Junior yr. transfer resume education section for SA recruitment - Optimal strategy

Hey WSO,

I am going to be a junior at at a target school this upcoming fall, and I would greatly appreciate advice on how to structure the education section of my resume to BEST prepare me for SA interviews in IBD.

My previous GPA at my non-target was a 3.7. My main concern is that if I list my target GPA as "N/A", my resume will get thrown in the trash for SA first round on campus interviews. I have a very competitive resume in terms of work experience, but am afraid that if I list my non-target school and its GPA than I might not even get my foot in the door.

I am thinking about structuring my education section as follows:

Target School
B.A. Economics
Cumulative GPA: 3.7
"transfer from non-target school; 2014-2016"

This way it is easy to explain my transfer story without having to put N/A, or 0 for GPA. I want to be as competitive for SA first rounders without getting dinged. I know that transferring is part of my story and I'll be spinning the "hard-worker, hustler, self-driven" type story.

If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Best,
Joejohnsonpo

 

School 1 City, State Degree Expected Graduation: [May 2018] (Can switch this to Sep 2016 - Current after September) Cumulative GPA: 3.7 (assuming all classes transfer - otherwise only put the GPA of classes that count at new school)

School 2 City, State Degree [Sep 2014 - May 2016] Cumulative GPA: 3.7

This way keeps nice, consistent format without ugly one-liners for explanation and has all the information (based on dates at each school) necessary for the reviewers to see that you don't have grades at the new school.

 

I can share my experience: transferred out of a mid-tier state school to a top Ivy. Although misleading, I simply left out the transfer from my resume, and was purposefully vague during my interviews (ie: graduated from high school in XX state, and I'm currently a student at XX college) Never got any questions, and never had any problems with that. I don't recommend doing the same, but I definitely felt like there was a stigma against transfers (you weren't good enough to go to XX ivy on your first try). Hope this helps!

 

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