I'll be attending the University of Chicago next year, and I want to enter investment banking.
Basically, I was wondering whether or not doing crew (rowing) would be to my advantage there. Does it look better on resumes if you were an athlete? Does it help much more for networking?
Crew would be quite the commitment and I would be forgoing their debate club, something which I am also interested in.
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Do what you want to do in college, not what will "look good".
I am a current rower at a DI school. As much as I love the sport and am passionate about it. Let me tell you its not easy. I get up 5 days a week at 4:45 am and often I have to get up for 6:30 at least once a weekend as well. Theres also the extra lifting and extra erg workouts that we have to do as well. Probably get 5 hours a sleep a night if I am lucky. I also cant go out every weekend but thats fine with me. In season we go 20+ hours a week. Also when we race we are gone almost every weekend. We get a total of 8 weeks out of the school year where we are "off season". Most other sports get almost a full semester. I know Im in DI and UChicago is DII or DIII, but for crew time wise its almost the same across the board. You REALLY have to love this sport to do it. It takes a lot of work both mentally and physically to do. If you want to go out and party every weekend (TH-SAT) then this is not the sport for you. I do this because I love it not because it will look good on a resume.
On the flip side this did help me out a lot for my BB interview. Rowing is a very team oriented disciplined sport and the interviewers I talked to loved it. My GPA is not the best (3.3) partly due to rowing partly due to me getting used to school my first year, but I still got the position.
Doesn't uChi have like the highest suicide rate among students because of how hard it is? I don't know if you want to put yourself at even more of a disadvantage.
I went to college with a guy who rowed. He had a great work ethic and I think rowing helped to show that upfront.
He did a non business but finance related degree and our school was a semi-target, but with a target undergrad business program. So most people in his major watched all the IBD gigs go to the business undergrads, whereas he landed a BB full time gig.
That said, he had a strong gpa for someone involved in a demanding sport, about 3.6 - 3.7, I think. He was legitimately a really bright guy with a great work ethic, but I'm pretty sure rowing helped.
And as much time as rowing takes, I think it makes people more disciplined and keeps you away from some of the pitfalls of college. So if you think you would enjoy it, it would better than a dorky debate club.
Congrats on getting into Chicago. I don't think rowing will help your resume stand out, but it could be helpful in interviews when you get questions such as "tell me about a time you had to use time management skills etc." That said, you can call upon so many things for interview questions, so only do crew if you like it. If it were me I'd focus on school more. Crew won't get you an interview, but a high GPA almost always at least gets your resume in the interview pile.
will not help you out. varsity sports will.
Honestly don't choose rowing cause you think it'll help you out, trust me if you don't actually enjoy it youll quit. Giving up your weekends, waking up at 5, and the sheer amount of pain the sport involves will quickly change your mind.
I have to say that rowing is probably the easiest thing to sell to an interviewer though. It relies completely on teamwork, dedication, and hard work. Every time I've told an interviewer about my experiences they are legitimately impressed, especially if you have the blisters and hardware to prove it.
I am pretty sure it is a club support at UChicago...hence why it doesn't matter, but I could be wrong. If it is a varsity sport, then go do it.
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