Senior Year Grades - Important to keep grades up?

Is it important to actually keep my grades up senior year? I've gotten extremely lazy and find studying to get anything beyond a B really difficult. I had a solid 3.8 GPA junior year during recruiting, although it's been gradually falling ever since. If I continue to exert zero effort, I will probably finish college with around a 3.5...if I put in a lot of effort, I could finish with a high 3.6 or 3.7. I would obviously rather not do schoolwork and continue to have a great time with friends, etc. but will finishing school with around a 3.5 affect my chances during PE/HF recruiting 2 years down the road or for business school admissions? I will be working for a top bank (think MS, Blackstone etc.) and graduating from Wharton...do my grades from here on out really matter?

 
Westcoasting:
If you are at BS M&A like you seem to indicate in your previous post -- 3.5 should be fine; any lower might screw you.

Keep in mind that Westcoasting is referring to PE/HF exits or MBA admissions. So if you are worried about that, then he's right, but "screwed" is a little harsh. Firms like BS won't rescind an offer unless your cum falls below 3.0, I'm pretty sure. So that would be worst case scenario.

 
zala rules:
Westcoasting:
If you are at BS M&A like you seem to indicate in your previous post -- 3.5 should be fine; any lower might screw you.

Keep in mind that Westcoasting is referring to PE/HF exits or MBA admissions. So if you are worried about that, then he's right, but "screwed" is a little harsh. Firms like BS won't rescind an offer unless your cum falls below 3.0, I'm pretty sure. So that would be worst case scenario.

Yup I was talking about competitive PE and HF which I assumed was what the poster intended the topic to be about.

 

care about undergrad GPA. Top business schools will definitely take that factor into account. However, since the poster is at Wharton, any GPA > 3.5 will be fine for business school combined with GS/MS/BS experience. I was lazy my senior year also and gpa went down .12 for the year.

 

care about undergrad GPA. Top business schools will definitely take that factor into account. However, since the poster is at Wharton, any GPA > 3.5 will be fine for business school combined with GS/MS/BS experience. I was lazy my senior year also and gpa went down .12 for the year.

 

Search the forums, I answered this question like a week ago.

The answer is, think about your future and B-school and PE recruiting. You don't need to bust your ass, but do keep up your gpa.

--There are stupid questions, so think first.
 

Seconded - this same question was asked very recently. Essentially, you should definitely try to keep your grades up unless you have absolutely no intention of leaving the firm that gave you an offer and know you will be kept on up through associate to VP. If you are looking at or considering eventually making a move to a boutique, VC, P/E, or B school, you should definitely keep your grades up as your grades will be considered by your new employer and/or the adcom at b schools. Don't be short sighted - it's a few more months and your done - keep your grades up and move on without that worry later.

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i'm sure you'll be fine. to quote what everybody else on the board says, they'll look at you hollistically. as long as you have a decent gpa/gmat/and work experience you'll be ok

 
HerSerendipity:
Hi all, So I was wondering how closely business schools check out your grades from senior year. I had a pretty rough last semester and ended up with a C+ in one of my classes, which is ironically a major class as well. How is this going to affect me when I apply to business school? I wasn't slacking off at all during the term, but somehow I still did poorly.

I hope that will not be an issue... because i ended up 1st semester senior year with two C's worse semester overall... I'm feeling pretty screwed right now. Advice?

 
Closer121:
it doesnt matter. apparently even MDs have been telling SAs who get FT offers that they should drink to excess because its the end of college, and as long as they graduate it doesnt matter. the only reason it could fuck u is for b-school.

MDs are generally at odds with hr and admin

 

technically, you just need to pass your course - if you look at your offer letter, it's a ground for revoking the offer if you fail to graduate.

However, it doesn't hurt to do well. it probably does not apply to your case, but keep in mind that in bad times, banks always find excuses to fire people. 2 guys from my associate class were fired immediately after the training program apparently because they "did not perform well enough in the program". In good years, I don't think banks would have done the same thing.

 

didnt do well in the program, not didnt do well in school.

as for your earlier question, PE and HF, after your first job its more or less irrelevant, but even if you got a 1.2 in college and they looked at your gpa, if your MD had a glowing recommendation, you're going to be good to go probably. That is direct proof of your work ethic. Doing well in school is also, but could also be attributed to just being good at cramming 4-5x a semester. being highly recommended by an MD from your group is like getting a 4.0 from harvard.

i say be much more cognizant of impressing people and working your ass off during your analyst stint than being worried about your grades during your sr year of college.

 

I went to a BBA program. We don't separate out major and non-major GPA's. The 3.64 is what it is.

Also, I shouldn't have to worry about getting into B-school if I play it right, since I'll have bulge-bracket experience, a BBA, and an insane GMAT.

Thirdly and finally, after maintaining a 3.97 long enough to get a bulge-bracket IB offer, I needed a year's vacation from hard work.

 

Uh I wouldn't worry about 1 C or 1 bad semester. You're only human! My brother got at least one C and he went to Stanford business school (he did graduate with a strong overall GPA, though).

