UG senior year - GMAT and/or CFA L1

Hi all, wondering how best to schedule these - have a light courseload for my last semester and am a finance major. I graduate beginning of May and start work beginning of September and plan on finishing the CFA within 2 yrs of graduating.

1) Should I take the CFA L1 in June or in December 2019? Pros/cons of June: won't have started working yet, but would be spending the last months of college + a month of post-grad freedom studying all the time instead of having fun. December pros/cons: Firm sponsors + encourages CFA designation, but studying while adjusting to working FT might be difficult.

2) Is taking the GMAT around end of February / beginning of March fine given application cycles (obviously 5 years out)? Could do earlier but assume that would cut off using scores for round 3 whenever I apply.

1 Comments
 

Aut beatae aspernatur accusantium repellendus mollitia aliquam quia. Vero deleniti eos blanditiis ab enim explicabo quis. Provident sit rem provident omnis ratione porro. Error suscipit cupiditate molestias dolores animi aut. Nemo quo expedita qui temporibus deserunt rerum et.

Amet quam praesentium accusantium. Minima placeat beatae fugiat ad est. Et quam nisi modi inventore. Vel velit facilis et explicabo velit. Laudantium in laboriosam exercitationem iure ullam enim.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.4%
  • Guggenheim Partners 02 97.9%
  • Morgan Stanley 06 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.5%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 99.0%
  • Evercore 01 98.4%
  • Banco Santander 02 97.9%
  • BMO Capital Markets 13 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.5%
  • Moelis & Company 01 99.0%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 01 97.9%
  • JPMorgan No 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

October 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (16) $429
  • Associates (57) $264
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (28) $184
  • Intern/Summer Associate (16) $161
  • 1st Year Analyst (84) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (76) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
7
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”