Student at Top Target, but messed up first year. All help is appreciated!

I go to a top target university; however, I had a 2.8 GPA for my freshman year. I won't go into details, but I accept full responsibility for it. I just want your advice as to what I can do from here to break into MBB or IB, if it's still possible at all. Thank you all.

 
Best Response

Were the courses that tanked your GPA in one particular subject area? I've known of people who started off in one major, did horribly in that major, and then switched into something more appropriate, where they were able to do very well.

In this case, it really comes down to the story you can tell. However, if your grades after the first year don't show a very sharp difference then the story won't matter much. Ideally you'll want to be able to say something like this: "I fucked up in year one due to X.. After implementing/going through change Y, I was able to significantly bump up my grades and/or involvement. By the beginning of senior year, my GPA is now 3.75+, I'm involved in these key activities, and have strong aptitude here, shown by the following data points."

 

"Good" is a relative term, so I won't say if it's good or bad. But the informal cut-off for getting an MBB interview is 3.7. That is not to say that it's impossible to get an interview with a 3.6, but it's not going to be easy.

And that 3.6 was assuming that you get an A in every single class you take after this year, which for anyone is an unrealistic assumption.

 

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