3.3 GPA vs 3.4 GPA

Should I start recruiting now with a 3.3 or wait until I have a 3.4 next semester? I am going to be a junior in college.

I had a rough freshman year, but my GPA has only improved ever since. I am confident I can bring it up to a 3.5 by senior year, but I am obviously not going to start recruiting then.

I know a 3.4 isn't great, but for some reason it sounds so much better than a 3.3. Thoughts?

 

You shouldn't worry about your GPA, it doesn't matter as much as you think. Just be able to highlight the ways you spend your time outside of school (varsity/club sports, other organizations you are a part of, etc).

I got a SA gig at a top PE firm with a 3.4, so you are fine

 

This is completely wrong. If you come in through a traditional resume drop you will be immediately discarded. You can work hard on the networking side to get some looks and make sure you're top notch once you get a shot, but it will hurt you. Honestly, depending on how good the resume stack is, 3.5's may be trashed to as these kids are seen as meeting the bare minimum.

 

PM me if you don't think I'm being real. I go to a Top 10 school (US World News has it ranked top 5) and have a 3.4 gpa. I am a current SA at a top PE Fund. I am a student athlete and am a member of several societies / clubs on campus. I also don't study Economics, I study science (engineering specifically). So it's not flat out wrong, I would have been axed by your proposed screening system.

 

No one is saying they don’t believe you (congrats on your accomplishment - btw) but you saying GPA doesn’t matter that much is simply not true.

Top banks receive literally hundreds of thousands of applications every year. Do you really think there is no screening mechanism and banks have people sitting around reading every kid from Eastern Illinois State extra curricular activities to see if they were president of the chess club? Of course not. Most, if not all, banks use some type of filter - of which GPA is most common.

This isn’t a debate or a novel idea.

 

All I was trying to say is that you can make something out of nothing; if you focus on the right things outside of the classroom as well as in, you can land solid SA jobs without having the typical 3.8 target school app.

I am not gonna try to defend against screening platforms cause everyone uses them lol honestly surprised I wasn't bopped the second my app floated in

 

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