stern but didn't apply because from what I understand it is EXTREMELY difficult to transfer into. Obviously I'm doing an extra year now but based on the recruiting opportunities I've had, I would say it's been worth it. I'm also going to be graduating mostly debt free anyway so that's definitely a distinction from your situation.

Given that you haven't even done an internship yet means that you'll probably be a much less competitive applicant if you do transfer. FWIW it will also be difficult to sell yourself to stern as someone who wants to do IB when you haven't interned in finance. So that's something to think about, although, I don't want to discourage you.

My advice: Apply and if you get in then you can decide whether or not it makes sense. Another option would be a 1 year MSF. If you really are good enough to transfer into Stern then you're probably good enough for UVA or Vandy's programs which place decently well.

 

Did you get accepted to Stern yet? If you did, then yes, if you're set on IB, Stern would be your best bet. If you're applying next year, I would say apply to Stern, but apply to other schools as well. For example, I think Cornell is fairly transfer friendly and so is Northwestern.

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