Community college
As an international student with some financial restrictions and wanting to get into IB or PE(undecided), my parents(both studied in US), have suggested going to community college for a semester while waiting for my green card to be accepted.
I definitely want to transfer out, if not within the semester then within the year, and apply to a four year college for in state tuition fees(New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Maryland).
Would this path screw me over in terms of getting into IB?
Any schools nearby or within these states transfer friendly or good for me to succeed in IB/PE?
For context,
-Took the SAT's, score is competitive for Rutgers, Penn state, Umaryland
I actually was in a similar situation 3 to 4 years ago, I went to a community college in Maryland and transfer to a school in DC as an intl student, and I got an offer in consulting. I would say community College will not hurt your chances, it's just where you transfer to that will give you a shot in IB (and your knowledge/work ethic obviously).
I don't think the school you listed are necessarily bad for IB/PE, but they may not be good feeders for undergrad. UMD is a very good school and I know a few people who went to IB upon graduation, for Penn State I have no idea.
My advice for you, try getting good grades (3.7+ GPA), transfer to school like UPenn, Georgetown, NYU instead of Penn State and Rutger. Even if you don't have a green card at that point, you will still be able to work in IB, especially if you are a STEM major. Also, do a little search on LinkedIn to see if the schools you are targeting have a lot of people in IB after undergrad.
First of all, thank you for your detailed and helpful comment! You gave me hope LOL, and thanks for the advice!
I do plan to do very well in Community college, and I am planning on trying admission into Cornell and NYU Stern(Both reaches for me)
The schools I listed were more of my target schools that kind of match where I think I can get admitted to, but seeing your point I should really work hard to try to attend feeder schools.
Would you happen to know which majors gain most admissions into the industry? My parents said mostly business but I am seeing people from some STEM majors working in IB. Thanks for all the help!
Obviously business majors like Finance (predominantly), Accounting, I'm not sure about Marketing lol. I've seen a lot of STEM majors like Comp Sci, Pre Med go to IB in recent years.
If you are STEM major I would recommend you to get some business classes though, like Accounting, principles of Finance, stuff like that just to build your business acumen. If you can join a finance or investment club that would be even better (it me helped a lot when I applied for internships/FT roles in Consulting and IB).
I'm not comfortable revealing too much (hence the anon) as it has screwed me in the past, but my path was community college, transfered into what this forum would label a semi-target school, then worked my butt off to land an IB spot. This path is possible but difficult.
Community college is underrated by everyone, but you have to recognize that the 'prestige' of IB means that the people checking resumes and interviewing may write you off just for not being the typical 4-year student. It is not a bad path to take a year and then transfer, but I would recommend you hide that fact as best you can, as I immediately noticed a difference in response (even from alumni) as soon as I removed that part from my resume. I'm talking about a difference between maybe 5% responding to 50%.
For transferring itself, you need to aim for a 4.0 to be certain you're not hurting your chances. Take easier core classes that will transfer (you can check with admissions at those schools or at the community college for guidance) and get perfect grades to remain competitive. Get involved with sports and clubs at community college, because you'll need those to help transfer and to land competitive spots in clubs at your new school (which you need to be competitive for IB). I had a 4.0 and a club position (business fraternity, state competitions) which helped me a ton for essays and standing out.
Getting a solid job was also extremely difficult as a community college student in my first summer, even though I was transferring to the semi-target school. I was written off by every bank or corporate I reached out to despite my great GPA in my first year and my club involvement, and the job fairs were pretty useless to me as they were generally aimed at students completing 2 years at comm (often in trades) and definitely not students who want to go to IB. You will need to be very proactive with reaching out to people, cold calling (phone, not email) hiring leadership, and selling your story (the financial cost story always works) to get the same chance as 4-year students.
I only mention all this because I want you to be very aware that moving from community college to a competitive 4-year is not easy, that even if you do so you will still be very challenged in landing club spots and jobs at the same rates as other 4-year students, and you will have to fight hard to achieve IB. I sacrificed quite a bit of the college experience to turn my life around and, as you can probably tell, I am still self-concious of my background with a chip on my shoulder.
