Why freshman GPA is ridiculously important
I know everyone says lots of factors impact your career but in my opinion freshman GPA is the most important. Here's why?
freshman GPA leads to your freshman internship
freshman internship, which was a direct result of freshman GPA, leads to sophomore internship, which leads to junior internship, which leads to FT
FT is a combination of GPA (includes freshman GPA), freshman internship (a result of frosh GPA), soph internship (a result of GPA, which includes freshman GPA, and freshman internship, which includes freshman GPA), ad infinitum.
consider that PE funds consider GPA twice (since they look at GPA and FT job which is based on GPA), and that B-schools consider it four times (GPA, BB which is based on GPA, PE which is based on GPA twice), and all of that stems from the freshman internship, which is from freshman GPA, it really is incredible how embedded it is in your future plans
Networking and connections are what really matters. GPA in general are important, but I wouldn't consider life being over because you don't have a 3.9 after your 1st year in college.
I am surprised baldness isn't on the rise with the level of stress kids nowaday have. Do well in school, meet people, help others and you will be fine. The kid with a 3.9 gpa tweaking out over everything isn't going to go over well.
Stop scaring these kids. I never had a finance related internship (had a 3.6 at a target), and actually did something cool by living and working in a 3rd world country my junior year. I worked in banking for 3 years at MM shop and currently work on the buyside at a well respected PE fund. Enjoy your youth while doing something interesting and worthwhile. Tools like this guy are a dime a dozen. Differentiate yourself.
OP is still in school so he was just asking a question.
I do agree with everything you say, get a solid GPA and then worry about becoming the best person you can be.
to take it a step further one thing people forget to think about is do you want to be the best person in your eyes or my eyes? I live my life the way I want to for me not anyone else
i agree, im just making a remark and i didnt even have a freshman internship, just my 2 cents on how b-schools and PE double count/triple count GPA
I think any person who sees a freshman/sophmore with worthwhile internship will attribute it to that persons connections rather than GPA
agree to this. my brother in law interned with us during winter break of freshman year and will be on a desk this summer as a freshman. he didnt even interview... i had to "co sign" for him but he was good to go. Use every connection you have
i agree.
Take it from someone who has gone through OCR recruiting that GPA is only important if its under 3.4/3.5. Of course it's not smart to aim for that. Aim for a 4.0 and you'll have a 80% chance of ending up with a 3.5 or higher.
im not saying GPA itself is very important, but that it is counted multiple times (since experience is more important but they are based on GPA) for FT PE and Bschool applications
I would have to say that networking is just as important as your GPA freshman year, a software developer of a PE group isn't goingto not get the job because he had a c in freshman english, what matters most academically, besides where you attend and their career resources, is the transcript because your transcript shows your performance in classes that are the most relevant for the internship you are applying for. Just my two cents.
i think you are missing my point, im not saying the GPA is directly important, just that it leads to one experience, which leads to another, and it all snowballs so each recruiting process double includes GPA as a factor and experience which was based on GPA
Plenty of people get internships without having one after freshman year, as long as you don't get like a 0.5 GPA your freshman year it doesn't really matter that much...
SAT is most important because for MBA recruiting it's counted 9 times! Do the math.
C'mon, man. With all due respect, this thread is retarded.
I didn't even have a GPA and still got a BB internship this year as a freshman. Though I have a 3.7 now.
My roommate had a 3.4 gpa his freshman year. This year he got FT offers from MS IBD, GS IBD, and Lazard.
GPA matters of course, but it's not "ridiculously" important.
dude you need to chill out - i didn't even know what banking was when i was a freshmen and i taught middle school kids that summer, my GPA was 3.2 or something like that. I have to say that luck struck my way when time came for me to break into banking (and obviously i tried hard), just do the best you can while have fun in college, you don't even understand how much you would miss college after you enter the workforce
Seriously...if you spend the entire first year of college working towards getting a great GPA so you can work in an industry you, in all likelihood, don't even know for sure that you wanna work in you've wasted what could've been the best year of your life.
IMO, HS internships is the most important because it lead to freshman summer which lead to soph summer, etc.
IMO, who your parents are is the most important, because it determines how smart and good-looking you are, which determines what your SAT score is and how much you got laid in HS, which, of course, inevitably determines whether you get GS TMT or MS M&A. God forbid such a travesty.
That's retarded logic - don't make yourself look like a tool
I had a 2.7 GPA freshmen year - i graduated with a 3.5
Excepturi officia aut et consequatur quia omnis. Ad quia ut sequi et. Minus pariatur nemo ad repellendus aut expedita. Dolor nostrum necessitatibus perspiciatis consequuntur.
Incidunt ex perspiciatis dignissimos sequi veniam. Maiores ea necessitatibus error maiores. Harum maiores ratione qui ut harum. Autem qui non aut dolor sint velit pariatur. Inventore aliquam dolor placeat sit saepe.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Atque ipsum dolorum quis ut dolor ea voluptas sequi. Voluptates ut excepturi aspernatur sed quia. Aut cum atque maiores non facilis non quae. Sunt et iure ut eum voluptatem accusantium suscipit soluta.
Quos ut sunt expedita exercitationem. Et voluptatem suscipit alias pariatur eos repellendus molestiae. Aut sint aut dolores tempore. Rem eius consequatur omnis qui omnis eos. Maiores et minima sit alias omnis quos. Illum odit voluptatem autem ipsam quia. Reprehenderit rerum amet enim commodi a molestiae dolore corporis.
Et aut labore assumenda optio dolores. Laborum in repellendus aut veritatis. Quis quidem facere enim exercitationem quisquam inventore.
Et corrupti et corporis quod laudantium molestias. Voluptatem rerum omnis non quia. Veniam optio iste nam.