Transfer from Lower Target to Higher Target

Please, don't. I wouldn't even consider it unless you are at Cornell. (I personally think Dartmouth and Brown are severely underrated on this forum when factoring in student interest and size). At all these schools, get good grades, have an interesting story, network well, and get some internships and you'll have a great shot at a bulge bracket- maybe even buy-side if you are lucky.

There is a stigma associated with transfers, like it or not. Alumni are slightly less keen to talk with you, and friendships have already been made. You won't be able to make as many meaningful connections in college and that will result in a weaker network down the road. People will see that you transferred from a low ivy to high ivy and assume you are materialistic and prestige obsessed. Alumni from your current school will assume you think you're too good for them, and alumni at your future school will think you weren't smart enough to get in as a freshman. I currently go to USC/Berekley and probably wouldn't transfer to Harvard if I had the chance.

Are they more prestigious- no question.. But there are more Cornell grads at Goldman than Princeton and Yale combined (around equal at 600 actually). And more Dartmouth grads at GS (per graduate) that Princeton and Yale.

Unless you are truly miserable at your current school and don't have any friends- I wouldn't do it. There is a slight difference in recruiting- while the placement numbers are roughly the same student interest in finance at Princeton/Yale is lower than at Dartmouth/Cornell. So you will have more competition at your current school. But that could also be a good thing since you'll have more college friends in the industry 25 years from now..

Graduate in the top 5% of your class, be sociable, network, and work hard and you'll be working at GS, MS, JP Morgan, CS, BofA 3 years from now

What year are you in school and are you at Cornell or one of the others you mentioned (Dartmouth / Brown). I don't really know much about the transfer process, how long it takes etc, but I would only really consider this if you're at Cornell, and even then I don't think it really makes sense. Assuming you've just finished your freshman year, by the time you transfer I guess you would be 2nd semester sophomore year? I would imagine this will leave you behind the ball on networking / recruiting, and just as a general rule of thumb I wouldn't suggest transferring. The people I've seen do it ended up in a sort of limbo with frankly weaker relationships at both schools (their earlier school and the newer one). If it is a huge leap up then sure, but you're already at a good school, just do your best there and you won't have an issue breaking into any industry.

Go to a ‘lesser’ ivy so I can weigh in- if you can’t land a top finance job from one of these schools, it’s your fault, not your school’s fault. You will have 99% of the same opportunities available to a HYP grad available to you- there might be 1-2 firms that only recruit from HYP, but every single BB/EB or top PE firm will take apps from all ivys.

If you hustle from a Dartmouth/Brown/Cornell, you can absolutely land GS TMT, PJT RX, or whatever you think the best possible internship/job is. Save the time on transferring and instead network and study technicals and you will be completely fine.

Why are people shitting on Cornell so much here? It’s not Columbia/Dartmouth level but they do absolutely fine in recruiting and always place well...

Do it only if you want a boost to your ego or if you are extremely unhappy. HYP will definitely give you a boost but probably not by as much as your parents may think.

I went to Cornell (AEM). Picked it over Dartmouth and another school “ranked” above it (think Duke, UChicago, Northwestern). Granted, money was a consideration for me but even then, many people on here would have called me a moron (I'd argue the three schools that get shat on the most by this website are IU, NYU, and Cornell).

I can assure you that if you want a banking job, even from lowly Cornell, you should be able to get one if you put in some modest form of effort. My parents worked really hard to save up the money to send me to school and I had zero connections entering school so I didn't take anything for granted. I took a bit of a head start on the prep and busted my ass off and ended up getting a job offer at the first bank I interviewed with and took it. I probably didn't need to do that (and there were a lot of kids who honestly didn't deserve those jobs who got them) but the point is, if you really want that job, you'll have the opportunity to land it. There definitely are a lot of people gunning for finance but nowhere near as many as the people on here crack there out to be - even in the business school (200-250 kids per class), about 50% go into finance (probably half of those go into PWM, S&T, research, corp fin, etc.).

Dartmouth has a very strong alumni network and is a small school. Will give you a very good chance at landing a gig at GS/MS. If you can't get a banking job from Brown, then there's a serious problem because everyone talks about how little interest in finance there is (people are more focused on consulting). While it may come off as a bit of a Cornell rant, the point is that even at the most "inferior" of the three schools, you should find yourself in a pretty good spot.

Good luck!