M7 MBA to MBB with low GPA

I'm a full-time student at a Top 5 MBA program in the US and hope to land in a top-tier management consultancy (McKinsey, Bain, or BCG). The MBB firms are the largest employer of our graduates, spend a LOT of time on campus meeting us, giving presentations, dinners, etc, and many of my classmates worked there before b-school so networking is not a problem. I also have a good gmat score (730), have good leadership in undergrad, pre-MBA, and I've taken leadership roles at b-school. Professionally, I did Big 4 consulting prior to b-school - I worked mainly in operations and was always ranked as a top performer (and got an early promotion). I also feel relatively squared away with my case interview skills.

However, I have a 3.1 GPA so I'm looking for some frank feedback regarding how this low GPA will affect my chances of 1) getting an interview and 2) getting an offer from the MBB firms.

 

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, even at the M7 b-schools the MBB firms get many more applicants than available offers so I'm trying to cover all my bases. I'm just concerned a 3.1 GPA will send me towards the bottom of the resume pile and I'll need to network my way onto their radar.

Any other thoughts/comments are welcome!

 

Grade non-disclosure policies are nice "in theory" but all the firms ask for GPA (both grad and undergrad) as well as test scores (GMAT, LSAT, GRE, etc.) on their website when you apply to their firm. (Even if when going through on-campus recruiting, we submit an application via their website as well via the school's application system) So they know GPAs for all applicants when these firms move into the fall recruiting cycle.

While one COULD shoot back with reminding them of the school's grade non-disclosure policy, my thought was it would effectively sink your chances if you're going out of your way to hide your GPA - I'm just planning to have my gmat score on my resume and be ready to talk to my GPA if it comes up. I had been out of school for several years before coming back to b-school so I took a few months to transition back to the day-to-day of lectures and exams.

 

I'm at an M7 target for MBB and have a sub-3.0 undergrad gpa from a no-name school. I don't have much of a sob-story excuse or strong undergrad ECs. However, I do have a pretty good resume (promotions, prestigious company awards, experience relevant to strategy consulting etc) - strong enough to get me into a top program despite my standout weakness. I can interview well and understand I need to hit the case-prep hard.

There's a couple of old threads on this topic, but I'm looking for any updated experiences or anecdotes. I've heard everything from "it doesn't matter" to "the prestige of your undergrad institution and your gpa are factored into a weighted candidate score." Hoping to hear from current/recent MBAs who have gone through the process or MBBers who have screened resumes and interviewed people. How much of a role does the UG GPA play? If I leave it off of my resume, will I be asked about it by recruiters and consultant interviewers? Thanks

 
Best Response

Lots of confusion here. Let's see if we can clear it up. Some background: I managed M7 --> MBB w/ a sub-par u/g GPA from a top-25 school.

@"Liono" Is it your u/g or MBA GPA you're worried about? - Your u/g GPA won't come up in conversation. It's a judgement call on your part whether you put it on your resume. It WILL end up on the firms' online applications, but I didn't get the impression that anyone actually looks at these. I think they are just for equal opportunity compliance. My GPA was never mentioned. Note that grade-nondisclosure doesn't apply to u/g GPA. - If it's your MBA GPA, and your school has GND, I'm not sure what you're worried about. It shouldn't be on your resume and it shouldn't be in your application. I go to a school with GND, and I've never even heard of any of the big recruiters (e.g. MBB) asking someone for grades. If they participate in OCR, they should (and do) play by the rules and shouldn't require any explanation. For the online apps, we simply selected NA or 0.0/4.0 for our MBA GPAs. Boutique IB and PE firms who recruit off-campus are another story.

Last question: Are you a 1Y or a 2Y? You said you've taken leadership roles in b-school, but it doesn't sound like you went through intern recruiting last year. In either case, hit up the 2Ys at your school who interned at the firms you're targeting for advice. They will have the best insight into campus-specific and office-specific recruiting practices.

Finally, once you get invited to interview, not much else matters except how you perform on the case and fit/behavioral portions of the interview. Application, background, and networking are mostly just to get you to that point. For a primer on behavioral interviews, which I think are MORE important than the case, check out my post here: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/fitbehavioral-interviews-a-crash-…

@"CorpDev86" I was in your shoes and my u/g GPA never came up. I ended up interviewing almost everywhere I wanted. For u/g GPA or MBA GPA without GND, put it on your resume if it will help you. Leave it off if it will hurt you. Same for GMAT. From a target MBA program, networking will matter more than anything else, but it does depend on the firm. McK puts more weight on resume and background than the others. The same will be true for non-generalist (i.e. matrix, practice-based, competency- or industry-aligned) firms.

 

Much the same situation - sub-par u/g GPA, landed an internship at MBB.

@"brj" completely nailed it. Only wrinkles I'd add are that: (1) Firms basically know if they're going to give you an interview before you submit your online app, so make nice at the recruiting events (go to absolutely everything) and you'll be fine (2) You can always leave things blank in the online apps

 

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