 

Seniorities... got an offer after my SA.. whoops

"Major in economics; use your economics degree to get an analyst job on Wall Street; use your analyst job to get into Harvard or Stanford Business School; and worry about the rest of your life later"
 

Keep your grades up for the prestige!!!

Enjoy the senioritis and pass it along to others.

- Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered. - The harder you work, the luckier you become. - I believe in the "Golden Rule": the man with the gold rules.
 

interesting idea... definitely a lot less pressure, but i feel like it's just a whole new round of competition... i mean, don't you wanna be better than everyone else in the intern class? Especially being in S&T...

I don't accept sacrifices and I don't make them. ... If ever the pleasure of one has to be bought by the pain of the other, there better be no trade at all. A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud.
 

I did my slacking the first 2 years. Worked my ass off my last 2 years. Did not have an offer when i graduated however.

"Oh the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion" - Frank Slaughtery 25th Hour.
 

Guys, I'm in exactly the same state, and thought about posting something similar. After getting my offer around the middle of the first term, now I literally have 0 motivation. I cannot even keep my mind set on the material while I try to study(which doesn't happen so often), it just wanders off to random topics. At the same time, I really want to enjoy my last months of college, since they're not coming back. However, I cannot do this to the fullest because of my guilty conscious, related to being unproductive.

 

guys his name is harvardorbust for gods sake take what he says with a grain of salt. In reality its more like bust4harvard

"Oh the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion" - Frank Slaughtery 25th Hour.
 
ambition56:
i mean if you work your balls off this summer... they won't care if your gpa falls a point or two

Who's "they"? Your gpa won't matter in determining whether or not you get a return offer, but if you don't get one, your gpa will absolutely matter when you go through FT recruiting. Getting an SA stint is not the end of the game.... you can work your ass off and still not get a return offer (for a variety of reasons which may or may not be under your control).

Nevertheless, congrats on the offer!

 

I am wondering the same time. After the FT offers started coming in, I really stopped caring. Up until this semester, I had only one B on my transcript, everything else was an A, now I poised to probably graduate around a 3.89 due to a complete lack of motivation (there was a period of time where I was legitimately concerned that I might not graduate summa cum laude). If they look at just GPA, I think we should be fine, but if they actually analyze the transcript and look at the drop in the final semester, we are screwed.

 

if you're getting lazy with school work but doing something else that's productive, like volunteering or contributing back to the school, it'll probably be viewed as a positive. No B-school is going to care if you got a 4.0 or a 3.9 so you might as well enjoy the last semester and start trying to improve the other aspects of your future application.

FWIW, I went to a non-target and had a 4.0 going into the last semester, completely blew off school and got 2 B+'s and now am at a top 5 bschool, so don't sweat it.

 

Actually, respectfully disagree that the GPA is a small part of the application. In your case, the quality of your 3.35 is what helped you. By quality I mean more than trend, but the rigor of what you took, the course load, how much you challenged yourself, and frankly, your intellectual curiosity. If you are indeed an ops dude, I am guessing you are an engineer and you probably busted ass. A 3.5 in political science (my own major, by the way) doesn't blow anyone away.
Having said, that -- back to the OP, one or 2 bps in a GPA shouldn't matter, but a 3.9+ is so pretty, it would be a shame to mess it up.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

You should not be worried at all. As long as you graduate on time the bank will not give two shits. If you choose to improve your GPA it's a matter of pride (getting Magna Cum Laude instead of Cum Laude).

"Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, for knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA."
 

The place it will hurt you most will be b-school applications and post-banking hiring. It will not be a valid excuse to tell future employers / b-school admission committees that you already had a job offer and simply didn't care.

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its ok...i dropped from a 3.97 to a 3.5.

However, i did transfer schools

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 
bizou212:
I thought PE firms/other future employers only see the GPA you put on your resume whereas B-school do look at the transcript to track any major drops.

So ultimately it doesn't matter if you drop .4 or .3 points as long as the cumulative ends up being 3.5+

Is this true?

i would say it depends. if you had a 3.9 in two years at a school and then all of a sudden had a 3.3 then something would be suspicious and it might affect your application. however, if you have a legitimate reason for the drop (transferred to a harder school/changed major/family problem) then you should have nothing to worry about

"Look, you're my best friend, so don't take this the wrong way. In twenty years, if you're still livin' here, comin' over to my house to watch the Patriots games, still workin' construction, I'll fuckin' kill you. That's not a threat, that's a fact.
 

Your GPA is an important component of your MBA (or any other grad school) application. Assuming you get an offer, have a good time your senior year, but try to stay in the same ballpark. It probably won't affect you much if you go from a 3.8 to a 3.7, but it definitely could if you go down much more than that.

Disclaimer: My GPA dropped ~.2 my senior year after I got a job offer and was overloading to get credits to take the CPA. Was incredibly regretful when I was reviewing my transcript this year as I applied to b-school, even though it may not have had much of an effect.

 

I would put the 3.5 because of a) its actually still pretty good, and b) if I saw "7semester GPA:3.66/4.0", I would almost immediately assume that you got like a 1.0 in that final semester.

 

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