Is Transferring from Emory worth it?

I did decently well first-semester freshman year, ending with a 3.89 (made the deans list and all that jazz).

I've been enjoying it a lot here socially and I would probably only dislike it if I don't get into the fraternity I want to during rush next semester. The lack of school spirit here or any sort of camaraderie has honestly been pretty depressing, though. It would suck ALOT to have to leave all my close friends and start over somewhere else.

Coming from a poor family, I have zero connections. The OCR and "prestige" at a school could help a lot.

Extracurricular wise, I've honestly been kind of meh. It's only been first semester so I've been trying to adjust a bit better. A lot of clubs here are hyper-competitive so it's been kinda rough to be super involved. Honestly, I'm probably going to try to join entirely different clubs in the Spring Semester b/c the EC's I'm in rn haven't been that great for me. Definitely need to be more proactive.

All that I've done: - Wrote articles on the school paper ( thinking about quitting ) - Research Head of a Social Entrepeneurship Org (definitely quitting) - Part of a Social Entrepreneurship fellowship in which we are trained leadership / fundamentals of starting a business. -A club sport

Spring semester, I intend to focus a lot more on finance EC's.

High School Stats: 3.75 GPA Top 10% 2230 SAT EC's: Philosophy Club President, Co-founder and president of a Flower and Card distribution organisation, debate captain, and head activities director of a boys group

Schools I'm interested in: Stanford Econ/Philosophy ( Would 200% go if I got in ) Penn CAS - Philosophy, Politics, Economics ( Would definitely go if I got in ) Duke Trinity - Econ/Philosophy ( Would probably go if I got in ) Columbia CAS - Econ/Philosophy ( Would probably go if I got in ) Brown - Econ/Philosophy ( Not sure if I would go ) Cornell CAS - Dyson AEM ( Not sure if I would go b/c ithaca ) Northwestern CAS - Econ/Philosophy ( Probably wouldn't go for personal reasons )

IDK, is it even worth applying? Looking at past transfer threads for specific schools, most admits had amazing stories, were athletes, or at least had a 3.95+ GPA. It would actually be a miracle if I got into any. The acceptance rates were ridiculously low. Also, don't want to go through the whole stressful process and A) get in nowhere B) get in and eventually decide not to leave. Although, I am a very good writer and can probably BS pretty decent essays.

I think the only realistic schools I could MAYBE get into are Cornell and NU, which I'm pretty wishy-washy about.

12 Comments
 

Charizard You don't think Northwestern and Brown are worth it? Also, isn't Wharton basically impossible to get into so CAS is a better bet? Do you think Cornell CAS is worth it, or should I only go for Dyson?

 

you're delusional if you think it's easy to transfer into Ross. They let in 90% of internal transfers, then have around 10-15 slots per year set aside to external transfers.

UVA wouldnt be too tough (you would get into CAS, then would apply and most likely be accepted into McIntire as a junior). However, UVA recruitment isn't off the charts. I'd take Michigan(ross)/Duke/Penn over UVA anyway.

 

Ross acceptance rate for freshmen is like 40%. Also McIntire IB recruitment is similar to Ross adjusting for size. 30% of McIntire kids get into investment banking not everyone in McIntire is even gunning for IB.

Look around WSO, the school has gotten favorable reviews and the vast majority of people consider it a solid target that gets recruiting from all the BBs and EBs.

I go to UVA and yeah Duke and Penn (this is the tippy top target...) are definitely better, but assuming that Ross is significantly superior isn't true.

Targets/Semis: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/list-of-targets-and-semi-targets

 
Best Response

Don't underestimate the social aspect of transferring; I'm someone who went down that road and starting off in on-campus undergrad housing as an upperclassman fucking blows. The doors aren't open all the time, no one does cool floor bonding shit in the lounge, everyone already has friends, a lot of kids are off-campus, etc. It's not the end of hte world if you're social and do clubs / sports but the beginning is not the most fun.

As for your list, Stanford makes sense but will be very tough and non-Wharton Penn may seem appealing but really won't help you that much come recruiting. Not sure if you're in Goizueta already but if not try internal transferring into it; I've seen some absolute stars come out of Emory (EB -> MF, multiple examples) and plenty do just as well as the top kids from IU and the like, so really Wharton or HYPS would be the only options to really consider (and YPS not really for recruiting purposes).

 

To the Cornell / NU question: yes. I can't say those schools offer even marginally better recruiting and so are definitely not worth the social cost / actual potential credits cost.

Columbia/Duke are interesting more for academic reasons than finance recruiting--if you kill it at Goizueta then the network shouldn't be that much better elsewhere, but if you are interested in the presumably stronger holistic liberal arts educational stuff then they could be interesting.

 

Tempora officiis ratione minima tempora in ut quaerat. Fugit provident doloremque voluptatum accusamus corrupti dolorum. Aut aliquam facilis ex et facilis.

Qui consectetur ullam error aperiam. Quae laborum est veritatis quia cum eius nihil. Rerum eum et dicta in dolorem inventore in. Dolorum expedita necessitatibus excepturi omnis est. Ducimus aut alias nulla culpa officiis eius quis sit. Velit nihil non et.

Veritatis assumenda vero consequatur tempora omnis aspernatur cumque. Totam corporis qui nemo rerum. Quisquam aperiam et sunt nostrum dolores. Excepturi et qui a pariatur soluta sint officiis. Nisi velit perferendis ipsum magnam laudantium nam beatae. Delectus dolorem non quo quis sint. Qui ad sequi rerum aut et.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.3%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • Goldman Sachs 02 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (44) $258
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (79) $150
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (73) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”