How fucked am I? (Concerned about GPA)

In second semester of freshman year at good semi target. To be exact in my first semester I got a 2.769 GPA, and I’ve been doing some calculations out feel free to skip [and if I get a 3.7 or like a little higher than for this semester and next, then I’ll end up with a 3.4 for sophomore year SA recruiting. Of course there are scenarios where if I were to somehow get a 3.8 or 3.9+ I end up with a 3.5 barely]*. But let’s say worst case scenario I end up with like a 3.3 or something, does GPA matter that much that I lost practically all chances of getting a SA position for sophomore year?

30 Comments
 

I personally think it's unproductive and wrong for someone like you to have exponentially harder time landing a job because banks only consider 1.5 years of academic performance from 4 total years of time in college. However, it is what it is, and my advice for you is to have a solid and compelling reason to explain low gpa. It's about how you explain rather than what really happened. Also, try targeting MMs or BBs instead of EBs realistically. Even if you land a MM firm, you'll be able to lateral to a better bank. 

 

anything under a 3.5 or 3.7 wouldn’t even pass HR unless you land a bofa/ms/gs sophomore summer (not sure how considering the GPA) or your dad is head of UBS IB or something like that

remember a 3.9 communications major looks better than a 3.3 engineering major to these banks

 

doesn’t help, finance + phil not difficult, try to aim for 4.0 this semester or next, take the BS classes, drop classes that tank you gpa, aim for at least 3.7

you’re competing against wharton 3.9, don’t expect your school to bring up a weak gpa

 

Graduated with a 2.9. Broke in still but played the long game and targeted MMs where I could network my way in and then lateraled to a larger bank. Very possible and can be done, you just need to shift your strategy. At this point gpa isn’t going to matter but only for your confidence so just pull it up as much as you can so you know you’re capable.

 
Most Helpful

For sure happy to. I went to a target school which helped a lot, I also had a good reason behind it. I had health issues but my last couple of years my GPA was very strong. Any finance class I got cs in, the advanced version I received a 4.0 in so I was able to mitigate the stigma. So to be clear here it wasn’t like my GPA was poor all through four years of college and they gave me a chance, I had an explanation and I showed tons of progression to the point that they didn’t see it as a problem.

I navigated recruitment by networking with seniors aggressively and having them push me in a process. I had to be very vocal and disarm them by speaking on things on my application that they were going to get to that could potentially put me in a bad spot during the process. All of that helped me land.

 

Why are you only aiming for a 3.7 or 3.8 in the coming semesters? Every college from community college to MIT has joke classes where everyone gets an A - you should be stacking as many of those credits on your schedule as possible. See if you can take community college or summer classes this summer and transfer in even more As. Push back or drop any class where you could get anything that's not an A. Recruiting with a >3.5 vs 3.5 is a world of difference and after you get the job it doesn't matter you can go back to taking to whatever finance or philosophy classes you seems to be having such a struggle with.  

 

Of course I’m aiming for the highest GPA I can get, the 3.7/8 was just for the sake of the scenario. I was trying to be realistic for what GPA I’ll probably end up with and then I guess as a follow up question see how much GPA matters in my situation

 

Control what you can control. GPA is important for landing a SA role. Lock in and get the highest grades you can over the next 2 semesters and get to a 3.5. 

 

My freshman first semester in premed ended with a 2.7. You'll be fine. 

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how should i state a rounded gpa on my resume? Would I leave my 3.66 as a 3.7 or would i put 3.7/4.0. And how looked down upon is it to just leave 1 digit compared to 2?

 

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