Double transfer? From extreme non target -> flagship state school -> target?

Hello all!

I am a current junior at a flagship state school studying finance. 

I am a new transfer at my current school. I transferred in this fall (after 2 years) from a small satellite school with a 3.86 GPA, and am almost guaranteed to receive a 4.0 at my new school by semester end. This would bring my cumulative GPA up to something like a 3.9. 

It is my goal to work in management consulting (or IB)- would transferring (again!) make any sense? 

My current school is good, but definitely not a target - it is home to a top-20 undergraduate business school, according to Poets and Quants/U.S News. Think of big 10 schools like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue. Business school is relatively well respected, but the school as a whole is underwhelming - great placement rate and starting salaries, good for b4/t2 consulting type work. 

This next summer I will be interning with Wells Fargo's corporate and investment banking division as a corporate banking summer analyst. In addition to this, I have been admitted to a very selective consulting student org within my school that is well known by consulting companies in the area. 

Would trying to transfer to a target school make any sense? After 3 years and two schools would that still help me at all? I wish that I had applied to target schools as a transfer a year ago, but didn't because I figured that I wouldn't be able to afford them. We only place around 10-20 people per year (could be higher - don't have great data) into MBB/BB IB roles each year. Am I a moron for considering this so late? Would I even be admitted? 

10 Comments
 
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I ask, why? You mentioned that you have an offer lined up and are in this group that would look baller on a resume/networking Ops (I’m assuming). Why drop all of your involvement/social life to get a marginal better chance at what you wanna do? It makes sense for you to transfer the one time, but after that you are just throwing opportunities and experiences away when it’s not really necessary. You can still get to where you wanna go from a big ten school, whichever university it is.

 

Apologies for the late response!

I am toying with the idea because of the extreme correlation between the prestige of an individual's university and their likelihood of success. 

This not only applies to my prospects immediately following graduation, but also to my likelihood of success (C-Suite position?) beyond the years immediately following graduation. I want the ethos of an ivy league/target school behind me as I move through corporate America. I don't believe that my current school carries enough weight, especially when you take into account that a massive portion of CEOs - and successful individuals in general - graduated from ivy league universities. 

I honestly don't think that I'll end up transferring, but I wish that I had understood how impactful college prestige is a year or more ago. I thought that the big 10 business school that I applied to was the best of the best. I was wrong. It seems as though I'm unlikely to be able land a job with an MBB firm next fall. I do intend to try my absolute hardest, but I am worried that I won't be able to accomplish what I want to simply because of the school on my resume.

I understand that my university does not exactly determine my likelihood of success and that most of what I accomplish will be through my own hard work/luck, but I can't help but fantasize about what having "Harvard" on my resume would do for my career. 

I also intend to apply to M7 MBA programs after a couple of years of postgraduate work - I'm worried that my school will also impact MBA acceptance rates.

 

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