Importance of Social Life in College as an Asian for IB?
I understand that in higher levels of finance asians are faced with the "Bamboo Ceiling" as a result of poor social skills and thus are less likely to be promoted to higher positions in the firm. As an asian going into college, should I focus more on having a social life(joining a fraternity etc) or cranking in school and trying to keep my gpa as high as possible/getting internships/finance ecs. I have good social skills, but I had to sacrifice a lot of my social life in high school as a result of my course load. As an asian, which would be more beneficial for IB, having more of a social life and letting my gpa slip a bit, or go full try hard and grind college to keep my gpa as high as possible? If I have social skills, is it important to be able to signal it through my resume activities, or is having the actual skills enough(and just focusing on school and finance). Does having social activities on your resume matter a lot at the lower levels(analyst)?
Do both.
The fact that you would make a post like this implies you have zero social intelligence anyway so I would just go for high gpa
Word.
+1. Also, the term "bamboo ceiling" is fucking hilarious and so is the tag for this post "asian skills IB". A serious question here: How much of WSO is Asian? It's beginning to seem like a lot...
Joining a frat could give you a massive social boost, but don't do it simply to get a job- you need to want to do this or you simply won't enjoy it.
They aren't mutually exclusive.
Currently in a fraternity, would never vote you in as your intentions would be apparent. Enjoy college, you can have a social life and do well in school. Don't just join a fraternity to pad your resume.
Laughing so hard at the first sentence of this post...what a dildo. People are in frats for that very same reason, you think it's a higher cause.
From my personal experience I've never met/heard of anyone who tried to join a fraternity for "prestigious exit opps into IB". You're laughing and its your right to , but come off in an interview like you're there to move on into PE or HFs and you'll get the same treatment. No one wants to be associated with or even around people trying to use them
You can't be serious. You actually think people just join frats for the resume?
you should focus on social life for the social benefits, as well as the health benefits. having friends is not the same as solving a DCF, you gotta be well rounded.
Way to perpetuate the stereotype and make us all look bad. Asshole.
This is hardly believable. 10% Native American? Sometimes it seems that this board is 50% East Asian.
Lol as an Asian that went to a 30 percent Asian hs the stereotype is true
Seriously & the 4% hispanic/latino :(
Donde estan mis amigos
¡Aqui! Hay sólo unos pocos Hispanos en IB, pero con fuerza podemos cambiar eso.
Pinche WSO siempre está lleno de gringos y chinos.
jajajaja en serio. Horita van a traducir nuestra conversacion
Pero juntos somos los mas fuerte >:]
Trump 2016
At least 50%...
This seriously made my day, what an awesome post!
ding ding ding!
I need popcorn.
Please don't fucking perpetuate the stereotype. Getting excellent grades (yes even those that will appease your parents) and being a socially competent human being is very possible.
Make sure you make the GPA cut-off for the BB/EB around junior year recruiting (different schools are different, so I would do more research accordingly and see how much effort it would take to get there).
Don't sacrifice your social life for an incremental increase in GPA, but don't join a frat just to boost your resume. You can always hang out with friends (don't have to party like "the hangover" every week to have fun) and do what you are comfortable with. Bankers just want to know if you are sociable enough to make conversations with during happy hours and late into the night, so being a frat for the social part is unnecessary (again, in some schools frats are feeders to BB/EB, would research more).
Also, as an Asian who gave up some social life to grind for higher GPA, I definitely wished I partied harder in college years. Trust me when I tell you that when you look back a couple years, you will still remember the fun times you had with friends, not your slightly higher GPA in options & derivatives class.
KimchiNoodleSoup
Were the career benefits of grinding a higher gpa significant?
Like I mentioned, it is only good for meeting the cut-off GPA of your school to apply for the BB / EB. After that, your experience and how well you do on the job will matter a lot more (do people care if Warren Buffet got 3.7 GPA vs. 3.98? I don't think so). I think it matters a little bit for business school, but you can also spin a story / get a high GMAT.
Pledgeship gives you good stories and some friends to study with. You can kind of do your own thing after you're initiated if you hate it.
Plenty of ways to be social without joining a fraternity. Get involved in some clubs that you are passionate about (not just clubs like Asian Student Union or Asian Business Association, things like that).
If you work hard enough and set your goal at getting a job in high-finance, pledge for a business fraternity like DSP (Delta Sigma Pi). You get to meet people who share the same goals and you get to network with successful alumni and more senior students who sharpen your interview skills. Two birds in one stone: social activities and job opportunities
Ah, yes, Asian + socially awkward. Sure, it's a stereotype, but stereotypes exist for a reason. I'm going to give OP the benefit of the doubt. He's probably an incoming freshman about to start school in the Fall. OP doesn't have the awareness of how he comes across in social interactions (both online and in-person), but there is still plenty of time for him to fix that.
I'm not Asian myself, but a majority of my friends in college were Asian (not by any conscious choice, but random chance: roommates during Freshman year were Asian, and then we formed groups to enter the Sophomore housing lottery together, and I continued to live with Asians for the next 3 years. The ones I associated with were actually pretty well balanced in terms of academics vs. social life. The only thing that was unbalanced was that most of their social circle was other Asians. In group photos on facebook and the like, I would always be the "token" non-Asian guy in a sea of yellow.
Anyways, to the issue at hand. Honestly, and someone already mentioned this, but I don't think it's one or the other. It should be both. You can still achieve Summa and PBK while having a nice social life, and you can probably still do it while getting a reasonable 6 or 7 hours of sleep a day.
Good luck, OP, there is still plenty of time for you to turn things around.
I just asked this on WSO BC I would look like an autist if I asked someone this in real life. I've never really been involved in any of those asian union groups. I'm gonna do more research on fraternities and probably going to do a club sport or something in addition to finance extracurriculars. I picked up squash over the summer so I'm probably going to pursue that in college. Thanks for the help everybody.
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