4.0 Undergrad
For those of you who got a 4.0 in undergrad, how did you do it? What were your study habits and do you have any tips? Im striving for a 3.9+ next year and want to know how you guys got your near perfect GPAs. Any advice is appreciated
Exactly this. Do extra work up front (diligence on profs) to lessen the burden down the road.
dead on. I also got syllabuses for classes I signed up for in advance and did some pre work during the summer/winter break to at least “flatten” the learning curve during the semester
That is ridiculous. School is not a means to IB, it is your opportunity to develop your brain and learn how to think rigorously. This might help you over the short term, but you will not attain your full potential in any field that requires intelligence if all you did during your education years was study easy subjects and how to make a B/S balance. Just look at most successful guys in finance - Icahn was a philosophy buff, so was Soros, Buffet took classes from Graham, etc. Now if you want to jsut be a salesman or something, I agree. But then you should not be studying technicals, you should just be boozing around.
I have been at MBB for some time now, and in some cases I use what I learned in calculus, advanced microeconomics, etc everyday (e.g. decomposing ebitda growth into price and volume changes rigorously, estimating elasticities, understanding particular industry structures)
Oh and contrary to above, take classes you’re actually interested in as those will be your easiest classes since you’ll actually want to do the work (as opposed to slogging through basketweaving)
While I agree with the sentiment about taking easier classes (imo professor matters way more than class), I think spending 75% of your time preparing for IB is overkill. I think balance is critical - make sure you do purely social things that make college fun. For me, being in a fraternity and playing club sports gives me time to relax and do things I enjoy, which in turn keeps me motivated and prepared to grind when I have to, Also, being as organized as possible (put all of your assignments for the week in a calendar, know when exams are in advance, etc) certainly helps. Lastly, I’d say try to be healthy by eating well and exercising regularly - being fit really does help you get the best out of yourself both academically and professionally.
I agree. Seems a little psychotic to dedicate your entire college career to IB. You can do less and still end up with the same result.
The difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0 is marginal in the grand scheme of things. I would take a lot of this advice - do your research to find easier classes, try not to take hard classes concurrently, etc. - but also make sure you enjoy yourself. Trust me, you can enjoy yourself and still achieve all of your goals just fine. Take classes outside of your major that interest you, go out every once in a while, but also make sure to get your shit done.
You don’t need to be an IB robot to get an offer. Besides, you’ll have plenty of time to do that as an analyst anyway
Agree with all the professors - always take the easiest one and ask your friends for recs. I would also take more quantitative over qualitative classes if you can. Essays, projects, presentations can all be graded differently if the prof likes you or not. Hard to suck up to every prof successfully, but if you take more quantitative exam-focused classes then grading is opaque and objective.
I might ruffle some feathers here, but I’m very much against the “easy class” sentiment above. While I think it’s great to strive for excellence, you shouldn’t allow you’re pursuit of a 4.0 to steer your academic path. Take classes that interest you or that might be outside of your comfort zone. Actively target classes that you think will challenge you intellectually instead of searching for the easy A. I think that being focused on engineering your academic schedule to be as easy as possible can leave you intellectually stunted. In my opinion, a 4.0 isn’t worth much if you didn’t have to push yourself academically to achieve it.
TBH you don't need a 4.0 in undergrad regardless of where you come from.
I think once you get up to 3.7+ your grades matter less than you think. You can have significantly better college experiences, leadership positions, and valuable research/internships that will help you out more than having a 4.0. In fact getting that 4.0 will probably prevent you in these other areas unless you are just a natural genius.
I have a few friends that were significantly less successful during OCR than I thought who had 4.0 GPAs.
go to a non target
I consider my high undergrad GPA to be a mark of shame. I was too focused on my GPA and stuck within my lane in my major. WTF was I thinking? Do you think anyone cares that much? I should have used the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that is college to explore far and wide. I didn't take CS classes, language classes, or life sciences, or really explored. There were topics I was genuinely interested in that I didn't explore at all. I should have been more 'lazy' and de-prioritized my non-essential classes rather than try to complete every assignment, and I should have packed in more classes. I fucked up my undergrad for the sake of a strong GPA. In b-school I did the opposite. I packed a ton of classes into my schedule, and got a lot of breadth, and was on academic probation twice for taking risks like that. If I see an applicant coming in with a 4.0 they'd either be a genius or I know they have their priorities and risk tolerances all backwards.
3.6 and below: repeat high school dude 3.7: fucking dumbass 3.8: dumbass 3.9: scholarly, profound, a modern-day Galileo; a true intellectual if you will 4.0: fucking nerd
Aim wisely.
Jokes aside just do the best you can. Leave the parties and drinking until after you finish homework, study, etc. and you should be set. Find ways to game the system any way you can, college is hardly as meritocratic as it should be. Sitting in the front of the class and actually participating goes a long way