GPA FOR PE??!!
After getting my offer for IB. I’ve been slacking in school, I was curious if PE recruiting looks at GPA a lot. If so if you maintain a 3.8+ GPA do you need to worry about it (non-target school)?
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3.8 checks the box, you don't need to go crazy holding onto a 3.99 or anything. Just don't slip to a 3.7 as that will stop checking the box everywhere.
Fake news. I’ve seen 3.4 and 3.5 get great placements. All about crushing the technicals and having great IB deal experience. Saying there is a “cutoff” is simply not true
Can't crush the technicals if you get cut prior to getting an interview and what deal experience if participating in on-cycle. There definitely is an implicit cut-off when doing resume reviews. If its on-cycle, a a 3.5 kid from U-Miami is super easy to cut for example. This goes away as you get more senior but at the basically no-experience out of college stage, easy to cut people.
Sure some people got great placements with lower GPAs but how many places did they get dinged at the resume screen / HH screen stage for their GPA? My firm gets an excel from our HH that shows name, firm, group, school, GPA, test scores, and we rank from there to look at resumes.
For OP, I'd stay above a 3.8 if you can.
3.5 is good enough. That’s what I had.
No one has great deal experience for oncycle when they graduated college 2 months ago. The only data points you really have are group, school and GPA. Maybe test scores from 5 years ago. When you have to prune 100 highly qualified BB/EB candidates to 30, GPA is just about the easiest thing to rank on.
Of course those 3.4/3.5s can get placements, but it's a much harder hill to climb and as I said, won't check the box everywhere.
Less relevant if you have the work experience. Anyone looking to do PE very early career or summer rotational will need a 3.7+ to be competitive anywhere big enough to hire that demographic.
Any PE firm that honestly cares about your college GPA or test scores from 5+ years ago is a beta firm. Understand if GPA is used as an initial filter because of so many candidates to decide if they give you an interview, but if any PE firm is honesty making final hiring decisions after modeling interview, paper LBO, walking though deal experience, etc. on 3.5 vs 3.9 GPA, that’s beta AF
I had a 3.5 from a semi-target and a relatively no-name IB and got a solid MM offer - but I will definitely say that it counted against me in HH screens and resume pulls. Had to network a little bit to get into the process for the MM. but once you’re in face to face interviews, I think it all comes down to technicals, behaviorals, and mainly deal exp.
I even got asked in a final round for another MM/LMM shop why my GPA was so low, so important to craft a narrative if that happens.
Lol I were at a final round (aka passed technicals/behavioral/ simple modeling test) for a MM/LMM and had a 3.2-3.3 GPA and got asked why my GPA was so low I would tell the interviewer to go kick rocks
Just left GPA off my resume altogether - nobody asked in my UMM process
Did you get the offer in the end?
How long after graduation are a lot of these metrics still relevant?
I came across a hedge fund that was looking for a new analyst. Amongst the typical requirements (2-3 years IB, PE, S&T, etc...) They wanted college gpa and SAT/ACT scores. If you're 3 years into your professional career, you're safely 7-8 years removed from when you took those tests. If universities won't even accept those scores due to age, why are the relevant for a job application?
Really only matters for initial screen. After that, you’ll will just be evaluated on your interviews + technical skills. Most firms have a 3.7 or 3.5 GPA cut-off so just stay above that to avoid the extra work of having to network more, etc. to get a seat in the process. It’s a competitive market and GPA is an easy metric firms will use even 5+ years into your career
Only a 3.8? Your career is over.
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