Feeling hopeless and lost today
Currently 20 year old female who is going to be a junior in the fall and feeling super behind in a career sense... So because of a lot of things like depression and ADHD and a slow comprehension of material (I know how that all sounds), my GPA has gone down to a 2.5. I am a finance major at Baruch college but I can’t take that school anymore or New York so I decided to move back to my hometown (Richmond Virginia) and focus on starting a finance career in the south. Now I know richmond won’t be as competitive as New York, but we still have UVA and university of Richmond(not a target but rich kids with connects), where as I will be transferring to VCU which is not a target at all.
VCU will have some serious people but I know for the most part it will just be frat boys who don’t know the first thing about business and are just trying to get their degree. There is an investing club and maybe a few other good finance oriented clubs where I can find serious people to surround myself with.
I cold emailed a lot of forms in Richmond and kinda embellished my level of finance club activity at Baruch (added that I did investment club which isn’t true/ex bf who was a director made gpa requirement on the club so I couldn’t even apply anymore).
I have been looking at modeling videos for DCFs (Martin Shkrelli finance lessons have been pretty good) but I am still really stressed as I’m having a hard time comprehending how to do them and I don’t know how to test myself to see if I can build models properly. I have recently become more serious about studying the basics of finance on my own.
Anyways, I’m really worried that my low gpa from my previous school will affect my ability to get internships throughout college, and if I can’t get good internships I won’t be able to find a solid job. I’m not even trying to do IB, I’m just keeping my options open and would love to intern at like a venture cap firm or a smaller bank like harris Williams in Richmond.
I feel really lost right now. If I get a very high GPA now that I’m transferred in VCU (let’s say 4.0) and have my support system here, will internships ask to look at my gpa from Baruch for the first two years or will they be satisfied to just see VCUs transcript? Is it likely they will ask to see a transcript at all?
For now I’m just gonna work on my GPA but I feel like I need to do more. Even researching finance on my own isn’t motivating if I can’t apply it at an internship.
If I get a significantly high gpa at my new school do you guys think it will make up for the 2.5 I received at Baruch?
I am also considering possible taking a semester off to set myself straight with all this career anxiety but If I did that what would you recomend I do instead? Does volunteering matter on a finance resume like habitat to humanity? What about doing Greek life (sorority) if I do decide to start in the fall?
Any recommendations of what you can suggest I do to clean up from the 2.5 and no real internship experience would be great. I put in my resume that I wrote for the business section of our newspaper and attended a club called Wall Street club (both true) and I put down experience as a hostess in time square and an intern in the hunter college film and media department (both not relevant to finance but I tried to use the grabbing terms they look for in the job descriptions). Maybe in the future if I can muster up a very high gmat score I’ll go to a target school for grad...
For the nearby future I just want to know where you guys think I should apply where I can gain real world experience in finance where they’d be likely to take me and what I can do in the future to stand out at vcu and make up for my 2.5 at Baruch!
Hey there, just a random passerby wanting to tell you to hang in there and stay strong. I don't think I can be really helpful here as I'm in the job search myself (I'm sure others here will be able to provide better advice than I would), but I hope you don't give up and keep grinding - definitely try to maintain a good GPA at your new school, get involved with some relevant campus organizations, and perhaps network with as many people as possible. All the best, my friend, and remember if there's a will, there's a way!
Glad you are sorting everything out with the transfer.
With regards to finance, this might sound counterintuitive but I would recommend taking a semester off of the finance hustle. Adjust to school, spend time with family and friends, join a finance club if you want but also find other interests. Get your study system down and try to actually enjoy college a bit.
With a 2.5 you probably lost a fair number of credits, so you might be looking at an extra semester anyway. If you can swing it, delay graduation until at least December 2020, or May 2021 if you need it. In terms of internships, you would now be a sophomore, and for a non-IB local internship you could start looking for those quite late... February or March even. That would give you another internship Summer 2020 which would be after 2 full years at VCU, so your GPA would have a chance. Finally, don't claim membership in an investment club you didn't participate in or lie about anything on your resume, it's a bad idea with low potential value.
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