GPA Drop During SA Recruiting

Hi all,

I was recruiting for SA during the fall and was able to land an internship at a solid MM/bottom BB. That's the good news. The bad news is that my gpa TANKED from a 3.78 to a 3.46 as I was putting all my time and energy into recruiting. So if I do pretty well in the winter, I'm probably looking at a 3.6 going into full-time recruiting.

My question is, if I do want to go through FT recruiting (or even try to relocate within the firm I'm at), how much will it hurt to have a 3.6 rather than a 3.7 or 3.8? Is GPA still very important during FT recruiting, or is it less important now that you've already proven you can land a good banking position?

8 Comments
 

If you're lateraling between groups within the same firm, I think it'll be okay. Word of mouth and your bosses' recs should weigh more heavily than GPA, at that point. I think it's safe to presume that it'll hurt you somewhat during standard FT recruiting at other firms, although my own GPA dropped between junior and senior year and people at other firms were still happy to invite me into their recruiting processes (didn't pursue and planning to return to same bank I interned with). With that said, I think having a previous IB internship with a return offer in hand is more important than GPA in FT recruiting as long as your GPA's in the ballpark of 3.5+.

 

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