I know that Oxford is fairly prestigious, given that people give up lower tier ivies to go there, but how does it place into ibanking in sf/la? I doubt I'll get into a top tier school in the US because my gpa is ~3.65UW/4.05W, but my SAT is a 1560/1600 and I have 5's on 9 AP tests, which is all UK Unis care about. EDIT: How well do other universities place, like LSE, UCL, Warwick, KCL, and ST. Andrews?
I'm a US citizen so I won't need a visa.
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I think the biggest factor will be how well you articulate the reason you went to the UK for school and why you have a desire to be out west. Most of the shops there are recruiting from the top US targets and the top west coast schools.
I definitely think it can be done, will just require networking since I doubt you will have many alumni connections. If people from non-targets can break in, I am sure someone from Oxford can break in. It definitely is a prestigious name and that will help you, again you will just have to really articulate your ties to the West Coast
I live in the bay area, so i've loved the tech driven culture and I definitely want to work her. Is wanting to experience another culture a good enough reason to explain why I went to the UK?
Also, would it be worth transfering to a school less prestigous but more heavily recruited?(ie. USC, Claremont, Cal, UCLA) Or should I only think of transferring if I get into top tier targets like columbia, uchicago, or georgetown? Thanks
In response to your first question: I think that saying you are from SF and are very interested in tech will solve this hurdle of why West Coast. Experiencing another culture also works for why you went to the UK.
In response to your second question: If you want to do west coast IB, USC / Cal / UCLA / Stanford are the places to be. If you are thinking of transferring it would have to be after one year because timelines have moved up significantly for recruiting, and you wont get access to on campus recruiting in your third year. It will be done by then, so you have to be on campus second semester sophomore year but you want to be there from the start of sophomore year to network and get into clubs.
Lastly after finding out you are a sophomore: Get off this forum and stop worrying about this. You are way too young and are not gaining any real advantage this early. Worry about high school and getting into colleges before picking colleges and worrying about IB
I don't think Oxford itself is a problem -- everyone knows it's an amazing school. However, the fact that you're 5,000+ miles away will be a challenge. Networking is extremely important and it will be much more difficult doing that from another continent. I have no idea what Oxford's schedule looks like, but it may very well be impossible to attend interviews in-person (putting you at a major disadvantage).
You will have a better shot coming from California schools (Stanford, USC, Cal, UCLA, CMC). UCLA, Cal, and USC are pretty transfer-friendly. Target schools like the ones you mentioned (I don't think they would be considered top targets) take very few transfer students.
thanks fo your reply! while I have you here, would you consider USC non-marshall to be a non-target for west coast? I know marshall is one of the strongest targets for west coast banking
For both USC and UCLA it's more important to get into the banking clubs than to be a certain major. While you obviously shouldn't study communications or sociology, I've definitely seen people major in STEM fields as well as pure economics or econ/math and get into those programs and subsequently receive banking offers. It seems like it might be a little different at Cal.
I don’t want to burst you bubble but Oxford and Cambridge have some pretty tough entrance exams for certain subjects. So they don’t “only care about the AP results”. The statement does, however, hold with any other uni that you’ve mentioned (i.e UCL, Warwick). LSE put more emphasis on your personal statement though.
The MAT is super easy (I'm a sophomore and I can do 90% of the problems after self studying AP Calc) the part i'm worried abt is the interview. But from what I heard from friends, they're pretty easy and its more about how you think rather than getting the right answer
Lol, have you even sat the MAT before?
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