Study at London School of Economics or Transfer

Hello WSO readers,

I am a second-year undergraduate in studying in Washington DC and have a question. For background, I am studying both finance and international relations; our business school is nothing special but our IR program is top-10 worldwide. I would love to work in banking after graduating/while pursuing a MBA if need-be, and am especially interested in IB and Equity Research. Since I do not attend a target business school, I have been considering trying to transfer to a more desirable business school (Georgetown, NYU, Northwestern) in an attempt to connect more with big name employers.

However, I also have the option to study abroad all of next year at the London School of Economics. I know LSE is a very highly rated school, and I feel that such an opportunity would be invaluable, especially with connecting with large banks and hedge funds in the City. I also have close family in London who could help me with visas and work permits if I tried to work/intern in London.

Right now, I am in the middle of pursuing both avenues (transferring and going to LSE), but if both are possible, I would appreciate guidance on which would be more desirable. Should I try to transfer to another school in the US and spend my final 2 years of undergrad there, or study abroad at LSE and finish my final year at my current university? Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you!

2 Comments
 
Best Response

GWU it seems. Try to transfer in the US, I think people tend to overrate study abroad experiences. While a bank may be impressed that you studied at LSE for the year, at the end of the day you're still a non-target applicant.

If you transfer to a top US school that is a target, you will have superior opportunities for two reasons. 1) OCR, which makes the process much easier and gives you extra exposure that non-targets don't have 2) Established Wall St alumni networks. Targets all have these, and if you network effectively, you can land a great role.

You can go to LSE and stick it out in DC, but it does make SA/FT recruiting tougher. That being said, if you can get a role at a top bank/HF in london while you're abroad, and that is where you want to work FT, then that would arguably be more valuable.

 

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