Is it still possible for me to break into finance at all?
Hi I’m currently a rising sophomore at Cornell studying Mathematics at the college of arts & science. I really messed up my freshman year — my cumulative gpa went from 3.561 to a 3.15. I’m ngl there’s no one to blame but myself I was too ambitious and took too many hard classes and I was just not focused. Thankfully I didn’t fail any classes tho but I messed up Linear Algebra & CS. I’m super determined to change and this summer I have been preparing for IB technicals & concepts rigorously, I did a summer internship at a unicorn tech company performing statistical data analyses on their AI model, and I went through the mistakes I made in my classes (since I’m especially gonna retake linear algebra 2nd sem) and prepared for my classes this coming semester. In this internship I also practically applied Python and Linear Algebra and I would say I have a better understanding and skill thanks to my mentors.
Freshman yr I joined a semi-prestigious business club on campus and I spent a semester doing research on Poppi & Pepsi’s M&A so I would say I have some finance related experience. In high school I also did a summer internship at a venture capital where I analyzed a company’s ESG performance to decide funding decisions.
This coming semester my goal is to better my academics for sure (and I think I have a higher chance of doing that because my course load is a lot easier but I’m still taking Multivariable Calc which is my only super hard class) and get into the prestigious business clubs at Cornell (only gonna try 2-3 so I don’t waste my energy too much). I also will try for a winter finance internship or idk do something during the winter break so I can be more competitive and make up for my shortcomings.
Ik it’s definitely a lot harder for me than a high GPA applicant but do u think I still have a chance? I will really try my hardest trust.
Honestly, it will be very challenging. 3.15 is a very low GPA and may not even make it past ATS for the firms that use it. Maybe it’s possible to explain away a 3.4 or 3.5 GPA but under 3.2 it’s pretty difficult to play off.
Since you still have a semester where your grades are counted towards GPA before most apps drop, I would recommend taking the easiest classes possible to try to salvage a 3.5+ (if possible).
If I were you I would still do networking as usual but omit the GPA on your resume for the time being until you can bring it higher. Good luck
Yeah adding on to this- from what I've seen even MM options screen out 3.3 before HR review
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