Cornell economics, low cumulative GPA
So I am in A&S and really messed up freshman year, ~2.3 average. I was pretty much undecided and didn't have motivation or understand how to study. I took a year off and worked in the tech business, (I know some programming). Having been exposed to more business and finance matters, I am considering going back to major in Econ. I believe I can post a much higher in-major GPA then my cumulative, will that help in getting BBs internships or similar opportunities? I am good at interviewing, sort of quant oriented, and am confident in being able to network. Basically I want to know if I kick ass from now on will I have a shot at working in finance or would I be better off transferring to a state school and basically reboot.
You want to transfer from Cornell to a state school? How would that make you better off?
Your GPA is still salvageable. Tone down the drinking and video games, bust your ass, and fix your life.
I don't want to transfer, but it is an option and transferring would reset my GPA. But the opportunities would be far fewer. I wasn't goofing off hard freshman year, especially second semester. But I foolishly took classes that were out of my depth when I should have been more practical.
I'm in a similar situation as you. I just finished my freshman year with a GPA and what you need to do in order to fix it.
My school allows you to retake any course you received lower than a C (75%) in. So if you take one extra class each semester that you got a C- or D in you should be able to (really) get no less than an 85 in each of these. At my school when you retake a class the grade you received on the 2nd go around (granted it's higher) replaces your 1st try on your transcript. So if you score all Bs and As then it'd be like you finished your freshman year with a 3.5+, and your GPA should be back on track.
If your school does let you do this then consider it a blessing, because I know plenty of people from state schools that do not allow this, and now they're stuck with a really shitty freshman GPA.
Majoring in econ at Cornell isn't easy. I have a few friends who did that and said it was tough. You can also major in something unrelated to finance and still break in, might be easier to get a higher GPA majoring in history or something.
If you get good internships and show genuine interest in finance, your major matters much less.
Feel free to PM if you have more questions.
OP, you're in a tough spot. I'm not sure if Cornell lets you do redo classes, but you should look into that. Otherwise, you could think about doing 4.5 years so you get another year to kill school and get your gpa to a respectable level. If you can get to a 3.5, you have a shot at going to a good bank as long as you network your ass off. networking will be KEY for you. with your GPA, you're not going to make it pass a resume screen unless people know you and are willing to take a shot on you.
couldn't agree more. If what you wanna do is IB at a BB you can forget about ever getting past the resume screen. there is no way even if you get a boutique investment banking internship.. you're only hope is for someone to go to bat for you, but given your GPA this is quite a gamble.
you are in a very tough spot and all have their risks/reward. I guess to give you clarity you can do:
I think if you have to be 100% sure to go back to IB because from now until your junior year you have to basically have no life and get as many 4.0s as possible
... and this is what led to my severely subpar GPA haha
I graduated cum laude after finishing my freshman year with a 2.3. Albeit I was not at Cornell, but if you bust balls you can bring that GPA back into respectable status and create a good "finding yourself" story in the process.
You're going to get rocked in OCR at Cornell with that GPA. Best bet would be to get some killer internships. An internship at a boutique investment bank would go a long way towards helping your cause
I graduated with a 2.8 econ @ UChicago and just left my GPA off my resume and got a job in private banking at a BB (with no networking) after I summered there. With Cornell on your resume, you will get some interviews, you just have to absolutely make the most of them.
I had a not so great GPA after my first semester last fall. I left it off my resume (which was otherwise decent for an 18 yr old freshman) and was able to get an internship this summer (not finance) and have an interview for a fall/spring internship coming up soon. In the meantime I (somewhat) kicked ass and brought my GPA back to life.
So leave the GPA off while you improve. Cornell will be enough for some places as was said earlier.
Thanks guys, yeah not a great position to be in. I can redo a class but it doesn't really help, both grades are recalculated into GPA. Zuckerberg's friends probably aren't retarded, Cornell econ is challenging but definitely one of the easier majors available. One more thing, there are A+'s, which if I earn one would help my average even more.
A general question, would having a high in-major GPA help me at all? I'm pretty confident I can pull that off because I did well in my first few Econ courses and am willing to sacrifice anything to continue doing well. And would a 3.0 give me a shot at some MMs?
you can definitely and should put your high in-major GPA. a 3.0 would give you a shot but a really really really small one. anything below a 3.3 just gets really tough to past resume screening.
i would network and find a banker sympathetic enough to hear your story out
Thanks for all the input, as well as the sideline discussions about toughest econ programs. Is it fair to say that GPA is more important than choice of major?
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