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If you go to a school for a year... then transfer for the next year... and then transfer for the next year... that probably is not good.

For one, you will have no friends (you will leave the friends you made at your first two schools, and by the time you get to your third school, all of their "friend groups" will already be pretty solid).

For two, you will have no leadership experience, as the only people who will become officers or managers in your school's investment club are the people who have been there since day one.

For three, you'll have no GPA at the target school for recruiting.

For four, in the amount of time it's going to take you to fill out all the transfer paperwork and write all of these college acceptance essays, you could have spent it studying and getting a good GPA and actually progressing through your school's clubs and demonstrating leadership and having experiences.

For five, you don't have to go to a target school to get into IB. Yes, many people who go to target schools get into IB. But plenty of non-targets get the same jobs. With the right amount of hustle and determination, anything is possible.

For six, most recruiters will see it as a bad sign, i.e. it might project that you can't do your research and find a good enough school, so you're probably just going to quit their firm after a year so why even bother hiring you and wasting their resources?

 

Agree with the first post. Transfer to a semi-target now and then grind from day 1 with networking, clubs, and GPA. I would also apply strategically to schools that are feeders to certain locations/firms. Plenty of semi targets have very good placement but are not as hard to transfer into as a target.

Transferring into a target for junior fall is hard because you have no target school GPA or networking there. Some people who do that transfer end up extending graduation to have another shot at recruiting. Your sophomore year is best spent networking or having an internship, not applying to college.

Array
 

OP I actually transferred two times throughout my time at college (circumstantial reasons). Here's my take

Sunshine made some valid points generally speaking.

You have to be a networking mastermind to get away with transferring twice. I was fortunate enough to land a front office buy-side internship. BUT in every interview I've had, I had to elaborate on why I had to transfer. My reasons were mostly based on circumstances; I basically had no choice but to transfer, therefore I was able to articulate that in interviews.

As for senior level club positions, a good friend of mine actually was the president of the main finance club at my school, he thought he could use me on the e-board and the board voted me in. I wasn't even looking for an executive position, I was just asked to join.

Having a GPA with a track record is super important when it comes to recruiting. Let's say I go to a non-target school and I transfer to a target school beginning of Jr. year, here's the problem

1- For SA gigs, recruiting is already done with for the summer between Jr yr to Sr yr. 2- For other gigs, recruiters want to see your GPA from the target school you're attending, which you won't have. You'll have to give them your GPA from the previous non-target school; which they won't value.

As for friend groups, Sunshine also made valid points. I was fortunate enough to have a few good friends from HS at all the schools I transferred into. But I still keep tight with all the new friends I made freshmen year at the 1st college that I attended. So proceed with caution here, all three colleges I attended were within my tri-state area; so my HS had solid presence there. I can't imagine going out a state far away and starting from scratch as a transfer. Being a transfer sucks for 99% of students. Take my word on that.

Basically it doesn't matter what you do here as long as you've got a good story. Be prepared to discuss this topic in detail when it comes to interviews. Key here is you need to have legit circumstance which made you transfer not that you simply felt the grass was greener at the other school.

thots & prayers
 

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