GPA vs. Major
Hi, I'm a sophomore at Stern undergrad planning on majoring in finance. I'm in the ROTC for both personal and monetary reasons. Finance is definitely the most competitive major so I would be better off majoring in econ at Stern if GPA was my main concern. After I serve in military for 4-5 years, I'm planning on getting an MBA. My question is, does GPA matter so much in MBA admissions that I should maybe switch over to econ? Also, would majoring in finance then getting my MBA seem repetitive? How does MBA schools in general view an undergrad finance degree? Any input greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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ambitious username for an
ambitious username for an undecided sophomore....
You dont know
Maybe he is jewish
gs may not even exist by the
gs may not even exist by the time he graduates. what will all these sophomores aspire to if the high and mighty GS becomes part of HSBC
The Stern Finance curve has
The Stern Finance curve has become significantly easier in the past few years. I believe 3-4 years ago the curve was a strict 10-15% and now it is somewhere around 25% for A's.
Even though avg GPA for b-school is only around 3.3, most of the majors did liberal arts or engineering in their undergrad, which is significantly harder than business/econ. To be competitive it would be best to shoot for the 4.0 if you major in finance/econ.
As of which to choose, I think everyone knows the econ program in the CAS-NYU is not highly regarded, while the Finance program is. Do the finance program and just get a 4.0.
Your military experience will help...
...and I imagine will be way more meaningful for MBA admissions than anything else (including your major).
thanks for all the input
thanks for all the input guys. haha...regarding the username, I couldn't think of any, so I just went with goldman. no intended meaning whatsoever. Quite honestly, I don't even know if I want to go into ibanking/finance industry yet.
re
The Stern Finance curve has become significantly easier in the past few years. I believe 3-4 years ago the curve was a strict 10-15% and now it is somewhere around 25% for A's.
Even though avg GPA for b-school is only around 3.3, most of the majors did liberal arts or engineering in their undergrad, which is significantly harder than business/econ. To be competitive it would be best to shoot for the 4.0 if you major in finance/econ.
As of which to choose, I think everyone knows the econ program in the CAS-NYU is not highly regarded, while the Finance program is. Do the finance program and just get a 4.0.
You really think liberal arts is harder than finance/accounting/econ? I don't. Perhaps in some instances like psychology or perhaps poli sci, but the sociology, lit, and philosophy classes that I had to take (was at a liberal arts school) were all fluff classes. Most anyone who was a liberal arts major was considered more a slacker than anything. Maybe it's different at other schools, but I'd say math/engineering are hardest, then natural sciences/physics, then finance/accounting/econ, then liberal arts/marketing/management.
depends
A lot of it depends on your personal strengths as well. I was an engineering undergrad, but I'm also pretty good at quant. stuff. I don't know if I'd say math/eng is harder than science/physics, but that's kind of getting into the weeds a bit. If you aren't good at math, all of those courses are going to be hard. I personally like math, but think I would blow my head off if I had to do biochemistry again.
By the time you get out of the Army, your degree will be obsolete and/or you will have forgotten a lot of it. Do what you like, get a great GPA/GMAT and then work military into your application paperwork. Whether the Adcom's know which degrees are more respected for different colleges, I don't know.