Delaying graduation by a year by doing an MSc?
I'm probably attending a nontarget but major state flagship business school with around 45 AP credits, which would easily shave off 1, if not 1.5 years, of undergrad... however, people keep saying that rather than entering my school as a soph (which would overly accelerate IB SA recruiting and put me in junior standing once my 1st year ends), I should waste 1 more year at college doing essentially nothing but stalling and graduate with my bachelor's in the normal 4 years, burning all the AP credits I've worked so hard for.
However, instead of this, is it fine to enter as a sophomore but use my fourth year for an MSF or MSc in some field? While this sounds smarter, I'm worried that 1. I'll STILL be treated as a missed-the-train old hag for IB recruiting since I'd still technically begin recruiting in the oh-so dreaded "junior standing" and 2. I'm giving up the opportunity to do a better MSF at Vandy, Gtown, CMC, USC, etc.
Thanks for your help!
Yes graduating in 3 years is a pretty big disadvantage - you'd be a freshman with no GPA expected to immediately network/compete against sophomores with a GPA, finance coursework, and maybe some internships. Not going to go very well. Graduating in 3.5 years is fine though and keeps you on the same recruiting timelines as your classmates - they do not care about how many credits you have at a given time, just when you plan on graduating.
Why not do 3.5 years, kind of coast taking fewer credits, and can use the extra time for off-cycle internships or to study abroad? Go part-time for a semester or two to cut costs. I wouldn't view it as stalling... totally understand being eager to start your career, but college is an important development and self-discovery time and I wouldn't be racing through it. You've got a lot of years left in the workforce.
MSc/MSF is expensive and all but useless for finance/IB, so not really worth all the extra money. The "better" MSFs like Vandy & co is really only a last-ditch extension of recruiting for people who struck out in FT, it's not something you should be planning to do.
I entered school with ~40 AP credits and I graduated in 4 years. I was bored at times when my friends were drowning in finals and I only had 1 test, but got to take a lot of random non-core classes that I found interesting, did an extra part-time internship in an irrelevant "personal interest" field just for fun, and studied abroad. Life experience is worth every penny when it comes to college.
So would you suggest doing 12 credits a semester for 3.5 years (lol) but for god's sake keep me in the standard graduating path? So a senior year is better than an MSc year?
I think I did 15 most semesters because I was rather uneven when I had stuff going on. I did 6 one semester with an internship, 6 another semester to study abroad, and then 3 or 6 my final semester (if cost matters to you, those are all part-time numbers and schools typically drop the cost significantly). I recommend all of those things.
12 credits is fine btw. I get it, you're probably scheduled to the Nth degree as a high-achieving AP student, but it's okay to fill more time with hobbies + clubs/involvement + social life + just being a college student.
MSc just has zero benefit in this situation. You'd have to work harder with classes and spend at least $50k more. Graduate 1 semester early and either start early, or go work on a yacht / travel the world for a few months.
So to be sure, assuming the SAME exact graduating time, a purposefully-delayed senior year is better than an MSc?
Also, since I'm attending a nontarget, there's a decent chance I may not pull any BB/EB IB... therefore, would a Vandy MSF give an extra boost in terms of prestige and another summer to recruit?
It's not viewed better, it's practically the same... but it's saving you $50k and a lot of hustling for no reason.
You are a freshman on WSO attending a flagship state school. You will be more than fine. BB/EB is not that hard to land. Just keep your grades up, network a bit soph year, and be a reasonably chill person to be around (see: my suggestion above to enjoy college and not just be worried about taking "too few" credits).
If in 4 years you are headed into senior year with no prospects, then you can think about Vandy. The vast majority of people in that situation were late to the recruiting game. Take a breath my friend.
Eh, I mean they have a guaranteed and seamless BS/MS with no tuition hike... I'm not "abandoning" anything I'll literally be in the same dorm whether I'm a senior or an MSc student with no difference in life.
But if it's so simple, why do I see people heading to much better sold semi schools like UNC and UVA grinding DCFs and accounting 10 hours a day through freshman summer, hiring $7K Sam Shias, and dying over 3.8s for a fleeting chance at the god-gifted business school (no business school = no IB) AND STILL flunking many many interviews with ridiculous peer competition, let alone the aggregate 1% acceptance rate? Why so low?
Everyone says "oh chill out with so-called 'hustle' anyone can do it" but it seems like all these ppl here got into IB back in the Harvard Class of 2011 when the average ACT was a 33...
Sorry for the micro-rant lol but there's just so much conflicting advice out there for such a seemingly difficult industry!
Don't really want to get into this debate, plenty of threads on this, Sam Shia is a scam artist though. I stand by what I said in the last 6 comments, feel free to do whatever you want. If you check most boxes, IB is very well within reach from a state school.
Anyone at UNC/UVA who cannot land something with that profile is probably deeply failing on personality/behaviorals, often because they have nothing but finance in their lives. Technicals take 2ish weeks to learn so anyone working on them freshman summer needs to find something else to do.
I've dinged countless kids with sterling resumes and fabulous technicals... because they are literally unable to hold a normal conversation about what they do for fun on the weekends. Not trying to be super bro-ish here or anything, but there's a reason I keep emphasizing hobbies/college life. If you are a finance drone and do nothing but obsess over IB, that may result in you not landing IB.
Also FWIW I had multiple BB/EB offers, was A2A so graduated in the last handful of years, from a small private non-target with only a few NYC alums... so I'm not coming from the dark ages. Just encouraging you to have other interests, you seem way too anxious about this. Being well-rounded is equally as important as that 3.8.
If you are able to say, can you name the school? Is it on the Colby/Bowdoin LAC tier or Lehigh/Fordham?
Also, in general, how screwed are the econ/arts and science kids from WUSTL/Notre Dame/UMich etc (T25-T30s) whose business school are semitargets? Could I justify studying econ over doing a BSBA-finance by describing a desire for a slightly more academic/liberal arts education in these 4 short years?
So, in summary, as long as I pull a 3.7 in finance (by the way, is the "GPA" the in-major GPA or the cumulative college GPA?), join whatever clubs I can, talk to every fucking alum in the history of my nontarget, and possibly sign up for something credible-but-paid like WSO Academy, I should be set? Any other tips?
One more thing - will it be a ding to transfer from my flagship business school to UVA/UNC/UMich CAS econ (which are extremely transfer-friendly for non-business applicants) and jump on the recruiting train as a sophomore? Traditional T20 targets apart from only Vandy and Cornell are ridiculously tough... Any advice on how to hit the ground running?
True non target that is mentioned on here every now and then as a "better" non target. Definitely not in that strong LAC tier.
This is getting into the territory of needing to start a separate thread, or several - but if you have the opportunity you should do the finance major. Not getting into UMich Ross is one thing but if you have the choice you should keep the finance degree. Why self-learn accounting when it will be spoonfed to you over the course of your entire sophomore year? Double major or minor if you want the extra liberal arts.
Yes. Cumulative GPA and don't stop at only alums... but you are a high schooler my man, you are 2+ years out from even starting to network and way overthinking this.
Finally on transferring, I would absolutely stick with your business school unless it's like Montana State and there are zero alums. Schools like FL, GA, PSU b-schools place very well and have finance clubs that are targets for certain banks. And if you hate your school, there are plenty of transfer friendly non-T20 schools that do very well for IB.
But overall dude if you take one thing away here it's that you need to chill out a bit and spend freshman year enjoying college, not living in the library scheming about IB. I get college choice is stressful but you are worried about hypothetical situations that are years away
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