How is my college list

I’ll keep it really brief, I want to work in finance ON THE WEST COAST (really not NY unless I absolutely can’t get anything west coast).
Current List(I have applied already):
Reach: Stanford
Target: USC, UW Seattle, Santa Clara
Safety: Seattle U, UW Bothel, and
Due to multiple reasons, I can’t apply to UC Berkeley or UCLA. Is there anywhere else I should apply? Also, my parents think I should apply to BC, because they have a weird obsession with the school, but I don’t know helpful it would be to go there if my sole goal is to work west coast. Also, brief stats, I live in Seattle, go to a well known Catholic HS (cuz of football), that places well into good schools, but almost never to ivy, like maybe one a year to lower ivies, I have a 3.77 UW GPA with 8 APs, 3 UW college courses, and 4 honors classes, 4 years of Spanish with two being college level. With these stats and goals, where else should I apply, and would u recommend I apply to BC? I really don’t like Boston tbh, but if it would rlly help me a lot, I would apply. Thanks for the help.

 

Not OP, but college confidential just preaches about fit if you try to get your college list critiqued. You can get advice on recruiting from different schools here which is actually pretty helpful to people like OP.

 

College confidential would probably be better for this. Would probably consider adding the schools in Claremont consortium. Maybe LMU also. However, given you can’t apply to UCLA or Berkeley and want to work in finance, you’re essentially limited to USC and Stanford. Your stats only seem only okay for competitive schools (do you have ACT/SAT?). Most people going to these schools from my HS 5 years ago had close to a 4.0 UW and 4.4+ weighted (went to a competitive HS in Cali where A-/A/A+ all counted for 4). Even though you want to work on west coast, you should probably apply to more private East Coast schools. These schools send a lot more people to finance than WC schools. 

 

Every single one of my SATs got cancelled unfortunately. Also, like another user said above, people on college confidential just say “go where u fit.” I was hoping for people in the industry go give an answer based off of what they have seen in their career.

 

Most people in this forum have only worked a few years so hard to say what we’ve seen in our careers. However as a second year analyst at a top BB with friends working across BBs, some PE shops and HFS, what I can say is your school alumni network is pretty important at the entry level positions. Because your school alumni network is important, where you go to school is pretty important. As such, I would focus on universities that send a lot of people into finance (even if that school is on east coast and you want to work on west coast). I have had a lot of people call me from good schools but non-targets, and I am happy to talk with them, but I never know what to do with their resume or how to really help them get an interview given school alumni typically lead recruitment. Even looking at the west coast offices, most people attended the usual “target” school and not some random private WC school. Additionally, you should be open to the idea of working in NYC for two years as it’s a pretty good place to start your career. There are a ton of opportunities for PE / HFs on west coast that you can move to after a two year banking stint and people do it very frequently (again, the person from a top group on east coast will be better positioned for WC job than someone at smaller bank on WC). Finally, do not forego “fit” just for a school with better recruiting. Cast a wide net (your stats are okay but not really stellar at competitive schools) and pick based on a fit, career outcomes, etc. I am not sure your financial background, but would apply to all the Ivies and good NE private schools. If there is a school you like and think you’re on the margin for, consider applying ED (maybe Cornell, UPenn, Swarthmore, etc)

 

Not particularly. At the end of the day man, I think people overemphasize the important of target schools. As long as you attend a decently prestigious school and make sure you're on top of your networking game, I doubt it'll be too hard to get interviews wherever you want. I can't imagine that if you took the effort to get ~15 people at every firm you're targeting on the phone and took a networking trip out to the West Coast one week to meet your contacts that you'd be passed up for a first round. Try to get into Stanford, Berkeley or USC but if not it's not the end of the world at all. 

