Female sophomore at Target School... low GPA

I'm a female at HYPSM, applying to BB IB diversity programs to recruit for the summer after junior year (2020). Is a 3.4 GPA going to put me at a big disadvantage? I have good extracurriculars, and have an AM internship in SF for this summer. Am working on getting my GPA up, but am worried...

 

If you're a finance major and you (i) actively network, (ii) have a strong resume, (iii) master the technical portion of interviews, and (iv) craft your story well, I think you'll get there. Keep in mind that you are competing with students who are also from a target school with prior internships (but have higher GPAs), so perfecting everything else and finding something that sets you apart (in a good way) is important.

 

Being female and from a target helps, but you should try to hit 3.5.

Take easier classes if you can this semester and try to get a 4.0. If your internship is not the entire summer, take an easy summer course for a few weeks. Recruiting is probably getting pushed back from last year, so you have the spring semester to network and get your GPA higher.

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What's the "M" in HYPSM? MIT? I assume you go there? Engineering from MIT makes sense, but might not be as helpful as at HYPS because of how many MIT students are engineers. Most cases they'll be judging you against the average MIT student. Not sure what the average MIT GPA is, but if it's significantly higher than a 3.4 you might be in trouble. Then again, being a female, or any other diversity candidate, helps significantly.

 
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I believe that you will have more of an advantage going into recruitment than I did this past summer (female, finance major, 3.6 GPA, semi-target) and I still got offers. Assuming that you apply for every diversity program you can find and take full advantage of OCR, you should be fine. I will warn you though, I was asked during multiple interviews why my GPA wasn't 3.7+. This might not happen to you because of your school/major, but I would have some reasons to back it up just in case - hard engineering/math classes, heavy extracurricular involvement, etc. I would also recommend applying to MM/Boutiques if for some reason BB recruitment doesn't go your way, as some of them are REALLY trying to increase diversity/female presence. At this point, don't stress too much about your past mistakes - you'll achieve better results by focusing on networking and getting the best grades possible this semester.

 

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