Transferring Undergrad

Hello everyone,

I hope you have had a nice start to your week so far. I am a high school senior and as college decisions are coming to an end, I need to make a choice. I didn’t have the best luck, so the most prestigious school I’ve got into (so far) is Colby College in Maine. It is an extremely difficult school to get into, just not a huge brand name for finance. It is part of NESCAC, though.

I was wondering, if I attend Colby for a year, would it be feasible to then transfer to an actual target? Does anyone have any experience with this? I hope that if you are already attending a prestigious and well-known school (Colby is very well regarded in academia), would it be possible to then transfer to another prestigious school, just one that is an actual target for finance? Some schools I had in mind were Michigan, UVA, Berkeley, or even some top privates like Cornell and Columbia.

I still have some decisions coming out in the next couple days, so Colby isn’t final, but assuming it is, does this sound like a possible plan? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

3 Comments
 

Yea, it's doable. A friend of mine went to Colby and said a lot of people try to transfer out up the ladder of prestige–they even had a 15+ GC of people going through the transfer process. 

At least try to give Colby a chance, especially if you don't end up being able to successfully transfer out. Sure, it doesn't have much lay prestige, but def a solid option, and you could do much worse. 

 

Ea debitis aut placeat officia omnis sit. Id sint quam voluptas omnis aut sequi. Non in labore eos. Sed omnis maxime explicabo cumque dolores ut nihil. Pariatur necessitatibus voluptatem aut voluptate unde. Repellat quam est sed aut. Exercitationem quidem voluptatum qui.

Career Advancement Opportunities

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

May 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (65) $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

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
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...”