What Can I Do to Ensure an Interview at a Bulge Bracket After I Graduate-
And get an internship my junior/ senior year.
I'm a quantitative finance major at James Madison University in Virginia and have a 3.3 or 3.4 GPA. I will be a sophomore next year so I have plenty of time to bring up my GPA.
Here's what I'm going to do so far:
Join the Madison Investment Fund as an analyst.
Maybe join a business fratertnity.
Any other advice? This means a lot to me and I'm trying to make the most that I can of my situation coming from JMU, a not so stellar school compared to the Ivy Leagues and tier 2s.
transfer to a better school
If I transfer to a better school then I likely won't make it into the business school. I'll be stuck with getting an economics degree in their college of arts and sciences. Would that be better than getting a Q-Fin degree at JMU? By better school, I mean tier 2s like UVa and maybe some lower-tier Ivies like Cornell.
thats definetely much better because they'll still recruit from the non-business schools, while JMU's business school probably gets very little attention
yes it would be better. a econ degree from cornell or UVA is about a million times more marketable in investment banking than a finance.accting degree from JMU.
not to discourage you though. just get as high a GPA as possible and then recruit aggressively. will be a lot easier to get in regionally (down south) rather than with the BBs in newyork. but deinfely apply everywhere. (this applies to internships and FT)
Are there any alums at all that you can talk to that work on wall street? Talk to your professors and career development center people to see if they can put you in touch with anybody. If they can't, and you don't already know somebody, then it's going to be much, much more difficult for you to get a job at an investment bank, even more so at a bulge bracket firm. If you choose to stay at JMU, you will have to forge those relationships yourself. A good start would be to try getting in touch with the people at the Richmond middle-market M&A shops (of which there are several) regarding possible winternships, or just lunch to talk about your predicament, for that matter. That might lead to something, maybe not. Regardless, you will have more contacts than when you started. Just turn over as many rocks as you can and don't be scared to pick up the phone and cold call somebody (cold emails rarely work). You've got nothing to lose, except your future career. Just be confident, honest, and enthusiastic (but not creepily so).
With respect to transferring, that may be a viable option, but there are tradeoffs. The biggest: you will not outshine your peers like you could at JMU. You will also be starting completely over at a new school (making work more difficult), and furthermore, like you said, you may not get in to the bschool at all. Just think carefully before you pull the trigger on that...at worst, you would be someplace where you can't get good grades, you fall to the anonymous middle of the pack, and end up in the same situation you're in now, only having incurred the social and financial expense of switching schools halfway through.
It depends on what classes you take. From what I've seen, there are some great classes in Money & Banking, International Financial Markets, etc...
Just be sure to take the relevant classes and you should be fine. I think you should just do the best that you can. If the banks don't recruit at your school, get in touch with alumni. Connections are great but I personally see better value in a candidate's initiative and ability to follow through on that commitment.
I respect Alpha Kappa Psi, the professional business frat on campus. The rest of your plan seems awesome. In terms of transferring to a better school, keep an eye out for Stanford as well. Even if you don't get in, you can always go to UC-Berkeley :-)
Make sure you check your alumni network to see if anyone is in the business. If JMU has no network or you can find no one in banking then here are some ideas (the girls at JMU have treated me well so I'll try to help you out):
1) There should be someone in the business school who is responsible for helping students get internships (outside of the career center). Consult them for contacts.
2) Go to the career center and talk with the main internship advisor.
3) Check the background of the business school faculty and see if anyone has industry experience. Contact where appropriate.
4) Look into the managers of the JMU endowment fund. These people normally have experience in banking/investment management and might have some advice/contacts.
5) Search through online networking sites (Doostang, etc) for any JMU people or schools that might relate to JMU (eg. schools in the south). This actually worked for me.
If you try hard enough you should get some people to bite and give you advice/contacts for the future. You might be hesitant contacting people at first, but you will gain confidence as you go. You'll meet both pleasant people and assholes along the way, but be diligent and keep your head up.
Transfer if you can. However, I am not sure if you can transfer to UVA/Cornell with a 3.4 from JMU. I don't know any JMU graduate who is in banking.
go visitthe schools you are interested in and try and get to know people there to express your true interest. its prob easier for you to get to uva since its close to JMU
id also recommend applying to cornell, NYU, michigan
ideally you are a sophomore so you still have a chance to transfer internally/apply to the business schools
i think all the posts pretty much cover all the trsf / networking issues. important point is also though to get as much 'finance' experience as possible, like a fund... might make you look interested in banking and stand a little more if you decide to stay at current school.
You can't transfer to the great schools mentioned (STanford, UVA, Cornell, Berkeley), are you kidding me with a 3.33 from a no-name school...
You better believe kids that go to those schools made it a mission in high school to go to a top notch school. As much as people tout 'transfer to a better school' on this board, much more difficult in practice. With a 3.33, you better be a complete badass to do so.
Just get good grades, and network, and deal with what you've got. Big 4, MM's, you'll find something.
The average in-state transfer GPA to UVa is a 3.5. I have a 3.4 counting the new semester and it will be a 3.5 after I have one of the grades removed (reasons that don't really matter to talk about). I should have a 3.6 or 3.7 when I apply next year.
I hope for your sake then that you get in. I will be suprised if you get accepted with a 3.5
Key word: average. You can still get in with a 3.4, considering you have excellent ECs and SAT scores.
Don't get good grades, get excellent grades. Then, law school can always be a fall back. In my opinion, if you don't have the 'pedigree' school wise then law school always seems to work.
dude, you better be kerri strugg with a 3.3
Why do you have your mind set on a BB?
You should have your mind set on a 'job'.
Aspiration and Ambition don't automatically signal success in this world, even if you throw in a ton of elbow grease, networking, and luck.
You may have to resign yourself to a 45-50K standard decent job at a standard decent company.
Those who make it into banking and or consulting are the lucky few dog.
Good luck chasing the bone.
Ask daddy to buy you a bank.
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