does gpa matter after banking?

if you go to a good enough bank like some of the mid to top BBs or EBs and get great deal experience, does your gpa matter anymore for PE recruiting? would be curious to hear if maybe only MFs care and UMM/MM funds dont care

10 Comments
 

Yes and no, going to MM+ PE and HF’s its just as important. Other than that not really.

Recently went to a superday for a MM PE (and did well), then was ask to have a co-founder call which also went well, just for them to circl back with “we have an internal metric that shows GPA correlates high with outperforming candidates here” and told me to take the GMAT and apply again.

But other places havent batted an eye. So i’d say again…it depends.

 

thats interesting, i was curious because im studying engineering (ee/aero/me) and its difficult for me to keep a super high gpa. i have a 3.6 and was able to land a mm ib sa27 role but im worried my gpa will dip since im starting to take more upper div classes. do you think that maybe engineers get a little bit of a buffer or everyone gets the same treatment? just concerning considering the average graduating gpa for my major is 3.1 range and im non target

 

It matters for PE because you’re recruited so early on in your time in IB before you have any real work experience or differentiation. It’s a filtering tool. 

After PE, you don’t even need to include it on your resume. 

Also - fun fact, no one has every once cared about what courses I took or what was on my transcript beyond background check verifications. Take easy classes and get your GPA up. At the minimum, do everything in your power to inflate your major GPA. 

 

I have a 3.6 engineering gpa but I have a 4.0 for all my business/acct/econ classes I’ve taken. Do you think I can use that instead or they don’t care 

 

Anonymous Monkey:

I have a 3.6 engineering gpa but I have a 4.0 for all my business/acct/econ classes I’ve taken. Do you think I can use that instead or they don’t care 


You should stick to your overall GPA to play it safe and avoid any issues with background checks, but can list a second “major GPA” as well if higher.

 
Most Helpful

It matters a lot less, but it usually does not go fully away. If you are at a strong bank with legit deal reps, that will carry way more weight than GPA, especially for UMM/MM funds. But if your GPA is meaningfully low, some firms, especially the more process-heavy MF type shops, will still care because they use it as an easy filter.

So basically, great bank + great deal experience can absolutely outweigh GPA, but it does not fully erase it. MFs are more likely to care, UMM/MM are generally more flexible, especially if you interview well and your staffings / references are strong. A bad GPA becomes less of a story issue once you have real banking reps, but it can still hurt if it is bad enough.

 

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