Accepted to the University of Washington- Advice Needed
Hello everyone. I'm new here, so before asking my main question, I think it would be better to introduce myself.
I'm currently a senior at high school in Washington State. During my junior and senior year in high school I decided to participate in a state wide "Running Start" program, and have attended a local community college full time for the last two year. I have a good background in mathematics, and am currently taking a macroeconomics course in which I am doing well in. My college GPA is sitting around 3.37-3.38. I will be graduating at the end of this year with both my Associate of Arts degree, and my high school diploma.
I was recently accepted to the University of Washington a few months ago, and have decided that I will be attending that school come fall. The major in which I am looking into at the moment is economics. I have been looking into investment banking as a career for several months now, and am extremely interested in the field. I really want to work at a bank in New York, or San Francisco if I decide that this is the field I truly wish to go into, but I fear that my GPA and my school of choice will not allow me to achieve that. I was curious if anyone here had any advice pertaining to applying for internships, and making my resume better with my background.
You have plenty of time to bring it up. My cumulative after freshmen year was 2.9, but with hard work I've brought it up to 3.5 and expect to graduate with approx. 3.6.
Just put your head down and focus on getting the good marks.
As per internships, look for small boutique IB internships to start. The company research tab on this website is great for finding small banks. Just enter fields pertaining to your area (IB --> ZIP) and cold email them. Believe I even recall one I looked at (Broadmark I think) so there are plenty of opportunities out there, just start looking.
Does UW Seattle factor in your community college GPA?
I hate to say it, but these kinds of grades- at least as an econ or finance major- are not going to get you to a New York bank. They will get you into a Fortune 500 company, but not into a banking job. So if these grades are indicative of your potential, I am not sure you are going to be a good fit for banking.
If these grades aren't indicative of your potential, here is what I suggest:
1.) UW Seattle has an excellent CS and Engineering program. Study engineering or CS, double-major in econ or finance if you want. 2.) Get a 3.5 GPA as an engineering student. Most engineering courses at state schools get curved to a C+/B- average and you will be competing against a lot of brilliant internationals and domestic students. Take a cross section of the 10,000 smartest engineering students in the world, and about 1000 of them will be your competition at a public engineering Ivy that has relationships with a number of foreign government engineering development programs like the University of Washington. 3.) Get into some tough honors programs to get into. 4.) Network, network, network, and make it into an NYC investment bank. 5.) Graduate with less debt than the Harvard grads you will be competing against for jobs.
Can you do that? It's a steep, difficult climb, but people have done it, and that's the route to take if you want to get to an NYC bank. I'm just worried that if you're getting Bs in econ courses right now, you're really going to struggle in the math, physics, and engineering courses.
IlliniProgrammer,
I messed up during my junior year in high school, and received a 1.5 in a pre-calculus course (reason for my low cumulative). Since last year, I self studied my way into Calculus, and have completed the first two courses in the Calculus series. I am a math tutor at the college in which I am attending, and am reviewing calculus on my own time so that I am able to jump into it again once I start at the University of Washington. After today, I should be sitting with a 3.5 in macroeconomics I believe. Will a computer science be worth the time? I will be a college junior credit wise after graduating from high school this year.
A Computer Science degree will put you in the running for Microsoft, IBM, Google, Amazon, and Expedia.com, and Quant Analytics competes for candidates who would be good fits at firms like those. A CS degree- preferably an Engineering one with the math sequence- combined with an Econ degree would be particularly powerful. It also gives you a great backup plan if the job market for econ majors gets tougher.
An A in Calculus AP is a good start for being able to survive CS at the University of Washington, but you're going to be competing against kids hand picked by the Government of Indonesia to get a free degree and come back and run their engineering ministry. You're going to be competing against kids who got waitlisted at MIT and accepted at Cornell, but didn't have the money to go. There will probably be a couple perfect SAT scores in your class. Everyone there will be used to getting As in high school, and they will curve everyone to a B- average.
This is just the first hurdle, and it is not going to be the biggest. In two and a half years, you will be getting on a plane, flying out to NYC by yourself, checking in at a $400/night hotel by yourself, putting on a suit, walking into a huge NYC office building, getting on an elevator up to an interview, and getting thrown tough technical questions in an interview by a bunch of no-nonsense quants and traders with titles like "VP" and whose time is worth hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars an hour. You will be competing against preppy northeastern kids with degrees from Yale and Harvard who will have been well-groomed and well-practiced for this, and will consider landing this job some sort of birthright for them, and you're going to have to knock one of them out of the running to land an offer. This isn't quite like joining the Marines, but if you really want to go this route, your childhood will end very quickly and you will need to be an adult professional in two short years.
So I guess the question is, is this what you really want? Most kids pursuing econ degrees at state schools- even excellent ones like the University of Washington- aren't quite ready for all of that right away. If you want to be able to do battle for a job in banking, Engineering or CS is going to give you the best shot at competing against these guys. Even then, even with an excellent GPA, you're still going to be a bit of an underdog.
Thanks both you. Your input was outstanding. I just had one more question. Is obtaining a job at a smaller investment bank as hard as receiving a job at a bulge bracket in New York? I would assume that they are easier to get into, but very competitive nonetheless.
Smaller investment banks are sometimes a little easier to land at, but it is always difficult, and it is getting tougher in a shrinking market.
Regardless, double-majoring in CS or Engineering will make you more competitive for a job in finance or economics.
I think it can depend on the bank. If it is elite and/or very niche, could be a lot harder seeing as they have less patience and less capital to invest in employment (i.e. very low turnover rate, etc).
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