I am a Sophomore at a Semi-Target (UCLA, UCB, USC) with a 3.4 GPA but a 3.7 Finance Major GPA and two IBD internships (boutique and MM firm). I am targeting top BB's in New York and besides networking was wondering what else I could be doing to maximize my chances?
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How'd you manage to pull off two IBD internships as a sophomore?
I am currently a intern at a boutique bank through the spring of the next semester and have a SA role lined up at a MM firm.
Those stats seem pretty good. I guess if I were you I’d network 24/7 and pound the pavement.
Great, I'm going to be networking extensively and hopefully people will overlook my 3.4
Network extensively, all the schools that you mentioned are semi-targets, so networking is very important.
This is more UCLA specific advice, but if you go to UCLA and you’re either a white male or Asian male, avoid recruiting for NY offices. Only CS NY seriously looks at UCLA kids, and most places just won’t care. If you’re still serious about NY, I’d still say to focus on SF/LA over NY, it’s just gonna make your life easier.
I’m telling you this because I go to UCLA and haven’t seen any non-diversity person recruit into a NY office apart from CS. If you fall into a diversity category, then things get different and you have a fair shot at NY offices, but you still got to network hard to make up for the slightly low GPA.
Hey do you know if this applies or somewhat applies to USC as well? Thank you
Not an expert w USC, but my bet is that it will be slightly better than UCLA.
With your GPA (and just being in USC/UCLA tbh), you have to network extensively anyways. USC has a dedicated business school program for undergraduates compared to UCLA kids who have to do it own their own, so your odds at NY might be better at USC, but it’s gonna be way easier to find something in LA/SF.
Talk to upperclassmen and see what’s been the trend (have people before you recruited into NY offices before? How many people per year??) and gauge the difficulty from there on.
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