Advice needed for a naive undergrad interested in consulting

Long time reader, first time poster!
Hey guys, so I’m currently a rising sophomore at a target university and after much research, I decided I would take a shot at consulting (It would be amazing if I could land an internship at MBB. There are a ton of things I wanted to clear up, and I guess one of the things I was wondering about is my realistic chance of landing a job at MBB.

I’m majoring in economics, but I am also taking a lot of quantitative classes for a different requirement and consequently, my gpa is TERRIBLE. 3.37 Terrible. Furthermore, a lot of my peers are doing really successful internships even AFTER FRESHMAN YEAR (i.e. f100 companies, boutique consulting firms, etc.) and all I am doing is working for a non-profit startup in the local area (which I am still really thankful for + I love working for non-profits). Simply put, I screwed up freshmen year. My extracurriculars aren’t too bad (actively involved in a few clubs/intramurals) but after graduating high school with a 4.0, my post-freshmen year college gpa has left me in a state of shock. Its quite embarrassing…

I know another major factor is work experience, but will I even have a chance to land an internship/SA role at any tier 2/3 firm between my sophomore and junior year? Or even between junior and senior year for that matter?

TL;DR - I fucked up freshmen year and I’m wondering if it’s too late to try for MBB. Should I give up on the quantitative double major/certificate I’m pursuing (don’t want to disclose specifics, it’s not a math major but something similar) as to preserve my GPA, or should I stick to it and try my best to bring it up (realistically won’t be able to bring it up as much as the first route). Will I have a chance at landing a good sophomore-junior internship to land that junior-senior MBB internship? Or should I completely forget about MBB? Thank you guys in advance for the help!!

P.S. I know MBB isn’t the only option in consulting, but I’ve always liked to aim high. Also, even after a TON of research, MBB seems like somewhere I would fit in.

 
Best Response

Calm down. It was just Freshman year. You have plenty of time to bring up that GPA and get MBB/tier 2 after junior year. Most of the firms you're looking at don't even take sophomore interns (I know Deloitte has a few, but that's generally in tech consulting. I've heard of a couple random sophomores at OW and Bain as well, but they seem like one off situations).

Just focus on schoolwork for now, and get those grades up. Get a decent internship next summer (likely won't be consulting, but anything brand name should be good), and just have fun! MBB isn't the be all, end all of the professional world.

PS- Ditch the second major. Unless its something you really just wanna learn (and there are probably self directed studies you can do to learn whatever topic it is), its realistically not gonna help your GPA situation. Nobody cares that you double majored.

 

Dude I graduated with a 2.9 and work with a guy from BCG, you know what he thinks of that? Bullshit. People know you're competent when you prove it to them, GPA is just a foot in the door.

Quit being a prestige junkie on MBB. The most successful consultants are the ones that apply themselves, not the ones that give a shit about what's on their business card.

 

You need to levelset if you think a "3.37 GPA is terrible. Good for you for aiming high and wanting to do better, but you need to realize that there's a lot of gray area between "4.0/going to MBB" and "utter failure of an individual".

There's always somebody out there with a bigger dick and more money than you. Until you learn to be content with what you've achieved and to stop defining yourself by how you measure up to others, you're not going to be happy.

 

Bringing up an average GPA is definitely doable! Mine has risen by almost half a point since freshman year. One piece of advice I would give is to network now. I'm a year ahead of you and I really wish I had started networking much earlier. Its much better to be recommended by someone you've spent time developing a relationship with vs. someone who you meet and then immediately need a favor from. Good luck!

 

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