GPA vs Class rank
Background
According to WSO you would have to acquire a GPA of 3.7 or above in order to get a job in IB/PE - this would be equivalent to a GPA of 1.3 or above in my country of studies (Germany).
-> this however is nearly impossible.
Below you will find an overview of the final GPA and the absolute number as well as the percentage of students who acquired them based on the classes from the last years.
Students enrolled 660
GPA 4:0 -> 1 Student = 0.15%
GPA 3.9 -> 3 Students = 0.45%
GPA 3.8 -> 6 Students = 0.9%
GPA 3.7 -> 8 Students = 1.2%
Cummulative: 2.7% or 18 students.
In Germany we have arguably 5 Top schools fpr IB / PE recruiting (mine beeing the largest based on class size). Based on recent years of these 18 people only 3 actually persued an career in finance (IB / PE) - the others choose a career in consulting, corporate, founded a start up or went academic.
Assuming things are similiar in the other top universities this would mean that only 15 people of approximatly 3000 are interested in IB / PE and achieved a GPA of 3.7 or above.
Actual questions
BAsed on this forum nearly everyone has a GPA of 4.0 - 3.7 -> according to some comments even if you achieve a GPA of 3.7 some banks are not going to take you seriously.
Due to this my self-confidence took a nosedove and i feel really dumb because I am no where near those number. (I am expected to finish with a GPA of 3.4-3.3 ~ top 10 - 15%).
And I started wondering maybe in the US the GPA distribution is a bit different because i can not believe that everyone here is among the top 1% of their class - especially if they are in a competitive school. Therefore I was wondering if you could please shed some light on your GPA as well as ypur class rank and the percentage your in.
Thank you all
Likely cliché, but what I want you to get from this is that grades aren’t everything. Dude there are people with 3.3 GPA’s in GS TMT because they networked effectively, done their research and came across genuine. All this dean’s list and 4.0 GPA stuff means nothing if you can’t express yourself well when speaking to people at these firms. I’m not going to say don’t worry about your GPA because it does matter to an extent but it seems like your worrying waaayyy too much and to me you need to focus your energy now (if your GPA is out of your hands) on networking and making yourself a stronger candidate outside of just grades.
Grade distribution is different in the US, it is highly variable by school and major, and most schools don't have a forced distribution of class grades or a proper class rank
Moral of the story is that everyone should remember the users of this forum are predominantly in the US, so if you're in another country you need to remember that recruitment standards / norms / anything else could be different in your country
There's no way only 3 students in Germany went into finance -- that alone should probably make you rethink your assumptions
Thank you - yeah those low number were they reason why I was asking :)
Bingo
have 3.5 at target school that doesnt inflate grades. studying something somewhat difficult but not most difficult. im top half of my class but not by a whole lot
oh thanks this is good to know.
With a 3.5 you are around the top 8% in my university.
If i remember correctly to be in the upper half i'll need a GPA > 2.9.
Surprisingly enough my degree isn't the most difficult either if I remember correctly the most difficult degree in our university has a GPA average of 2.3 or something with less than 10% beeing better than 3.0.
All in all it is interesting to see that there is such a big difference in GPA distribution
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