From a target school, with low GPA

Hello,
I am preparing to get into consulting sector. I am an electrical engineer with 3.05 GPA which is the best and first private school in my country. The thing is this school accepts people with scholarship and non-scholarship options. I am a non-scholarship graduate. I thought that I could make the GAP between me and some other high profile candidates by getting TOEFL and GRE scores and I have been studying to get a 170 quant score (it should be easy with some practice since so many of my friends already got this score for their applications) and above 110+ TOEFL score.

Since the April (which is in here the recruiting season for big4 consulting firms) is getting closer. I started to study case interviews on preplounge. I am afraid that I will not be able to pass the CV elimination part because of my lower GPA compared to high profile candidates(this is the case for MBB).

What do you think I should do in this situation? I have nearly 2 months to apply to all of the firms and in fact I can apply MBB off-cycle since I am already a graduate and working as an engineer.

(Consider that I am working and not in home between 8:00-18:00 on weekdays. )

Thank you for all your recommendations.

 

The culture of finance is staying until the work is finished, which translates into long, unpredictable hours and the expectation of perfection. That essay you were assigned today at 1pm, due in 4 weeks, have it done by tomorrow morning at 8am and it better be fucking perfect. That’s the culture you’re talking about working in. Let’s ignore for a second the hurdle of getting in—beating out hundreds of identical candidates for your seat—you’re going to start off by not only selling yourself short, but accepting and justifying doing poorly before you even start?!! Get your priorities in line, your goal should be to get the 4.0, and then with whatever time you have left over, enjoy your college years. Not the other way around, and that goes for whatever career you decide to pursue. Get your shit together and grow up.

 

Obviously I intend on working my ass off to get the best grades that I can. Standardized test scores (being the only nation wide standard I can use) indicate that Notre Dame Students are, in general, significantly more intelligent than Indiana Students. As a result of this, there would be a much more intense competitive environment in Notre Dame which would obviously be represented in my grades. So if anyone wants to answer the question instead of scrupulizing it that would be much appreciated.

 

Honestly, if you can get a 3.7 at Indiana, you can probably get a 3.7 at ND with similar efforts. At UG it's more about work ethic and having the "correct" priorities than sheer intellectual power.

 

thanks but i did not have any health issue. i was taking some courses which i did not have any background knowledge since i'm an international student. Also I co-founded a student group and helped founding a business frat. Do you think i should still mention that in my cover letter? because I feel like my reasons are not that strong.

 

Mentioning health issues that you may have is always a bad idea. IB is a strenuous job and I can't imagine mentioning health problems would do any good for anyone looking at your cover letter.

My advice is to not make excuses. Honestly, you have no excuses anyway, everyone takes tough classes. Don't say anything in your cover letter because you have IB experience and that puts you in a good spot for recruiting already if you're at a target. They'll probably ask about the GPA during interviews and you can explain yourself well there with the reasons you've mentioned above.

 

Voluptas voluptatum et illum laboriosam illo dignissimos. Laudantium sed ipsam deleniti non. Deleniti quas repudiandae quod et tempora suscipit.

Ut itaque dicta dignissimos. Qui aperiam accusamus facilis. Consequatur voluptatem autem quia aut.

 

Soluta aut molestias id ut voluptatem laudantium. Illum velit cumque modi voluptatibus optio non odit. Possimus quam omnis quo aliquam maiores et. Consectetur ut quidem suscipit quasi quaerat inventore.

Qui ipsa voluptatibus ut et minima et recusandae. Ducimus aut sint minima quia distinctio aut quod enim.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • Cornerstone Research 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • McKinsey and Co 97.7%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $368
  • Principal (25) $277
  • Director/MD (55) $270
  • Vice President (47) $246
  • Engagement Manager (99) $225
  • Manager (152) $170
  • 2nd Year Associate (158) $140
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (108) $130
  • Senior Consultant (329) $130
  • Consultant (586) $119
  • 1st Year Associate (538) $119
  • NA (15) $119
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (145) $115
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (342) $102
  • Associate Consultant (166) $98
  • 1st Year Analyst (1046) $87
  • Intern/Summer Associate (188) $84
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (547) $67
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”