Leaving wharton dual degree program to save GPA?

I am a first year student at Wharton in a dual degree program that involves a life science (aka anything related to bio/chemistry) degree and a business degree. Broadly speaking I'm planning to be involved in healthcare/biotech finance after graduating, which is the reason why I joined the program. The thing is I'm also pursuing a computational bio degree and it's been dragging my GPA down, currently my GPA stands at 3.72. I know it's not bad but it's not great either, especially for hedge fund or private equity type jobs.

My question is do you think it's better for me to stay in the program, continue with computational bio and try to improve my GPA in my second year, thus getting two degrees, or should I just drop out of the dual degree program go single degree and boost my GPA (I'm assuming that I'll probably do better if I'm in just one degree)? On one hand, I feel like since I've already started on the comp bio route I should just continue with it. On the other hand, I've heard that it's not absolutely necessary to get a science degree if I'm planning to be involved in the business side of things. Any thoughts or opinions on what might be the better course? Would appreciate any comments!

4 Comments
 

If you network, a dual degree with a 3.7+ from Wharton is highly competitive. Could get you in virtually any door. I wouldn't sweat it with that GPA.

 
Best Response

Penn person here, you want a 3.8+ with dual degree if you want interviews at the top places like silverlake, silverpoint, BX, apollo, ares, sankaty. 3.9+ if you're single degree. The bigger draw I wouldn't say is GPA but that you have to do a science internship your sophomore year, which will kill all your chances at these places. I've heard many are able to still do finance internships (usually in conjunction) but it always seemed like a hassle from what I've seen.

 

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