Thank you so much for responding. I honestly thought that an attendance in Community College would be more accepted in the US, and that it wouldn’t limit your chances in one’s endeavours.
As you mentioned, I do plan to get a 4.0 GPA and I think I can achieve this, as the country I’m currently in has a really high educational standard, and I’m hoping it translates to me excelling in community college.
By the way, do you think not getting a relevant job/internship during my year in community college will hurt me in the future? I would be an international student during my time in CC, and we can’t work off campus(although I will try hard to get a relevant on-campus job)
I would just like to end off with the fact that your story is really inspiring, thank you for taking the time to respond :)
On the 4.0, only thing I would warn is that college grading is much trickier than high school grading, as there are far fewer assignments and a single test can make or break an entire letter grade. So may want to stick to your stronger subjects to be careful.
I don't think that not having a relevant role your first year will dramatically affect your chances, as most of the students at my school did not have anything until sophomore year. I think a strong on-campus job would be helpful. Maybe they have an endowment office with investment connections? There is likely to also be some sort of finance office that you could reach out to. Even if these don't stick on your resume to avoid the comm connection, they could help you land better internships over your next two summers and during your sophomore year, which would set you up well for junior summer recruiting. I think you should look at corp fin or commercial banking internships for your sophomore summer as you work towards IB, as they could give you a good shot and are far less competitive than IB and corporate banking from what I've seen.
Thanks :) and no problem! I don't talk about it off anon to avoid possibly hurting my ability to advance my career further, but I am proud of what I've been able to achieve and enjoy helping other driven people. Again, it's a very difficult path, and the stress and anxiety are very real, so please always remember that IB is ultimately just a white collar job with an insane amount of hours, and landing internships or a FT role is more a matter of luck and momentum than a reflection of your worth. Best of luck.
I did it and then transferred to an Ivy. Would eco the comments recommending you hide it... never lie, but I took it off my resume and LinkedIn. There are a few of us around the Street man. Keep grinding and if you play your cards right it shouldn't matter that much. Some people definitely looked down on me but I have a very solid gig now so who cares— anything is possible. Other than getting good grades and stuff, I'd suggest being social with other kids and not pigeon-holding yourself into "that" transfer student who's clearly trying to compensate/has a chip on your shoulder. Doing stuff like playing intramural/club sports, making friends with transfers from other "good" schools (in my case, Duke/UChicago/Northwestern/Cornell kids) was helpful as it created ways for me to connect and socialize with other transfers. Tbh I was probably known as a chiller at college, not a finance sweat which made people vibe with me more. I never joined a finance club, just Greek life which was pretty helpful regarding recruiting and shit (although you didn't need to be in a club to do IB/HF/PE at my school). Most people admire my path although I wish I had the "traditional" college experience. No one likes a transfer who's a finance sweat. Just be chill, genuine, and intellectually curious. That said, definitely had a fair share of assholes at some IBs shit on me, but they'd probably give up a lot to have my current job so who gives a fuck
Having a TO is very different from normal transfer application lol
If you don’t mind me asking what’s a TO? Is it transfer option?
I didn't have a TO? I said that I made friends with other transfers from Cornell so that rules out that school lol
Thanks for the reply! Holy shit transferring to an Ivy is crazy! Good tips on being social! I definitely want to try considering the fact that I have 0 friends in US 😂
I’ve always wanted to do intramural sports in College given the fact that I’ve been doing debate for pretty much half my life, and I’m a sporty person LOL, seems like a good Avenue to make friends
Also damn, you’re in asset management? I’m heavily considering that because it seems like it has a better work-life balance than IB 🫣
Finally, do you think I should stop posting about community college under my account? Scared it gets caught up with a few years down the road
CCs are certainly non targets so transfer out as early a you can to a target 4yr for the internships.
That was my path.
Incidunt facilis dolorem maxime sed praesentium nihil. Impedit consequatur minus delectus. Sit praesentium quidem perferendis voluptatem. Et ut voluptatum sunt quia sunt rerum impedit.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...