does undergrad matter?
Hi i am in my sophmore year of high school. I have a 3.6 gpa n my aunt has workd in several big banks (JP Morgan ...). She also taugh at buissness class @NYU stern. Do investment banks care about what your undergrad is if you plan on going in with a mba from a top school such as columbia, nyu, cornell...? Like is hofstra a notable buissness school(major in accounting) with a top tier mba and conections enough to get in to bulge bracket ibanks ? Can having your cpa help you more
?
They do care about your undergrad to an extent. You would be best served going to one of the places you mentioned as having a great MBA program for your undergrad and then saving the MBA until you need it or want it later on. Columbia, NYU, and Cornell all place well to investment banks. Hofstra may have some one-offs, but you will have a much tougher time going that route. Also, you would be better off trying to get into a bank right out of undergrad than trying to join after business school. Much more risk, entering later in your career, and you immediately put yourself on a track where upward has golden handcuffs and lateral moves come at massive paycuts.
My advice to you would be to keep your GPA where it is and enjoy high school. Study hard for the SATs and go to a college that will make you happy. You CAN find a balance between attending a school that has an opportunity to get you a job on the street while also having a great social scene. A lot of kids will tell you that you need to go to a target and hit the books super hard for 4 years... while you can't slack off during college, you don't have to approach it that way. Many of my friends across multiple firms went to schools like Boston College, Wake Forest, Indiana, Texas, etc. Yes, I also have numerous friends from Harvard, Wharton, Yale and Georgetown, but the kids I know who had the most fun went to state schools, and have the same job.
Just food for thought. There are a lot of factors at play, including how your education is being financed (i.e. are mom and dad footing the bill or are you paying your own way). Since I had to pay for school, I went the route that was likely to provide me the most social fulfillment and also the best return on my investment, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the way it turned out. Ultimately, luck is going to have a lot more to do with where you end up than you will probably care to admit, but you can increase your chances of getting to where you want to be by being humble, enjoying life, and not trying to control things you can't.
Hope that helps. Enjoy high school and college... I think a lot of people, myself included, would love to be able to get back some of the carefree days of college partying. Whatever you choose to do, enjoy it and make it your experience.
Thank god you didn't say HBS.
Shouldn't you be in school?
Yes, they care about your undergrad degree. Stick to the STEM majors (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). Get an MBA second.
You can start with a STEM major and go for MBA, but you can't start business major and end in STEM grad program. And no one with teach you advanced calculus on the job - they'll teach you banking. Get an education first, learn a trade second.
When you say "matter", are you talking about the brand name or grades?"
Either way, yes it does matter....because getting into a top MBA program is somewhat correlated to your undergraduate program/performance.
Does it matter to how well you will perform your job? No.
Recusandae non voluptatem rerum repellat est. Omnis molestias eius maxime ut dicta. In consequatur repudiandae totam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...