So I'm headed back to school next fall for an MBA at a top-15 school. I'm looking to make the jump into I-banking from my previous career as an engineer (typical, I know). Here's the rub, unlike a lot of the posters on this board I haven't been a gunner my whole life. Until I was about 20 I was a huge slacker/goof off. I went to an Ivy League UG, but only because high school was so ridiculously easy and I am freakishly good at standardized tests. As a college student I basically did no class work (hardly even made it to class most of the time) and just sort of bullshit my way to a 2.97 GPA.
Now, I did some other interesting stuff in college. I was a varsity athlete - a contributer, not a bench warmer -, and also started my own internet company which I eventually sold for about about one years tuition (circa 2001). I was in a hard major at one of the hard Ivies (no grade inflation), but I'm not going to lie, I essentially learned nothing in college and my transcript is peppered with as many C's and D's as A's.
Once I hit 20 I got much more serious. I taught myself enough engineering to get myself a traditional engineering job after the whole dot-com thing didn't pan out, and I've done well in that career. I'm licensed, and I'm about a year and a half ahead of the typical engineering career progression after five years. I have a GMAT score well over 700, am a MENSA member, and as I said before I got myself into a top-15 b-school.
In the educated opinion of the members of this board, do I have a shot at an Associate position or does my UG GPA screw me (b-school has grade non-disclosure)? What would be the best way to market myself and explain my low UG GPA? My thinking is its better to have recruiters think I was lazy than think I was dumb, but neither is really a good image to have.
Thanks
I wouldn't spin it as lazy. Make sure you mention how much else you had going on during undergrad. I'll paste my answer to a similar question from another thread below:
You can read the whole thread here: http://wallstreetoasis.com/forums/your-opinion-on-my-situation
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