I’ve been recently arguing with my dad about which is more important, network or GPA. I have a decent GPA but he is beginning to worry since I have a lot extracurriculars.
What would you guys say?
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It's simple : 3.6/3.7GPA + Network> 4.0 GPA + no network> 3.0 GPA + Network
I can only answer based on myself- My bank tend to care a lot on our GPA and SAT scores. But what scores really do is make networking a lot easier - the chance of me answering your e-mail or meeting for coffee is just higher if you have a high gpa and/or go to a target school. The less of a target, the higher your GPA needs to be for me to see you as a potential candidate and therefore spend the time to network with you. I don’t have a formula but from a target I don’t think anything above 3.7 matters, from a no name I would probably like to see close to 4.0. That being said I have dinged plenty of targets above 3.7 because they don’t have their technicals under control. I know very few Ivy’s have business schools and they rarely take finance early enough for recruiting if they do - but that is a handicap targets needs to breach. Regarding extracurriculars - i just want to see an interest in finance, you don’t need to be in every club but some prior interest is important. I would rather see a 3.8 with one finance club or similar thing than a 3.6 with every experience known to man. Above 3.8 I start looking more at extracurriculars rather than gpa especially if you are at a target/semi target school.