Is it worth it to take "harder" finance classes to learn the material but probably end up with a lower GPA?
Hey guys, I'm currently at a non-target that is regularly ranked overall between 50-100 and with the undergrad business school between 30-50 by US News with a more FP&A SA gig at a BB this summer in a T2 city.
I also want to start off that unlike most people on this site, I am not trying to get to IB/PE right now. Some health stuff would probably make that life style extremely difficult right now. I will most likely pursue an MBA down the road and may try to break into IB then (Who knows, that's years down the line), but IB isn't my current goal. My SA position has a strong potential to turn into a FT offer, which would help for MBA admissions and potentially IB later since I would be there for at least 2+ years after undergrad. Anyways...
My question is: Is it worth it for the last 1.5 years I have of undergrad to take more difficult and meaningful finance courses, even if it drops my GPA, to learn that information while still in school and have that on my resume/under my belt? I am by no means, especially for people on this site, a great finance student but am far from a terrible GPA, as rounded I would be at a 3.5 currently. These courses that I wasn't initially planning on taking could range anywhere from equity valuation to IB and more.
The biggest issue is that I have no real idea what I specifically want to do in finance at all. The finance courses I already planned on taking would expose me to a variety of fields (Wealth management, RE, commercial banking, and various aspects of risk management) but I still have no specific idea for a career path. Plus, there are so many finance major courses that I am not sure which ones to even take anyways to help for the future.
Ultimately, I am afraid that I may end up looking back at my time as an undergrad and realize that I could have given up a 3.5 for something like a 3.3-3.4 to take better coursework that could have helped me professionally, whether that means helping me determine a more specific career path or the general skills and knowledge from these courses that may be something I have to use in a FT position.
TT02166, sorry there are no responses yet. Maybe one of these topics can point you in the right direction:
If those topics were completely useless, don't blame me, blame my programmers...
Just going to bump this since no one has commented yet. Just very curious on what some of you FT people think about this in general.
I would focus on getting your GPA up. Some places have a 3.5 cut off.
Well I'll additionally state that while sure, I did and will apply for a variety of FO and MO positions, I am honestly not even truly attempting to break into those, so would this really still apply? I am hoping that, assuming my SA offer can turn into a FT offer, that I will enjoy the BB and the city enough that I would stay there for a at least 3+ years until I decide to do an MBA and hopefully continue to climb the ladder until that point.
No. Ppl won't really care what the classes are if, especially if you don't do well in them...
That is a little surprising to me since at least you would be exposed to the skills/knowledge of that class but that makes sense. And I wasn't referring to failing them or even getting a D, but just probably wouldn't ever expect to get an A in the course.
you don't need a college class to learn any subject matter...just buy and read the textbook...and then watch the video classes online with a MOOC. College is such a fucking waste of money....just like Good Will Hunting says...you can get the same harvard education with $1.50 in late fees at the public library. You are paying for the luxury of being lazy. Here's an idea...stop being fucking lazy...
I get college isn't exactly the best bang for your buck but I'm not going to drop out with 1.5 years left just to follow that belief. I'm just trying to completely maximize my knowledge for the remainder of my time to potentially benefit me later.
Gpa > courses - most people don’t know what you took anyways
Let's be honest.....there are not any "hard" finance classes in undergrad. The hardest finance classes would be for actuarial majors.... but even then, that's more stats based. Study what you're interested but understand the tradeoff and that it's important to keep that GPA up.
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