I'm looking for a little bit of advice regarding how to approach applying for 2020 SA positions. I currently attend a community college and was accepted to Columbia University where I'll start in the fall as a junior. Being that recruiting is so accelerated, I'm realizing that even though I'm transferring to a strong target school, I'm still at a disadvantage because I'll essentially be missing out on OCR for junior year internships. Is my only real option networking at this point? For my freshman summer I worked in NYC as an EMT for the first half and for the second half I worked at a policy analysis research firm for investment banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds. This summer I'll most likely end up in a PWM role at Morgan Stanley. While this isn't too bad, I'm just worried about not being able to get a SA gig for next summer being that recruiting started already. Should I apply for SA positions and note that I'll be attending Columbia in the fall? Any advice is appreciated.
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I too am very interested in this topic. I hope someone can chime in.
I did/am doing this. I transferred to an east coast target and entered as a Junior in Fall 2018.
Here's the harsh reality I faced: if you want EB/BB, by the time you get to Columbia in September they will have wrapped up already. Almost all IB OCR at my school begins in the spring and goes through mid-summer (and this is what I've seen at other targets). By the time I got to school in late August every BB was done. There's a couple EB's that wait like Evercore and Centerview but you have to remember how insanely competitive it is to get a spot at those places.
The hard thing about transferring nowadays is you can't really network until you know that you are accepted. By the time you get your official acceptance everyone else has been networking and completing first rounds. This causes you to get filtered out because you were late to the game, so now networking is gonna be crucial. You need to get on Columbia's career portal ASAP (ex: handshake) and get as many apps in as possible while also getting your name in front of the teams at each bank.
I ended up doing fall recruiting to get an internship for this summer, and then delayed graduation so that I am now graduating in December 2020. This makes me eligible for SA 20 recruiting. The timelines are really crazy right now btw; I already have had first rounds at a couple EB's and have had second rounds on campus with more than 2 BB's. It's barely March, so you can imagine how much you will miss if you don't delay graduation.
So, there's two ways to approach this:
Start networking, see if you can get on handshake, and hopefully score some interviews. Evercore, BAML, JPM, WF, and GS have delayed recruiting to this summer, so you should still have plenty of opportunities. MM's like Houlihan and Jefferies also recruit in summer/fall, so you should also have opportunities with them. It sounds like you already got accepted to Columbia? If so, I see no reason to not update your resume and start applying everywhere. There's tons of Summer 2020 apps open right now.
Delay graduation, score something relevant for Summer 2020, and recruit for SA'21. This is if you really want an opportunity at the BB's/EB's. I got accepted in May last year and it was already too late for Citi, Barclays, MS, GS, JPM, UBS, CS, and DB. Although some of those banks were still taking applications, they had already chosen who they wanted to interview (the double edged sword in target schools; OCR is gonna be how you break in so you have to actually be there)
This post is kind of all over the place because there's so many variables when you come in as a transfer that are constantly changing. If you have any specific questions feel free to comment back and I'll let you know how things have been for me.
To clarify, yes — I was accepted to Columbia last Friday. Since then I’ve been cold emailing essentially every boutique in NYC/CT and trying to meet up with my contacts I’ve already networked with to let them know this. To be honest, I’m fine with delaying graduation by a semester so that advice isn’t alarming. It’s nice to hear solid advice from someone who’s been there. I should have everything finalized regarding enrolling and credit evaluation by April so I’ll try and get on handshake ASAP and start applying for places. Thanks again for this advice.
Seems like you're in a good position then. Just go hard this spring/summer. If you get something you like you're golden, if not just delay grad!
How could you be accepted to Columbia when transfer applications closed just 6 days ago?
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