Will a good putnam exam result matter more than GPA

Hi:

I am a student at Georgia Tech and I have a low GPA (3.5). I did, however, score top 25 in last years Putnam exam (score 76). I also have 800 and 800 on my GREs and 760 on the Math GRE. Should I just take more classes to improve my GPA? I was thinking of getting a PhD in Computer Engineering. Will it be impossible to get an internship with my GPA? What should I do to improve my resume?

6 Comments
 
Best Response

You probably have a low GPA because you are an engineering student. ((Eng GPA)+4.0)/2= Liberal Arts/ Business GPA.

Stop worrying, the smart folks on Wall Street know this- and they know that Georgia Tech is the Dartmouth of engineering schools. You'll get interviews with a 3.3 GPA, a research profile that can get you into a PhD program, and strong test scores, whatever they happen to be.

 

If you are aiming for a Phd, remember that you need recs, which is going to be a lot more complicated in a state school engineering program. You'll probably need to take a couple of extra Senior-level courses with a smaller class size and additionally work as an RA or course staff for a professor. I know you're an engineer, but you can't be shy at a state school if you want to get recs for grad school.

 

I have various recs from different professors. I have worked on 3 publications and am currently working on my fourth publication(first author). I wanted to work as a quantitative analyst in some hedge fund. Will they take in consideration my publications and putnam result or will they just look at my GPA and dismiss me. I know that hedge funds care a lot about the Putnam exam. Will this help.

 

Yes of course it will help. Just that in itself should get you a good number of interviews. Congrats btw, quite impressive

 

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