Transfer Advice Needed

Here's the story. I'm 19 years old, finishing up my freshman year in the Macaulay Honors program at Hunter College. Pulled a 3.92 last semester and am on track to pull a 4.0 this semester taking mostly poli sci and econ courses. Growing up Cornell was basically my dream school and although I was not admitted right away when I applied, I was given a guaranteed transfer (basically a 1 year deferred acceptance). I now have to decide whether to stay at my current college or take the chance and transfer to Cornell.

Let me first give you some background info on my present program. My program covers full tuition, a free single dorm in Manhattan (25th street!), free Macbook pro, $7500 one time study abroad grant, plus some other perks like close advising. The program is relatively new, only 8 years old, but is gaining ground quickly and the admissions stats at my school were very ivy like this year as well as in the past (15%, 1400+ sat). Still, my home campus, Hunter College, is not at all a target school for the careers that I am interested in. If I stayed I should mention that I would probably spend my entire junior year at LSE, Cambridge, or Oxford as it will be quite cheap considering the scholarships I could use.

If I were to go to Cornell I would be paying 38k a year for three years but even that is not bad given that NYS subsidizes part of the tuition and my parents would be full pay otherwise (Insert joke about Cornell being a state school here). I would be an ILR major (Industrial and Labor Relations) with an Economics minor. It's a very unique program but also very open ended at the upper levels. I would basically be taking labor econ, collective bargaining, organizational behavior, social statistics, etc. The Econ minor has essentially the same requirements as the Econ major so I would be taking at least a 1/4 of my credits in strict economics. I would also get the chance to take about 1/3 of my credits in finance/business courses in the AEM program, policy classes in PAM, and basically whatever else I want. I might even try switching to AEM after my first year. This program while not as geared towards I-Banking or strategic consulting as AEM still has been quite successful in sending interested grads into these fields. The program is top notch for HR Consulting, something I might be interested in. My parents are willing and able to pay for it but obviously 100k is not a small chunk of change. I have two younger siblings to watch out for as well.

As of right now I am very interested in pursuing consulting. Obviously going to Cornell would have a lot of advantages for me. I would be able to participate in on campus recruiting, carry the Cornell name on my resume, utilize the die hard alumni base, network, etc. My question to you folks is do you think from a career standpoint it makes sense to complete the transfer? I've heard many conflicting opinions and have had this weighing on my mind for quite some time. I'm happy where I am but at the same time I think I would easily be more academically fulfilled at Cornell.

Obviously I need to make my own decision and I have a host of other factors to consider but if you were in my shoes given the above information what would you do?

Cheers, Mike