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Regarding your initial assumptions, your undergrad degree only determines your access to OCR; your career path will be more affected by what bank you go to after graduating. Even so, your performance at said bank will dictate your ability to move to PE more than the name of the bank itself. Eg a top analyst at BAML would be more likely to get to KKR than the bottom ranked guy at Goldman.

Your ugrad degree/bank are just advantages you can give yourself; you will still see people from schools way worse than UW at top PE firms. By no means is your career set in stone.

As for choice of major, it matters less as your school becomes more of a target. Ex: A English major at Harvard will have no trouble getting into IBD; a English major at Berkeley will have a rough time.

Having said that, Emory will serve you better for recruiting (UW does have a great CS program though). I am assuming you applied to Goizuetta? While they are still not a "target", they will have substantially more OCR than UW. Factoring in an added financial incentive, I would definitely transfer.

It will be rough to leave your friends, but that is really a decision only you can make. Professionally and financially speaking, Emory is a better choice.

 

1) Wherever you go make sure your GPA is as high as possible. If you have a super-strong GPA that can help to make up for not going to a target (at least partly).

2) If you can go to Emory for cheaper than Washington, I'd go there. It's still not really a target school, but it's at least a semi-target. I have no idea who recruits at Washington (in the banking world). Someone correct me if I'm wrong (for all I know there is recruiting at Washington, but you don't see people from Washington around much).

 

There is no real recruiting from UW. GS is there for technology I think, and one other BB recruits for a Las Vegas office. Their CS program is 7th nationally, but very few kids place into anything related to banking. I believe the Big 4 is there though.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 
A Posse Ad Esse... one other BB recruits for a Las Vegas office...
Working at a bank in Vegas HAS to be the most expeditious route to an addiction of some kind ever.
If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
kingtutGo to Emory if you can. It has one of the best ugrad business programs in the country.
And everyone knows that you need to go to an undergrad business school to go to banking. Most of the targets are business schools!

/sarcasm

Emory isn't a target. If cheaper than UWashington, go there. Otherwise, it may actually not be worth it - it's better to get leadership positions in clubs and a 4.0 at UWashington then a crappier GPA and no leadership positions (since you are transferring, you have not have the time to establish yourself for leadership.)

Just my two cents.

 

Emory isn't really much of a target for investment banking or top tier consulting but I would say go to Emory for sure if you can transfer in. It's not worth it to pay out of state tuition for pretty much any state school. However if you can get into UW CS (I'll be attending this program next year), it might be worth the money.

And it terms of business school, it really depends on your job performance. They really base it on a lot of ambiguous factors such as your passion and reason for applying and what an MBA can do for you. The most clear cut path is to work at MBB for 2 years. Next would be IB at top BB for 2 years out of a top 5 or top 10 undergrad. Emory probably won't give you any advantage at all over UW in this matter.

 

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I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.

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