How much less does S&T scrutinize GPA compared to IB?
Hi!
Rising Sophomore here @ a T20 studying Data Science & Economics with a minor in Math. Freshman year went horribly for me due to family/personal issues (grandparents who were primary caretaker for little sister at home passed away, father fell into a coma from kidney failure, mother passed away since I was 10) and I was forced to get a part-time job to afford plane trips home every week or two to look after my little sister. On top of that, I didn't know how important GPA was for Finance recruitment my first year so I wanted to get all my hard pre-reqs for DS degree out the way. As you figured, not a good combo.
Did the math and I'm looking at a 3.3 cumulative GPA for recruitment. I understand there's not much I can do now so I wanted to reach out and ask what my move is moving forward. I've attached my resume for reference.
- Do I list Major gpa instead of cgpa? (3.4 DS, 4.0 Economics) Maybe all 3?
- How far can networking even get me in S&T? Been reading forums about GPAs around mine and just seems like a lost cause for me atp
Thank you for your help!
Is your GPA out of 4 or 5 for my guidance?
From my experience, GPA isn’t that integral though that can be a differentiating factor between candidates of the same caliber. Relevant internship experiences, understanding and passion for markets, and being able to demonstrate a solid thinking process and ability to learn is more important.
If you’re exploring the buy side however, HFT/Quant funds generally care quite a fair bit about GPA.
Hey man. Thanks for the response. My gpa is out of 4.
When you say from your experience, are you referring to yourself going through resume piles or something else?
Will require a bit more networking. Have a friend at JPM this summer studying engineering at a non-traditional target (MIT/Hopkins/Caltech) with a Gpa in low 3s, but the more STEM-focused your major is, the more lenience you’ll have.
bro are your extra curriculars for real? where do you find the time
I wouldn't stress about GPA all the other impressive and relevant stuff you've done
Very much real. Got the Climatology Research position from the research program at my high school (I went to a magnet HS that had extremely strong connections to uni profs). I got the Quant Research role from cold-applying and my HF analyst role from a nepo connection.
Juggling all those ECs and given my circumstances was definitely not easy, as you could probably guess from my tanked GPA. Didn't realize the importance of a GPA earlier so I didn't prioritize it as much as I should of.
Thanks for the help brother.
broadly agree with the comments above. wouldnt stress out too much about GPA (ive seen way lower) - focus on networking. ur experience + ecs are very very good. i would be very surprised if you have a hard time getting r1 for SnT.
is the data science major at ur school viewed as "CS rejects"? might be a hot take but if it is, it might be worth thinking about dropping the major. if you already took ds&a (plus maybe systems/os), you knind of already proven that you can be a code monkey. ur econ department probably offers econometrics + ml classes.
That's really reassuring to hear, thanks man.
As for networking, I'm pretty well connected and hopefully I'm able to connect with some of the traders at the hedge fund i'll be working at this summer. Maybe I can get a few pointers from them.
As for my major, I applied for the major truly because I felt like I enjoyed data modeling more than pure software. At my school, DS is just CS + Statistics in one major. Do you think it would look better if I just listed DS as CS + Stats instead? I never thought it was that looked down upon.
AIME qualifier should be the first thing listed under awards & honors -- S&T people likely to know and respect the accomplishment.
Just moved it up on my resume. Thanks
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