6 Free Financial Modeling Lessons...and More.

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 12:17pm

It's really not the end of the world and there's nothing you can do about it right now except buckle down and try to kill the next four semesters (summer drops are usually January/Feb of junior year IIRC).

Come back to us in two years when you need resume advice.

Of your options, I would recommend summer classes. If it makes you feel better, I had a 2.6 my first semester and got it up to a 3.3 for recruiting. I graduated with a sub-3.0 and it hasn't hurt me one bit in the long run (unless not getting a MF interview counts as "hurt", but I earn more anyways)...though it did make the road a lot tougher for me.

Difficulty of classes? You

BTbanker

(Senior Neanderthal, 5,336

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 12:13pm

Difficulty of classes? You shouldn't be taking a difficult major at an Ivy League school.

You don't need to change your career path or think about grad school. You need to choose an easier major ie art history or psych.

"A man generally has two reasons for doing anything. One that sounds good, and the real one." - J.P. Morgan

BTbanker: Difficulty of

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 12:20pm

BTbanker:

Difficulty of classes? You shouldn't be taking a difficult major at an Ivy League school.

You don't need to change your career path or think about grad school. You need to choose an easier major ie art history or psych.

It's his first semester; I doubt he was taking many, if any, major classes.

mrb87: It's really not the

Falcon

(Gorilla, 514

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 1:00pm

mrb87:

Come back to us in two years when you need resume advice.

Now how did that happen lol?

did you just say fuck it after you received an offer?

Just a sophomore looking for an opportunity to start up this dream of mine.

teehee: My GPA for the first

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 2:05pm

teehee:

A) choose a different career path that may require grad school/in which my GPA isn't as important until senior yr?

B) take summer session to boost GPA?
-my only concern for this is the cost...

Thanks! If you have any better/alternative recommendations for what I could do please let me know!

A) In terms of career path, do what you're interested in doing! If it's banking then do banking, if you're only interested in the cash/prestige that comes along with it then banking might be hard job. There all sorts of successful/wealthy people who had terrible GPAs in college/went to non targets and still excelled because they chose a career path that both interested them and was well suited for them and their skill sets. You're privileged in attending an ivy in that you have a lot of options available and that a 3.2+ GPA at the end of junior year coupled with true passion can lead you into a lot of great positions in a number of fields in and out of finance.

B) Summer session freshman summer is a good idea, an internship isn't necessary. Eat the cost and try to take the harder math/econ classes over the summer as they are often much easier than during the semester. If possible, try to take classes at a community college or in state public university where the cost is about $1000 per 3 credit class and get the calculus/science gen eds out of the way through transfer of credit. There are a lot of sociology type analysis econ classes during the semester that you can take where avg grades are typically a B - try to at least get B+s/A-s in these. If you're not at HYPC then I wouldn't switch majors.

C) Transferring is a personal decision that you'll have to make for yourself. I'm assuming you go to Penn/Dartmouth/Brown. All of the schools you listed are ranked higher than these 3 and so they would be a step up and not a lateral. With a sub 3.0 it will be very difficult to get into a top 15 school. Emory/UNC/Mich all have business schools intended on taking sophomore transfers and so they might be good options. Certain LACs like Middlebury weigh the hs record more than the college record and openly discriminate against transfers that aren't from peer institutions. This would give you a leg up on community college transfer applicants that have 4.0s and so it could be an option. Overall though, I would really not transfer given that your school is better than the schools you could transfer to with the bad college gpa. However if you are at Cornell, then I would strongly consider transferring after getting the GPA above a 3.0 as the competition there is intense and you might be shut out from recruiting with less than a 3.5.

Dude you are at an ivy, chill

Peter_27

(Senior Baboon, 208

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 2:10pm

Dude you are at an ivy, chill out. I know quite a few kids that graduated with around a 3.0 gpa from an ivy, they did fine. Take a summer class and intern in PWM your Freshman summer. Also start networking now for a Sophomore gig.

You have plenty of time to

watersign

(Baboon, 131

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 2:23pm

You have plenty of time to make up for it...you'll be fine.

alpha currency trader wanna-be

Save yourself and your

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:08pm

Save yourself and your parents some money and think about a flagship state school. If they're reasonable, I think they'll agree with you when they see your transcript.

1.) Transfer to an in-state state school, especially if you come from a state like Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Washington, or Illinois.
2.) Study engineering
3.) Get GPA up to 3.2
4.) Go work at Boeing for a few years.
5.) Go to HBS for MBA.

If they still won't go for it, you need to figure out an easier major or start taking some easier classes.

A few uncomfortable truths that you may need to hear:

-You have to really work at it to get a C at a number of Ivies, unless all of your classes were weed-outs- or if you were studying Engineering at Cornell.
-When you get into industry in three short years, it will be even tougher.

(If you are doing Engineering or STEM at Cornell, I recommend picking an easier major or maybe switching to lower-key, lower-cost, roughly-same-pay SUNY)

Work hard, play hard.

IlliniProgrammer: Save

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:35pm

IlliniProgrammer:

Save yourself and your parents some money and think about a flagship state school. If they're reasonable, I think they'll agree with you when they see your transcript.

If they still won't go for it, you need to figure out an easier major or start taking some easier classes.

A few uncomfortable truths that you may need to hear:

(If you are doing Engineering or STEM at Cornell, I recommend picking an easier major or maybe switching to lower-key, lower-cost, roughly-same-pay SUNY)

The only SUNYs worth paying for are Binghamton, Geneseo, New Paltz and the environmental science one, the rest are utter crap either in terms of academics or student life. I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get a job at Boeing or other top engineering firms from the schools you mentioned sans UVA, Michigan and Illinois due to their preference for ivy/rpi/MIT grads. Washington/Wisconsin/UNC might be worth it if in state, but I personally wouldn't go to Indiana or Georgia or a SUNY regardless of in/out of state coming from an ivy.

