There's been a lot of discussion about having a low GPA freshman year but working hard and showing an upward trend for your remainder undergraduate years. I'm curious to see if the opposite is also common. For those that started with a 4.0 freshman year, there's nowhere to go but constant or down for your remainder years. How many of you here have exhibited a downward trend over your undergraduate career?
| +22 | Layoff Stigma | 12 | 1d |
| +18 | Down bad for career advice | 3 | 1d |
| +18 | Don’t underestimate how risky joining a startup is | 3 | 1d |
| +18 | Advice for incoming freshman @ target | 5 | 23h |
| +14 | Feeling behind | 2 | 8h |
| +14 | How to approach moving offices within a national brokerage? | 3 | 2d |
| +13 | Feeling pigeonholed due to past internships | 3 | 3d |
| +10 | Low Tiew Consulting vs Middle Office at an mid-size Investment Firm | 2 | 3d |
| +9 | 2027 FT IB Recruiting from Private Credit | 4 | 5h |
| +9 | Need advice - reentering industry | 1 | 5d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
recruiting is not college applications. No one would know your "trend" unless you explicitly tell them during interviews...and even then it hardly matters.
Yea i know, I'm just interested because I was in a discussion with my friend about grad school admissions and he said that it's better to have an upward trend 3.5 than a flat trend 3.5. So I started wondering how often it is for kids to have a downward trend. Don't most grad schools care about your trend? (MBA, Masters, PhD progs)
^the "trend" is of little relevance to any grad school program. I don't think that someone who trends from 4.0 to 3.8 is going to get dinged because of it.
You understand that to trend from a 4.0 to a 3.8 means that for every semester you get a 4.0, you are getting a 3.6 in another semester? To take the OP's 3.5 GPA example, a downward trend might mean semester GPAs of: 4.0, 4.0, 3.9, 3.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.0, 3.1? Of course this is a little extreme but given that schools like HBS asks you to list your GPA by year, any downward trend can go against you. I could be wrong though....
Repudiandae enim et sed soluta qui voluptatibus iusto. Quasi consequuntur quis magnam maxime. Aut et natus numquam ducimus natus magnam.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...