What do I do now? - Graduating in May with two summer internships

If consulting is what you're interested in, there are plenty of consulting firms out there that have far more lenient requirements than MBB. It may not be management consulting, but it will be consulting.

P.S. Glad you figured out that you didn't want to do IB before it was too late!

~~~~~~~~~~~ CompBanker

With consulting, you'll also find that there's a rather large number of local firms out there that could still give you good experience for b-school. I'm sure that there's some restructuring firms hiring

Thanks for the responses so far. Is the best way to find these smaller consulting places just to look on career websites? I'm honestly to the point now tho where I would take a job doing ANYTHING (minus Sales), where I could just get the good work experience for B-School. How do top B-Schools look at work experience? For instance if I was just at a small place for 4 years compared to a Fortune 500, or other well-known companies. Does being at the smaller place no one has heard of take me out of the running? I guess you could say I am looking towards B-School-friendly jobs that I could land with my Econ degree. I'll look more into the smaller consulting companies for now, thank you.

For now I'm looking at government work, in hopes of getting SOMETHING. I'm just trying to find the best possible work experience that will set me up for a good MBA. I don't know why the hell I chose majoring in Econ over Finance...

Finance is more vocational, with an econ degree you have more varied options. Majoring in Finance essentially locks you in to a career path, but you can learn those skills fairly easily. Majoring in econ gives you fewer skills but a broader base of knowledge. All of the guys I know who run their own firms prefer liberal arts majors as they are capable of thinking independently. Government work could be a good option, and could position you well for b-school. What work are you looking at? With an econ degree, I'd suggest maybe using your contacts to get in touch with senators and congressmen and seeing if you could serve as committee staff on something like financial services oversight. Getting a good rec from a senator or congressmen would set you up nicely for a top b-school.

Messedup if you dont mind me asking where did you do your internships and what groups were they in. Additionaly did you attend a target?

Messedup,

Have you thought about a masters? If i cant find a job by this summer then i will be going for my masters in economics at a non target. Hopefully i can pull off a 4.0 and land a front office analyst role.

My background is i graduated non target but top 30 school for undergrad business with a 2.9 cumulative. i have internships with a BB, Mutual fund Company, and a company related to factset. I also helped establish a cultural fraternity and was involved in a lot of orgs. The establishment of this fraternity definitely killed my GPA due to traveling all over the country to interview and also to full fill requirements to present and establish a bid from nationals. Given this background its not competitive for any top programs unless I absolutely ace the GRE's. What schools would you think id be competitive for? i live in the northeast and id go for a masters in economics because i like the mix of quantitative and conceptual concepts. It's been exceptionally difficult to get interviews and i figured i can go and do well in my masters program and apply for FO roles that would be used to leverage into a good MBA program. I've also exhausted almost all my resources.

"helped establish a cultural fraternity and was involved in a lot of orgs. The establishment of this fraternity definitely killed my GPA due to traveling all over the country to interview and also to full fill requirements to present and establish a bid from nationals"

no offense dude but this is a bullshit excuse for a 2.9 gpa.

I remember reading your story a few weeks ago. I am not too up on econ grad school requirements but frankly with that low a GPA and a business degree you're not in a great position. My econ professors have been pushing me to go to grad school after graduation, and the advice they've given me is that it is very important to have a solid math background (through calc IV i think), very good GRE marks, and a recommendation from someone famous. It sounds like you might have a decent math background but probably without great grades and might have a shot at a good GRE if you study. I imagine your strength would be getting a good recommendation as your professors might like you, but setting up a frat is hardly going to matter to an econ graduate school. They care that you are capable of doing high level theoretical work, that you like econ, and that you will either go on to your Ph.D. and get published, or do meaningful work in the economics field. Having IBD as a goal is not going to help you out much there. I'd suggest considering an MSc Finance, because it really sounds like you don't have the undergraduate background to excel in an econ masters program. If your heart is set on an econ masters though, you should probably look at state schools and maybe some less prestigious programs like BC, BU, etc. Here's a list I found online, ordered by publications so it is not exactly accurate but it seems correlated to what I would think, at least at the top

http://student.ulb.ac.be/~tcoupe/update/uniefspub.html

Looking there, it looks like a lot of respected state schools are ranked fairly high. I imagine you might have a shot at those, but as I said, you don't seem to have the background they would be looking for which could be a major problem

haha thats fine your entitled to your own opinion....any advice though?....it was tough you can say it was bullshit but for two years we traveled the country on weekdays and weekends extensively and i missed a lot of classes so my grades were downgraded. Also did several cultural workshops and fundraising but you dont care. Advice would be much appreciated thanks.

just checked out the site i appreciate it but don't know how reliable that list is. I honestly would not pursue a PHD in economics. My other concentration was in economics and actually had a econ GPA of 3.1 Most of my recommendations would be coming from econ professors. I excelled in my math classes its classes that were outside of my majors that i did horrible in.

I agree the list isn't good as a ranking. It should be useful though as a large list reputable econ grad programs to look over.

If you had an econ "concentration" does that mean you were a major? If you've taken at least intermediate micro/macro you'll be decent; having upper level seminars and econometrics would probably be preferable. I think they'll be looking more at the grades in relevant courses (econ/math) than your distribution requirements, so you should be ok, though 3.1 is still not stellar. I'd suggest looking over that list for schools that interest you, getting started on your GRE prep, and speaking with your econ professors you'll be asking for recs to find out what schools they'd recommend and importantly where they have friends and contacts teaching, as they will likely be able to put in a good word for you and make it easier for you to get in.

Let me clarify a little clearer. My major was in business administration and my concentrations were finance, accounting, and economics.

Other indicators econ grad schools would for would be departmental honors, having solid written work you can submit, and having been published. Not much you can do on there, but you could look through past papers to see if there are any worth putting in front of a grad school prof. I'd also get back in touch with your favorite profs and see what they can recommend; they'll know more about getting you in to grad school than I will.

Well for me, I've thought about an MS in Finance, but I would only want to do it if it was from a GREAT school. Now I think what will kill me is that I have about 4 W's on my transcript, a 2.6 from my old school, a 2.9 from a community college, and a 3.4 from my current school. It just kills me cause I'm not stupid or lazy, but my grades tell a different story. I just can't figure out what to do now.

Edit: oh and Drexelalum, great advice with the governmental work. Although I don't have connections. I'll see what I can do, but I'm not really sure where to start.

Thanks so much.

Also since I am doing well this semester and will most likely pull my GPA up closer to 3.5 should I wait until graduation to keep applying places. Also, does anyone know how difficult it is to get into Accenture? We have quite a few of Alumni who are working there, and I'm trying to get in touch but so far nothing.

bump for anymore input