Do MFs ever take anyone below 3.8?

Do Megafunds / UMM ever take anyone with a 3.7 gpa? On Linkedin it seems like most candidates have 3.9 / magna or summa / phi beta kappa. This is for post-banking associate recruiting.

Are there any that are known to have harsher restrictions than others? Is it more up to headhunters and if so, are some known to be less forgiving than others?

13 Comments
 

You don’t really feel that way do you?

GPA is a single indicator, and one that means a lot less the further out from school you are. It is useful to get a sense of how hard working a person is, how “smart” they are (in some ways, depends on courses, major, etc), but the “real world” is very different than school. 
 

I’ve seen many successful people with GPA’s that are lower than that. 

 
Most Helpful

GPA is one of many factors used to evaluate your candidacy. I think a strong GPA can compensate for weaknesses in other areas. Do you work in a top group? Did you go to a target school? What was your major? Does your group place into the MF you mention aka is there a VP in the group who came from your group etc.? What was your SAT score? Are you a student-athlete?

Your overall profile matters to get past the HH screen. I've found they love pattern-matching so having one of a few signals of success encourages your chances to interview. Once you get past that though, it's up to you to stand out and you may end up not being a culture fit based on who interviews you that day and their mood, though patterns of success makes it a little bit easier at that point too (repeated success in the traditional sense shows you are a high EV candidate). This may or may not be fair but this is what I noticed in recruiting. I think PE recruiting is a bit more elitist than banking recruiting and that's possibly related to competitiveness to get a seat at a top firm for PE (1-8 associate hires per year vs much larger analyst class sizes). There is a small chance when you interview at a certain firm you'll meet that one partner who loves prestige and traditional signals of performance like GPA and you may not get the job or you may be asked why your GPA is low. If you get to that stage though, I wouldn't worry, even if you don't get this job you'll probably get one somewhere else.

 

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