USC Marshall Transfer to UCB Haas
I am currently a Freshman in Marshall at USC, and would like to transfer to UCB (given, I have the credentials) because I grew up in the bay, love SF, don't really like LA, and understand that UCB is much more renowned in the finance world than USC. If possible, I'd love to work in NY or Chicago as well.
Any thoughts on this decision?-- because I know I am leaving a great college experience at USC, so I'm looking for as much external/neutral insight as I can get. Haas also has a one-year financial engineering master's program that I am interested in.
Is Haas represented well on Wall Street? Or do East Coast schools dominate at all costs? I have several other schools on the list, but Berkeley is the most attainable and appealing one.
LA finance seems rather dead, and tech banking is what I look forward to doing, or some VC firm, etc...
Also, I fucking hate the Lakers. And love the Niners. Albeit the women here are gorgeous.
There were at least 2 UCB kids at all of my super days, which makes it obvious that they have at minimum some representation in NYC.
I don't think it would make a significant much of a difference from a recruiting standpoint. (Speaking as a UCB undergrad.) Berkeley sends more people each year and gets OCR for everybody, but the candidates are much more competitive for IB than USC, so you need to weight that. At USC you're more of a bigger fisher, smaller pond. If you really, really want to transfer to a more targety-target, I'd shoot for Wharton or the other top Ivies, where you'd see a real benefit. IE, more SA slots reserved for your school, more people getting interviews,etc.
As a fellow Trojan who's just gone through the recruiting process, I can give the following insights:
triplectz is right in that the competition at USC is weaker and much smaller by numbers. You are indeed a bigger fish in a smaller pond, with the rough number of candidates getting interviews (OCR) being about 20-30. It is not difficult to be in this 20-30, as long as you network with the USC alums at the various banks (and there are quite a few alums across the West coast)
However, recruiting at USC through OCR is mainly for L.A. offices. If you do not wish to be in L.A., you will have to network a lot harder with Bay Area or NYC offices
Berkeley is a target school. If your goal is to get into tech banking, Berkeley is the place to be (or Stanford). Every tech group in the West coast has Berkeley as a core target (USC is NOT)
BUT, as others have pointed out, there is lots more competition at UCB. I cannot comment on the numbers but if a Cal undegrad can comment on numbers, you then have a base for comparison.
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions. Always happy to help out a Trojan.
P.S. just apply and see if you get it. If you don't, there is no decision to be made.
How does Santa Clara do in terms of SF banking?
Never seen a Santa Clara person in banking.
just PM'd you! check your inbox!
Thanks guys. For clarification purposes, I intend to transfer AFTER soph year.
What is UCB comparable to on the east coast? Wharton has too many pre-reqs for me to complete in my soph year, and I'd need to take summer classes. But I'd rather get a SA gig than take summer classes.
I'm also looking at NU, Columbia, Gtown, Duke, Stern. How do these all place (I already know of Stern.)
Also, does UCB represent better on east coast than these schools do on west coast?
"What is UCB comparable to on the east coast?"
UC Berkeley is a primary West coast target, along with UCLA. Stanford, honestly, isn't, not because they don't get recruited but because there are relatively few Stanford student interested in banking and the school is much, much smaller. The BBs have bigass infosessions there every year trying to lure Stanford guys out, but you just don't see very many of them. It's not like Harvard, where everyone does bankign after they graduate. The East coast is different, in that there are multiple schools (HYPW) sending 20-30 kids into banking each because there are so many more spots in NY. Tough to compare the two scenes. SF is just a lot smaller.
"Also, does UCB represent better on east coast than these schools do on west coast?"
Tough to say. I think maybe 5-10 kids from Berk go to NY every year. I had supers there, turned them down to stay in the Bay Area. You see a couple kids from the East coast in SF, but honestly it's almost all UCB/Stanford/UCLA.
"I'm also looking at NU, Columbia, Gtown, Duke, Stern. How do these all place (I already know of Stern.) "
Berk is better than all of these for going to the Bay Area, as is USC.
If you want to go NY, I think Columbia and Stern are fantastic (Stern is insanely competitive, but places well.) The others are obviously targets but I don't think you'd get a huge boost compared to staying at USC.
Also, would you guys say taking summer classes to fulfill Wharton pre-reqs is better than a UBS PWM in SF analyst I have lined up for freshman summer?
Thanks y'all.
God yes, I did UBS PWM in SF back when they were at 1 California. Still keep in touch with a VP there. The overwhelming majority of interns are simply just cold calling and setting up appointments for their VP. I was fortunate to not be in that group but few are as fortunate as I was. Great people to work with, VERY boring internship.
"God yes, I did UBS PWM in SF back when they were at 1 California. Still keep in touch with a VP there. The overwhelming majority of interns are simply just cold calling and setting up appointments for their VP. I was fortunate to not be in that group but few are as fortunate as I was. Great people to work with, VERY boring internship."
leveragealltheway, Did you take away valuable lessons from the internship that are better for my resume than taking summer classes in hopes of admission from Wharton?
leveragealltheway - you by any chance work for fisher group your summer at UBS?
This decision should be made based on which of these two schools has more attractive coeds.
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