Didn't make it to a target. Now what?
Hey guys,
The last of my college decisions came out recently, and unfortunately, I was rejected from every target school I applied to. I'm not really surprised considering that I'm a broke international student, but my goal is to work in IB so this does put somewhat of a hitch in my plans. I'll be attending a satellite campus of a target school this fall (outside the US), and I'm hoping you can help me figure out what I should do next. The way I see it, I have four options:
1) Transfer to a target:
I could try to transfer to a target school in the US/Canada. This will be tough. Transfer rates at top schools are abysmal at best for domestic students in the US, let alone internationals. I could get into UMich or UT perhaps, but affording them will be next to impossible. However, I might just be able to transfer to and afford Ivey's HBA program in Canada, which I hear is a target. But is it worth it?
2) Go to grad school:
My school is quite selective and, as a result, has a very high grad school placement rate, so I'm also considering getting a MSF/MFin/MFE right after I graduate. I want to move to the US and join the workforce ASAP, and these programs could help me accomplish that. I have yet to look into the pros and cons of all these different programs, but I have plenty of time to do that.
3) Get a job and apply for an MBA after ~2 years:
This isn't exactly ideal for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's pretty hard to land good internships (of any kind) in the country I'm going to study in. I imagine it'll be quite hard to find a decent job (I've scoured LinkedIn and only found 3-4 alums in IB), which probably won't help my chances at a top MBA program. Secondly, like I mentioned earlier, I'd like to move to the US sooner than later.
4) Play it safe and just do engineering:
Normally, I'd major in econ or double in math/econ, but if breaking in proves to be way too difficult, I'm fine with just majoring in engineering and getting a masters in my field instead. At some point, I'll try to get an MBA, but I'll focus on efforts on engineering for the foreseeable future. I'd prefer not to do this (since IB is what I'm gunning for), but I'd also prefer not to be unemployed, so I'll do what I have to do.
And that's pretty much it. What would you guys do if you were in my shoes? I'd really appreciate any advice whatsoever.
Not from US so I'll leave the school-transfers and non-target recruiting to other users to chip in.
Just my 0.02: judging from your post, you are like many pre-university students who want to do IBD for the $. That is not wrong but at this stage you are too inexperienced and immature to know if this is what you really want to do.
The $ and experience is good (but I hear from my US friends post-tax its not that great) but you'll sacrifice a lot (half your school life is networking, padding CV and once you get to work its just a marathon for your analyst years / miss a lot of important weddings and family gatherings). Also, some people also just perform worst / become really unhappy on lack of sleep / constant stress -- I personally don't think its worth it to sacrifice your mental / emotion health for the $ since the $ will be used to pay for meds anyway. That being said I still think it makes a solid career or at least gives you a good starting platform if you find out you actually like banking (or atleast don't hate it...)
Just go to uni first, have fun in your first year or two, do some internships, get a good CAP / GPA then see how it goes from there. You may love finance / banking, or you may not. No point over thinking it now!