^^^ We picked up a lot of

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:39pm

^^^ We picked up a lot of SUNY-Stoneybrook CS alumns when I worked in Quant Analytics. It's a solid CS school. I may be a little more out of my league when commenting on more general engineering at SUNY Stonybrook, but I know a lot of smart CS alumns from there.

Work hard, play hard.

I meant more along the lines

http://www.studentsreview.com/NY/State_University_...

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:43pm

I meant more along the lines of it being a crappy college experience, it's really easy to get into but it's okay for pre - med not 100% sure about engineering/cs.

More than 50% wouldn't return to Stony Brook, it's extremely rare to have a top 100 school where the majority of students wouldn't want to go back.

I meant more along the lines

http://www.studentsreview.com/NY/State_University_...

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:43pm

I meant more along the lines of it being a crappy college experience, it's really easy to get into but it's okay for pre - med not 100% sure about engineering/cs.

More than 50% wouldn't return to Stony Brook, it's extremely rare to have a top 100 school where the majority of students wouldn't want to go back.

My simple point is that my

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 3:55pm

My simple point is that my parents repeated the mantra over and over again:

"We work incredibly hard for your tuition bill. WE ARE NOT PAYING $3500 A SEMESTER FOR YOU TO BRING HOME C's. GO OUT THERE AND GET SOME As, OR YOU'RE GOING TO COMMUNITY COLLEGE."

At first, I thought this was sort of ridiculous. But they had a good point. If consumption really is limited- and roughly balanced over time- it's better to take a step back if that $20,000, or $3500/semester tuition bill isn't helping you. Save your parents' money and go in-state where you can earn some Bs and land a nice- not amazing- job.

Take it from me, it will work out in the end. I went to a high school where 15% of the students- more like 50% in the AP classes- went to ivy leagues + Stanford + Chicago + Northwestern + MIT. I couldn't afford those schools, so I went in-state. I got hired into Quant Analytics at a major NYC bank and worked my way to the trading floor, having to climb over a lot of people with better degrees to get there.

Then I got a little burnt out, figured the economy would suck for the next couple years, and got an MS that I could now afford after saving a lot of money.

Your work ethic and your intellect are your potential. You're not going to find that true potential if you're not challenging yourself- but if things are so hard that it's discouraging, you need to take a step back. Take it from four years of doing a CS major and five years in banking.

Work hard, play hard.

Husky32: I meant more along

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 4:01pm

Work hard, play hard.

Well, from your previous

3176401

(Senior Monkey, 93

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 4:35pm

IP, while you generally give

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 6:10pm

Falcon: mrb87: It's really

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 6:16pm

mrb87: IP, while you

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 8:02pm

Work hard, play hard.

IlliniProgrammer: mrb87: IP

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 8:47pm

I still disagree; learning

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 9:04pm

Work hard, play hard.

IlliniProgrammer: I still

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 9:16pm

.

3176401

(Senior Monkey, 93

Points)

on 12/29/12 at 11:32pm

Husky32: IlliniProgrammer:

Higheck123

(Senior Orangutan, 497

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 6:02am

Higheck123: Husky32: Illi

m56

(Baboon, 112

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 6:47pm

Take this shit to

ogofnyc

(Baboon, 158

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 12:34pm

To fade me its gonna take more than guts, you need the eye of the tiger, heart of a lion and King Kong’s nuts

As other people said, try and

A2Allegiance

(Senior Monkey, 98

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 12:36pm

Higheck123: Husky32: Illi

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 1:02pm

How did an "OMG LOW GPA"

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 1:02pm

Work hard, play hard.

My advice to the OP is

Markov

(Baboon, 150

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 1:38pm

Like others have said, repeat

ELDERPATNHER

(Chimp, 7

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 1:38pm

Thanks everyone for your

teehee

(Senior Chimp, 22

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 1:56pm

Don't ask us about your

Markov

(Baboon, 150

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 2:37pm

Get a part-time job and keep

mdk6c

(Baboon, 166

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 2:53pm

teeheeeven: if I am able to

carlfox

(Orangutan, 256

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 3:31pm

"The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets."

-John D. Rockefeller

Try MIT should be a piece of

Aston Gekko

(Monkey, 34

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 4:00pm

IlliniProgrammer: Save

Aston Gekko

(Monkey, 34

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 4:10pm

IlliniProgrammer: Save

Aston Gekko

(Monkey, 34

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 4:10pm

Aston Gekko: transferring

(Gorilla, 591

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 4:39pm

^^ There are very few

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 4:45pm

Work hard, play hard.

IlliniProgrammer: Save

mnyhngry

(Senior Chimp, 29

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:07pm

wow. everyone needs to chill

mnyhngry

(Senior Chimp, 29

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:12pm

Correct me if I'm wrong with

mnyhngry

(Senior Chimp, 29

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:28pm

Do not transfer away from an

dave1983

(Chimp, 14

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:41pm

carlfox: teeheeeven: if I

ifyesyeah

(Monkey, 36

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:49pm

Cornell and Brown not really

dave1983

(Chimp, 14

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 5:55pm

dave1983: Do not transfer

(Almost Human, 9,244

Points)

on 12/30/12 at 6:02pm

Work hard, play hard.

dave1983: Cornell and Brown