I am a sophomore at HYP, international. Have a 3.4 which is probably going to go down after this semester. I wanted to do consulting at MBB(Hoping for San Francisco) and I recently got an offer to work on a 5-month project in an international office for McKinsey(loads of networking). I honestly hate being in college so I was thinking would it be wise to take a leave of absence and work there? I have not been doing well in school because I have been disinterested so I thought this would be a good excuse to not do it. At the same time, friends and family are all super-critical about pausing school for an internship. I also feel like it's somewhat of a rash decision but I am so tempted... The project doesn't guarantee a full-time in the US but I could probably get one in the international office or get partner-level referrals for when I do OCR. What would you do?
May 08, 2019
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Comments (7)
I would take the internship offer. 3 reasons why:
1) It sounds like MBB is your goal, and given that your GPA is likely to go down you should take this opportunity to solidify your chances at McKinsey. If you do the program and perform well, I'd bet you can get a US internship offer for your junior summer, then a full-time offer after that.
2) It sounds like you're sick of school, so taking the 5 months to grind at McKinsey might make you appreciate and take advantage of the free time you have left at school once you go back :)
3) I have multiple friends that took time off at HYP. This is pretty common at those schools, and each of those friends would recommend doing it again.
Take the McKinsey offer
Why are you forking over $$$ every semester to attend HYP? Presumably to give you the best chances of lining up a great career. As long as it doesn't impact your ability to graduate eventually, why would you hesitate to step away from college to further that goal?
Your friends and family are wrong here. Full stop.
Take the internship, do something interesting, set yourself up for the future. This can change your career.
Pausing school means nothing. Let's be frank - you're likely not actually learning much at HYP. School is about credentialism, not actual education, sadly.
I'm also incredibly confused by this situation. How are being hired for a project? Are you being paid for this? It can't be an internship since you're only a sophmore.
In any case, the experience will be way better than another semester in school.
work experience at a top brand firm like that = no brainer.
Take the offer, and work really hard.
You'll gain great experience.
School can always be paused and restarted.
An offer like that won't come around again.
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