Australian High School Student Going To America For University
Hey Guys,
I currently haven't taken the SAT but preparing for it. My tutor said I should get over 1380 easy, he is expecting me to get in the 1400's he told me this morning. My high school grades are currently:
Maths: A-
English: B
SOR: A-
Business: A-
Science 21: A
(Changing from legal studies which is a B- to accounting which should be around a A-)
I don't know what my GPA would be because in Australia we do not calculate a GPA its just a report card you get every semester. So what would you guys say my GPA is?
Finally, with those grades will I get a solid enough GPA and with a SAT in 1400's or just under what are the chances of getting into the ivies or universities like NYU and University of Chicago etc? My safety pick is going to be Vilanova University.
Thanks
I'm going to be blunt and just say it how it is: your grades are not competitive for the top tier of schools that you're considering. Not even close. I'm an interviewer for an ivy - none of my applicants have been accepted, and all of them had far better grades.
As an Australian applicant, you really need to be looking at getting an ATAR of 99.95, or slightly less if you had a bad day for your exams. Most of these students still get rejected. There are about 3-9 Australians admitted to each ivy each year, and due to cross admits, less matriculate at each school. Half of those are recruited athletes.
Why not stay in Australia, go to Sydney, UNSW or Melbourne and apply for investment banking roles from there? There will usually be chances to work in New York or London if you stay in the industry. Due to Visa regulations, as an international student, you really need to attend Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia or Wharton to stand a good shot, and even then, you probably need to be in the top 25% of the cohort. Mind you, the cohorts in the majors you would need to take would be full of students who would get full scholarships at the top universities in Australia (every Australian I encountered had done so and students from many other countries had done the equivalent), so getting a GPA of 3.7 or 3.8 will be hard.
Thanks for response! I’m actually aiming to go more of the semi-targets due to their environment and college sports. I am thinking of applying to UCLA, Boston College, NYU, UVA, Villanova, USC, University of Texas-Austin, University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt. Are there any more I should apply or can you add to the list please or correct it if they are not semi-targets. My safety pick is going to be Villanova as they offer need based aid.
University of Michigan Ross, IU Kelley,
tulane
Visa restrictions for Australians for jobs are much more lenient than almost any other country. If you are at the top of your class at the aforementioned schools (maybe UQ ) as well you might be able to snag NY finance from Australian undergrad. Look up the E3 Visa.
Agree with the above.
It doesn't matter about the E3 Visa for analyst hiring. It matters that many banks put blanket bans on sponsoring analysts. I had a Canadian friend who couldn't get a job in the US because they didn't have a different hurdle for Canadians. In my opinion the E3 Visa is most relevant if you want to work in the US after having worked elsewhere, so that there aren't HR barriers making it really hard for firms to hire non-US citizens.
That said, it will be very difficult to intern in the US from an Australian undergrad, because the academic year is flipped.
So I can still go to university in America then apply for a job in NY with a E3 Visa?
^Can vouch for this.
Canadians have the easiest Visa access (TN1) but it's irrelevant if the bank has a blanket ban. I tried to claim ignorance and say I didn't need sponsorship, didn't work so well...
Hey jay_roots,
Send me a PM if you like - I am Australian, finished high school there, and then went to college in the US and was fortunate enough to find a job I was looking for after graduating - I was a little fortunate earlier on in that I was a student athlete and was recruited in (after lots of hard work!), but hopefully I can shed some light.
As mbamfinquestions notes below, ATAR is very important so obviously aim as high as possible, I think grades in Australia are less important than ATAR - because that is your comparative rank among your peers. As a very rough guide, have a look at percentile positioning in ATAR vs. SAT.
If you're end goal is to do investment banking in Australia, I would also agree with the other posters and stay at home - do a double degree in Commerce and Law / Economics / Engineering. When I graduated and did banking recruiting, it was me and my US degree from a non ivy against 100 guys with the same degree from reputable local institutions, often from the same universities the MD, VP, Associate etc went to. Why take a perceived risk on something different when you have a working formula (obviously I had to battle this!).
Hope this is helpful
Don't blindly jump into a comm/law degree just to chase an IB position. I know plenty of law graduates who did not get the banking grad job they were gunning for...
Just study the degree which you're most interested in and get good grades. There are many paths- I personally studied maths in one of the above mentioned unis. Most of the students who were in my cohort who were interested in finance were able to secure a job in the field after uni.
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Why go to semi-targets in the US when you could go to the University of Sydney?
UNSW and Melbourne both have better business schools than Sydney, but all three probably give you a better shot at banking than being a non-citizen semi-target student in the US.
Are you sure? From what I've seen, the majority of BB prefer to hire from Sydney. Melbourne has a weak structure within their finance discipline, and UNSW is only perceived to be better because of marketing (e.g. +5 bonus points).
As an American HS student, I don't think these schools are as easy as you may think to get into. I'm not really sure what the Australian equivalent is but I received all A's throughout highschool and the ACT equivalent of a 1400. Got waitlisted by Villanova, rejected from UVA and only my really smart friends got into Stern, BC, UNC etc.
OP is a fool... Stay in Aus, go to a target like Usyd, drink a ton of beers and enjoy life, get an offer in banking where you only work like 60 hours a week .... the Aus way!
Haha, 60 hours? 100% not true.
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