undergrad gpa : unique trend

Not unique but "different" I guess.

Basically I did not take my academics very seriously freshman year and ended up with an abysmal gpa: 2.466

I got my act together and got a straight 4.0 my sophomore year.

Assuming that I can pull another 4.0 my junior year, will my GPA be decent enough to land me any interviews?
I'm guessing a 3.488 final GPA if I do well my junior year.

I'm planning to put my gpa trend on my cv/resume but i'm worried that my gpa will hurt me in the end because it doesn't quite
make the 3.5 mark for most top firms.

If not, would taking extra classes to push my GPA over the 3.5 mark be worth it? How strict are they about the cutoff?

I'm majoring in history with a minor in stats at a highly recruited target school.

Of course, this is assuming a decent internship junior year and good extracurriculars.

Thanks for all your help; i'm kicking myself in the face right now for slacking way too much my freshman year....

 

The problem you are going to face is getting enough face time to even explain the progression. A 3.5 w/o any real work experience doesn't strike me as impressive enough to get interviews, especially in this market.

You can try saying: cum GPA: 3.5 Sophomore/Junior GPA: 4.0

and hope that piques someone's interest enough to bring you in.

Also, you will get very little sympathy for saying "oh I just didn't care freshmen year" especially when there are people who did.

 
Warhawk_1:
I'd just write post-freshman year GPA.

Given that this would be very unusual on a resume (since most people put GPA and/or Major GPA on their resume), I think it would scream "I fucked up my freshman year," thus leading to questions about freshman year performance.

 

An analyst will usually stay at a firm for two years. If you failed at adjusting to a new environment as a freshman, and fail to do so again in banking - you will have been a waste for the firm, for 50% of your analyst stint.

I'd have a better explanation, than "I was immature" or "I had trouble adjusting"

 

This market may be tough but coming from a target with a 3.488 should not cut you out of the race. What you should be thinking about though is who are you competing with at your school. If your GPA is lower, you want to advertise your activities, what leadership things you have done, what individual awards maybe or what projects you have done. Id say this in general though. Having a 3.8 and nothing else may get you an interview but if thats all you have you will not get an internship.

Also of note..... when your GPA is lower, you want to network. Networking can erase the GPA problem. GPA will get you the interview and thats about it.... if you can network your way to the interview you might stop this whole problem from the start. Again you may want to focus on the issues of extracurriculars and past experience.

 

If you end up with the 3.488 and are worried about cutoffs, just write 3.5 on your resume.

If you land the job, and come background check time they actually verify your GPA (which they don't always even bother to do) nobody will give a shit that you gave yourself an extra .012...

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 

Also, I think the 3.5 is probably more than fine to help you land an interview if you have a solid resume with work experience.

And once you're in the interview, we all know everything goes out the window and it's a crapshoot anyway...

  • Capt K
- Capt K - "Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, bait the hook with prestige." - Paul Graham
 
Best Response

thanks for all your comments.

I agree, even if the truth was that I was being immature I'd have to come up with a good explanation. I worked a part time job while taking the maximum number of credits my freshman year but even that seems like an excuse to me.

As for work experience, I didn't list anything because I was concerned mostly about my GPA. A family friend of mine is in a high position at LG Korea and he invited me to intern with him during my junior year summer. I also interned at an accounting small business for three months before my freshman year. I also did media/promoting work for a local hip hop group (probably won't list this because it was mostly a hobby for me). I also am very involved in two large clubs, one of which I will most likely hold a leadership position my junior year.

I am doing all I can to gain some meaningful work experience and am already drafting out my essays and reading up on interviews and the industry itself.

In short, i'm doing all I can to increase my chances but I was worried that my freshman year gpa would make it impossible for me to land any interview due to the cutoff.

 

listing your post-freshman year GPA will raise a red flag, but if you get an interview then it's up to you to explain. At least then you'll have the opportunity to explain instead of just having them judge you on the resume and dinging you.

This is what I've taken from talking to analysts who screen resumes. You may be dinged if you don't have a good enough reason still, but at least you'll have the opportunity. Obviously this is my take from talking to analysts, other posters on the board have also given their 2 cents.

It's not like your GPA is high enough that it's going to be question-free anyway(especially if you had a good standardized test score). I was asked five times in my interviews why my GPA was so low when my SAT was so high.

 

im not sure how to look at the new scores, but my guess is that 2250/2400 would be high enough to be getting questions about it and the low GPA. Taking just the verbal and math, how did you do out of 1600? I had a 1550+ score and I got asked why my GPA is low.

Naturally, I lied bc there was no way in hell I was saying that I never went to class(told some interviewers about it after I got offers, they thought it was funny)

 
Warhawk_1:
im not sure how to look at the new scores, but my guess is that 2250/2400 would be high enough to be getting questions about it and the low GPA. Taking just the verbal and math, how did you do out of 1600? I had a 1550+ score and I got asked why my GPA is low.

Naturally, I lied bc there was no way in hell I was saying that I never went to class(told some interviewers about it after I got offers, they thought it was funny)

so what kind of stories did you make up, then?

 

Honestly, your best bet is to compensate with work experience and extra-curriculars. You need to create reasons why you shouldn't be dinged because of your GPA when a recruiter looks at your resume. Despite the fact you are at a target school, the doesn't help anymore cause of your GPA, so you better find a meaningful summer internship (or even better 2), i.e. corporate internship at F500, BB banking/S&T/research internship, boutique consulting firm, etc.

You're gonna be compared against other kids from your school since you are at a target, so keep that in mind.

 

networking is going to be your best bet. I had a sub 2.5 gpa at T25 state and transferred after junior year to a extreme non target. GPA has improved but its still below 3.5 it really is unfair that people are judged by gpa but thats just the reality, especially if you want to do banking.

I will stop there because I dont want people w/o offers to throw a fit because I have the worst gpa on wso yet managed a decent offer.

"Oh - the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion?"

"Oh the ladies ever tell you that you look like a fucking optical illusion" - Frank Slaughtery 25th Hour.
 

When you guys say work experience what exactly do you mean? I have two offers that I can take advantage of, one from LG and one from Samsung. Are they "prestigious" enough to polish my resume? Or are they mostly looking for work experience in consulting firms?

 

Any work experience that you can strongly speak to in an interview as good preparation for a job in I-banking is solid experience. The person interviewing you is going to want to know if you truly know what the job entails and that you have taken adequate measures to prepare. No matter what you've done, as long as you can sell it, you have a decent shot.

That being said though, prior banking/finance experience is always best, but its not the only way.

 

Do different offices have different criteria in recruiting? I'd actually like to work in an international office...i'm fluent in korean and japanese. Any thoughts? Or do international offices recruit only from local colleges? (ie: tokyo U, seoul nat. u, etc)

 

also, I just wanted to clear one other thing up. Is it possible (however unlikely) to overcome a low gpa with excellent internships/networking/etc? I know a lot of firms have cutoffs at 3.5....I was wondering how strict they were about that.

if I come up to around a 3.4 is it worth it to take extra classes during spring or summer term to boost me over that 3.5 requirement or would that time be better spent on internships/jobs?

 

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