GPA to get interviews

What GPA should I aim for as an Economics major at a top public (Michigan, Berkley,etc.) to get SA interviews at MBB, Booz & Co, Monitor, Deloitte, etc?

Also am I shooting myself in the foot by not being a business major at their respective undergraduate business programs (Ross, Haas)?

18 Comments
 

Depending on EC's, engineering or not, core school or not, etc. Probably, around 3.5+.

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Best Response
ChillguyWhat GPA should I aim for as an Economics major at a top public (Michigan, Berkley,etc.) to get SA interviews at MBB, Booz & Co, Monitor, Deloitte, etc?

Also am I shooting myself in the foot by not being a business major at their respective undergraduate business programs (Ross, Haas)?

If you're in a liberal arts major, 3.7ish and above should make GPA a non-issue. If you're in a hard science (math, physics, comp sci, engineering, etc.), then a 3.5 and above should give you a look. These are extremely rough estimates and will change depending on your school's grade inflation. My undergrad had extremely low grade inflation, so take what you will from it.
http://www.gradeinflation.com/ Scroll to the bottom to see some old (yet useful) data.

Doesn't really matter if you're in the business school. When I was an undergrad, there were more liberal arts / sciences kids than business school kids at the consulting interviews.

 

disagree on 3.7 for mck, i have a 3.8-3.85 from one of the schools you mentioned and didn't even get a 1st round interview (or invited to the test)

 
dubsbelievedisagree on 3.7 for mck, i have a 3.8-3.85 from one of the schools you mentioned and didn't even get a 1st round interview (or invited to the test)

Know a girl from Stanford who had 3.3 in Poly Sci who works for McK. She was all PAC 10 athlete and enough EC's to make you're head spin. They take other data points into consideration, and her uncle was sr advisor to Treasury so that probably helped.

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dubsbelievedisagree on 3.7 for mck, i have a 3.8-3.85 from one of the schools you mentioned and didn't even get a 1st round interview (or invited to the test)

That's rough but McK is usually 3.8+ territory so not too surprising even though they usually give you a behavioral if you have a decent GPA - bad luck maybe.

What about your ECs?

Did you try to interview at Deloitte or Accenture or BCG or just McK?

 
capitalcity13

That's rough but McK is usually 3.8+ territory so not too surprising even though they usually give you a behavioral if you have a decent GPA - bad luck maybe.

That's bull, I made final rounds at M with a 3.6 in Engineering. The point is the cutoff is usually 3.5 for all us normal folks (they won't look at you below that) unless you have stellar credentials/networking in some other aspect of your application.

 

yeah, obviously i'm only one data point. i do go to one of the 2 schools mentioned, and i am an econ major, which is really the only reason i posted -- trying to give the OP as detailed info as i could provide.

 
dubsbelieveyeah, obviously i'm only one data point. i do go to one of the 2 schools mentioned, and i am an econ major, which is really the only reason i posted -- trying to give the OP as detailed info as i could provide.

Were you an Econ major by choice? I planning as declaring as one, and I'm still kinda worried, cause a lot BBs at my school hire exclusively from the Business program for front-office positions. I mean there are some like CS that hire across campus, but most focus on business majors. Best on what I've read, top consultancies care less about stuff like that?

 

kid from my school (think hamilton, colgate, skidmore) got in with 3.4. econ/gov double major. treasurer of the student govt and the interviewer was in the same frat (beta theta pi) but no other important ECs.

 

@capitalcity

i had an offer from one of those firms you mentioned (worked there 2 summers). i applied the MBB and ended up at one of them (well, obviously not McKinsey, so one of the BB...). my EC's were nothing to write home about, but i had two summers experience at a consulting company; i thought that would get me a shot, but to be honest, i'm lucky as hell to get to where i got, so i'm not complaining :)

@Chillguy

i'm actually a stats/econ double major, with a minor (don't want to give away TOO much personal info, lol). i truly like econ, i would've majored in that regardless. stats was an addition when i thought i wanted to go into IB, but that dream died during a sophomore in-school internship. out of the incoming class at the MBB (minus the M again), i don't believe anyone is a business major. ymmv.

 

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