Lied About Graduation Date
Graduation date shenanigans aren’t novel in this industry or on WSO, but I’m in a slightly messy spot and could use advice from anyone who’s dealt with something similar.
I’m currently a senior at a non-target with an SA26 offer at an UMM firm (think Piper / PWP / Jefferies tier). During sophomore-year recruiting, I struck out, so I pushed my graduation date back one semester (Dec ’26 instead of May ’26). That helped materially during junior recruiting, and the firm I accepted with has a separate FT training track for December grads. The structure is: intern summer ’26 → graduate December → start FT January (assuming return, God-willing).
Here’s the issue: I’m actually done with all coursework and can graduate in May ’26. From a personal standpoint, I want to graduate with my class, and more importantly, my 4-year scholarships run out after spring. Staying enrolled just to preserve a December graduation date doesn’t make much economic sense.
My concern is internship eligibility / HR optics. Would graduating in May instead of December jeopardize the internship or return offer? I can’t see why HR would care whether I graduate in May or December if the start date and training alignment still work, but I also don’t want to risk something I spent two years grinding for.
Has anyone:
- Interned after graduating earlier than stated?
- Changed their graduation date post-offer?
- Dealt with firms that have December-grad specific pipelines?
Any insight on how firms actually handle this (or how HR thinks about it) would be appreciated. Trying to balance minimizing risk with not lighting money on fire for no reason.
Thanks in advance.
Bump in a similar spot
Obviously unethical but HR doesnt care the most at this point.
Just dont apply to graduate and then apply in december? You get a couples months off and can start in jan
Could you take the spring sem off and then roll your scholarship into fall?
Unfortunately not. I've already received the scholarship money, and my school is 3 weeks deep into the semester. Furthermore, some of the classes I need to graduate are only offered in the Spring and not the Fall.
You don’t necessarily have to take a full course load, could taking 1-3 courses or however many so you’re technically still a student, as long as you don’t apply to graduate. Would miss graduating with your class but again, depends what you really care about and how much you think HR will care. I think some firms care because they get subsidies for employing student interns and you may need to be returning to school after your internship for them to get the subsidy, but not 100% sure on that.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended up emailing HR to ask whether graduating a semester "early" would affect my internship eligibility. Fortunately, they said they were willing to make an exception and let me remain in the program, though the FT start in January isn't guaranteed.
Who TF is putting PWP in the same tier as Piper Sandler?
I actually laughed out loud. thanks
Congrats on Piper
congrats on piper
bump similar spot
I'm in a similar spot - is there a world in which you crush the summer internship, get the return offer, and state that you've finished all coursework and have the opportunity continue school, but would just like to start full-time right away?
Hi M
MM
Not advice but I did something similar and didn’t say anything until after my summer ended once I had the return offer and made a good impression. Didn’t want to jeopardize the chance I had before it started. Firm was fine with it once I let them know (given they liked me and i performed well and I had prepared brief statement on why it happened and kept things high level) — others will have opinions but I figured why would the firm rescind my offer at that point. Even if they did… well I’d at least have a return offer from the bank and could have recruit (vs what would you do now if they pulled your SA offer)
Im pretty confident the reason banks require SA to be students after the internship is for tax-purposes. As another comment mentioned, I think they get some sorta subsidy. That being said, I feel like it would be totally up to HR and vary bank to bank. Don't think this would warrant a rescinded offer.
I am in a similar boat and I am just going to take BS classes in the spring then finish in the fall. Although my bank doesn't offer full time in december which kinda sucks. I'll have to do nothing for 6 months before full time starts tht following June.
Would not suggest that as you assume all the risk. But I was in a very similar situation and had to take the risk unfortunately. I interned at a MM after graduation and told the team but not the HR that I graduated early. After my summer, I got the return offer and seemed like they did not care. But I dont want to wait for a year (also international visa issues), I just recruited to a better shop for full-time (not disclosing that I graduated already) and started working
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