Non-target Undergrad V.S CC to Target Undergrad

Hello everyone, Hope you are all staying safe amidst the Corona Virus breakout.

Background I'm looking for advice regarding my path to working in finance, specifically at a Hedge Fund. As of now I am trying to decide on whether I should go to school at UC Riverside or go to a CC for two years and transfer to a target school such as UCB or UCLA. I understand that this transfer is difficult and will require me to have an extremely strong GPA throughout my two years in CC, but I am sure that I can manage to do this. I am leaning towards transfering to a target school after two years as this will look the best on my resume, although I am hesitant as this means I will be missing out on two years of the 'college experience' as well as this not being a guarenteed path to a target school. During CC I assume that it will also be harder to gain connections, and this is something that, from what I've read, is almost crucial to breaking into the finance world. My fear in going to UCR lies in the fact that when trying to land a job after I graduate, they will dismiss my resume as UCR is a non-target school. From the research that I have done, going to a target school is an extremely large factor when trying to land a job, although I have also read a decent amount on people landing great jobs at Hedge Funds with internships, connections, and other experience.
**Question ** So my question here is whether the limited networking at community college for the first two years of my undergrad is worth going having a chance at going to a target school or if I should take the opportunity and go to UCR and build myself from there through experience and networking.

Thank you for your spending your time in reading this and helping me choose how to best achieve my goals.

3 Comments
 

Californian as well. I am in the second boat right now. Waiting to hear back from Haas and Irvine-PM, which are the only targets I applied to. I haven't slept in f-cking weeks!

Heres what I did, I think it's decently finessed:

Went to a Semi-Target (Above Davis, Below Irvine) for one year, got all the networking connections (eg: Professor Contacts, Networking w Alumni, School Clubs, Modeling Coursework) while keeping a 3.9 GPA, which wasn't easy at all for the school. Then I went down the street to (a very famous) CC where I loaded up on nearly twice as many units for a couple hundred bucks while still enjoying the benefits of the 4-Year I went to. CC's have insane grade inflation and keeping a 4.0 there as opposed to a UC will be a total walk in the park.

Do both. Worked insanely well for me. Let me know any questions you may have.

 

Vel exercitationem asperiores et dolorum eius. Sit quia veritatis veritatis recusandae autem sunt nihil. Voluptatem nesciunt molestiae totam accusantium ipsum. Non perferendis dicta laboriosam velit nesciunt. Voluptatem vero consectetur ut numquam aliquid voluptatem est.

Harum natus ipsam odio sed. Odit asperiores nam sed quam quis. Aliquam eligendi consequatur laboriosam libero omnis enim.

Quod inventore quia illum ipsa voluptatum qui omnis. Distinctio quisquam natus sed maxime deserunt quia. Ipsa harum enim id similique sint.

Nulla consequatur quo odit consequatur vero cumque quis. Suscipit quae inventore facere id sint molestiae. Soluta inventore cumque eos ipsa dolores consequatur.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 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

June 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

June 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

June 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 (67) $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
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Linda Abraham's picture
Linda Abraham
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...”