How hard is it to transfer into Wharton/Harvard from a community college?

Have a strong desire to do i-banking, but I know this industry puts a lot of attention on the prestige of the employee's school. People on WSO have brilliant ideas and I really want to hear all your opinions. Much thanks!

11 Comments
 

Can you give us some background, like why you chose CC over a four-year university? Transfers to top schools are usually from non-traditional backgrounds (e.g. military) or from an equivalent/higher-ranked school (e.g. Harvard -> Duke).

 

Hi there, so this is a shared account (my friend and I, he was the one who posted this thread). He goes to CUNY, I don't know why he stated "community college" since CUNY is a university system.

 

Definitely easier coming from CUNY than from a community college, but tough either way. If your goal is Wharton, you may want to consider transferring into the college of arts and sciences at Penn and then to Wharton once you get there. It is fairly easy to transfer once you are at Penn

 

I have a friend who was able to transfer into Wharton from another school. My understanding is that you need solid grades as well as a strong reason for why you want to make the switch.

 

"From a pool of 1,448 applicants, 15 students were admitted to Harvard College in the 2012 transfer admissions cycle, putting the acceptance rate for students who start their time at Harvard as sophomores or juniors at approximately 1 percent."

id target top state schools with undergrad biz programs where the odds are better such as michigan, uva, unc, and berkeley.

this is somewhat dated but should be helpful - http://transferweb.com/stats/transfer-acceptance-rates/#.VI5R8CvF-So

 

These are two of the hardest programs in the country to transfer into; very few people drop out or transfer out and at Wharton they are going to prioritize internal transfers from other schools at Penn. Each admits 10-15 per year. I'd say schools like Harvard and Stanford are impossible for any normal applicant and Wharton is extremely difficult, but more in the realm of possibility for "normal" people w/ great HS grades, test scores, and good first semester college grades.

At any of these, in lieu of some amazing hook, to have a chance you definitely need (1) A HS background good enough to have been admitted to the school as a freshman, and (2) very good grades & recs from your first semester in college. HS results are probably still weighted just as much or more than your college results, given you only have one semester to go on, so transferring can't be viewed as a back way in. If you were good enough to get into Wharton but didn't apply as a freshman because you weren't sure you wanted to do business, so you went to another top school and got close to perfect grades, then you are the ideal applicant.

 

Student from the local cc transferred to Harvard. Don't know this person but obviously killed it in hs.

[quote=mbavsmfin]I don't wear watches bro. Because it's always MBA BALLER time! [/quote]
 

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