 

Cal, I have visited and have family friends that go there, and I could just never see myself there, usually I don't care that much about fit, but I just couldn't stand there. Also, I most likely can't get in to Cal or UCLA, looking at my school's stats, we have had one person with below a 3.9 get in in the last 5 years, and they had a 1590 SAT with a 3.88 GPA. However, USC, kids have defintiely gotten in from my GPA range, and even lower, with average SATs. A lot have gotten denied too, but it's much more random with USC, looking at my school's statistics. UCLA and Cal basically have a cutoff that I don't meet. Even people in my gpa range with a 1550 and above SAT got dinged. Also, my councilor told me that being out of state, I would not get any financial aid at the UCs even if I did get in, which I won't, and I would be paying the full 60k per year, which is ALOT. Finally, my school has different art requirements, and reaching out to the admissions councilors, they have been unclear if my arts classes count for their requirements (they do at literally every other school besides UCs), so I might not even meet basic qualifications. 

 
Most Helpful

If you want to work in finance on the west coast, Cal Berkeley and UCLA should really be on your list. Putting aside Stanford because odds are so low for anyone, Cal and UCLA are the top two targets on the west coast (USC is there too but my mental model has UCLA just ahead of them). If you're not comfortable disclosing the reason you can't apply to them here publicly, feel free to PM me. This is a huge decision and one I want you to make with the best information.  

 

Thanks, I appreciate the advice, and am definitely going to apply to more east coast schools. 

 

Cal, I have visited and have family friends that go there, and I could just never see myself there, usually I don't care that much about fit, but I just couldn't stand there. Also, I most likely can't get in to Cal or UCLA, looking at my school's stats, we have had one person with below a 3.9 get in in the last 5 years, and they had a 1590 SAT with a 3.88 GPA. However, USC, kids have defintiely gotten in from my GPA range, and even lower, with average SATs. A lot have gotten denied too, but it's much more random with USC, looking at my school's statistics. UCLA and Cal basically have a cutoff that I don't meet. Even people in my gpa range with a 1550 and above SAT got dinged. Also, my councilor told me that being out of state, I would not get any financial aid at the UCs even if I did get in, which I won't, and I would be paying the full 60k per year, which is ALOT. Finally, my school has different art requirements, and reaching out to the admissions councilors, they have been unclear if my arts classes count for their requirements (they do at literally every other school besides UCs), so I might not even meet basic qualifications. 

 

Should probably be noted that Cal and UCLA out of state tuition is extremely reasonable compared to equivalent private institutions. It’s tough to give advice without knowing how cost sensitive you are. However, USC / private east coast colleges are likely going to be significantly more expensive than the public school alternatives. Also, I wouldn’t discount your chances at Berkeley / UCLA. I went to HS in California where 50+ people applied every year and you would be pretty surprised who got in. I think at the time, out of state admission was equally as selective if not easier (funding issues and a fight with the governor). 

 

Agreed. Would definitely aim for Cal if I was in your position and UCLA (would probably go to USC if money isn’t an issue). If you can’t apply to Berkeley / UCLA, you should look at east coast schools. As the poster above said, this is a pretty big decision and you should not base it solely on post-grad recruiting. It’s tough because you can’t visit the schools, but maybe make a list of schools and then watch YouTube videos to get a feel for the campus (undergraduate student vlogs are pretty popular now). Two other things to consider are a gap year and transferring. You can take a gap year, take your SAT etc, and then try to apply to schools (you should ask a college counselor about this though). You can also attend a good school, do well, and then transfer. I have seen plenty of people transfer from place like Tufts / BC / etc to Ivy Leagues. 

 

thanks for the advice, I definitely am going to start applying to more east coast schools. Also, I really can't apply to Berkeley or UCLA unfortunately, due to multiple factors.

 

FWIW... UW can provide opportunities at most firms if you start early/work hard. I know people from UW at most major banks both in NYC and SF. I also know a few at large PE firms. UW definitely is not a target by any means, but it has a strong enough global name that you won't be dinged too much for going there. The drawback is that the majority of UW students don't go into high finance. If you're interested in tech or corp fin, UW is a fantastic option for that.

 

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