How much does your ACT/SAT matter for PE Recruitment?
As the title says, I am wondering how much your ACT/SAT matters for PE recruitment. What are the cutoffs for some of the top private equity firms? What score would you consider it necessary to retake the ACT? If you perform very well on the GMAT, should you not worry about it?
Why would a score taken 7 years prior to recruiting for PE matter?
Many firms will ask for it up to the VP level. Crazy but true. Even coming out of my MBA I was asked for it
do they ask for verification. if I retook it and did significantly better, would anyone know I took it after high school?
Tough answer - unfortunately more than it should.
Perspective is from a middle market buyout fund. When we kick off recruiting, we get a list of 80 names from the headhunter on a spreadsheet with name, bank, college, GPA, college grad year, SAT score and GMAT score (if available). We also get a pack of resumes. We are looking to interview ~30 of the 80.
We participate in both on cycle and off - on cycle is so early now that there is very very little that differentiates people's resumes in terms of work experience. Also, to be honest, by the time you are reading the 40th 1st year analyst resume, they all start looking the same. So then the spreadsheet plays into it a little bit more, and we will look at GPA and SATs. While its silly because SATs are very old, they are a way of differentiating candidates. Not saying its right.
What's the standard range for ACT/SAT to be differentiable. Is 1480 on SAT on the upper end? Is 34 high enough on ACT?
Both scores are competitive.
I should have added to the above - this is why networking is important. I will make sure someone who reaches out to me expressing interest in us 100% gets a first round interview (regardless of SAT / ACT!). The act of reaching out is enough differentiation from the other 80.
Would you say GMAT matters more than SAT/ACT? Would a 740 GMAT be looked at more highly than a good ACT since it's more recent?
To clarify, its much more binary. A low score will disqualify, a competitive score, SAT or GMAT, will keep you in the mix. But then we may decide to interview the person from Hawaii vs. New York because hey, Hawaii is cool and that person seems to know how to surf.
Its a pretty big crapshoot, but a competitive GMAT or SAT, a good school and a good bank will help you win the crap shoot more often than not. Again, networking is the only way to push the dice in your favor.
Thanks for your post. Would you advice to take it after freshman summer? I'm a target but got lucky to get in and have a very low SAT - 1300s I’m wondering if you ever checked how old the SAT is or if I should just retake and study more for it
Did you decide to take it again?
what about GPA? does not having a 3.85/3.9+ hurt?
Pigging backing of this. If one were to have a near perfect gpa, be in one of the top groups in the street (ms m&a/Gs TMT), and overall have an impressive resume for a non target. Would a shit sat from 8 years ago be a huge problem? I mean pretty shit 1600/2400
I took my sat back with 0 prep my senior hs year when I didn’t care about school and like the dip shit I was back then I took it hungover and did pretty bad.
I’m planning on taking the gmat this fall to fix this issue but was just curious on how much weight would an 8 year old test have on pe recruiting.
Obviously I don't know much, but from what I've read it will probably hurt you if it's between other kids in your group/other top groups. If I were you, I'd use this downtime to study and take the GMAT just to give them less of a reason to ding you
Edit - Only recommend studying for the GMAT if you're still in undergrad
Again, its wholelistic and random. I'm sure you'll get interviews, will you get interviews from every firm out there, maybe not. TBH banking is stressful enough, I wouldn't suggest trying to study for the GMAT as a first year analyst.
Why not just retake it now?
hmm I just think it’s a bit silly to take it now and there is always the risk of someone asking for proof and seeing that I took the SAT 8 years out of high school.
even second year analysts are only 6 years out of high school.. are you doing some math wrong?
Not taking his side but if you're a current 2nd year analyst and you took the SAT in the middle of junior year of high school, it would be approaching 7.5 years old now. (Ex. graduate college in 2018, high school in 2014, could have taken SAT December 2012) Most of my friends took it junior year and those who took in senior fall were desperate to get a better score right before they applied to colleges.
If you're in a 3 year analyst program or you lateraled after a year at the Big 4 or a smaller boutique, it's possible for your SAT score to be 8 years old.
Nope. Life happened and I had to endure a lot of shitty stuff before growing up so I’m much older than my peers.
Would you say a 700+ GMAT dismisses any doubt caused by a poor act/sat?
Does undergrad major (i.e. engineering) play into the gpa assessment at all?
wondering about this too.
Same answers as above - sort of. If I see a STEM major with a lower GPA will I weight it differently in my mind - sure. None of these things are black and white. With 80 resumes to get through, each gets about 20-30 seconds of consideration.
It’s the deciding factor.
My 2c as someone who assists with associate recruiting - if you have a high GPA (3.5+), test scores won't get much attention. If you're under 3.5 (especially 3.2-3.3 type range), we specifically request test scores to gauge intellectual abilities. Said differently, we use it as an alternative quantitative measure of intelligence if GPA casts doubts. If both are bad, the path to moving forward is much higher (strong bank/group, particularly good references, unique connections, etc.).
The GPA bar can be lower for STEM, but we'd then look to test scores to prove that GPA wasn't a fully appropriate reflection of ability (AKA really smart but studied something hard).
Would you advice to take it after freshman summer? I’m a target but got lucky to get in and have a very low SAT - 1300s
Based on the test scores of the associates at the UMM fund I am at, I would definitely say that SAT/ACT scores get considered. I think a good GMAT (740+) can help offset a poor SAT/ACT. FWIW, at least 3 of the ~8 incoming associates here got a 2350+ (1570+/1600). I know of at least 3 current associates with either a 1600/1600 SAT or 36 ACT. That being said, I think GPA is usually scrutinized a bit more (I think everyone here has a 3.5 or higher and the vast majority of people have a 3.7+).
Bro how tf do you know the SAT/ACT scores of all your fellow Associates? That's OD
Definitely nowhere close to all (don't know about most of the people in my class or older). Our firm circulates resumes for the incoming classes before they start and many of the associates disclose their scores there. Of the three current associates for whom I know their scores, two of them are because they sent their resumes to me (didn't have a reference point for an experienced PE resume template so I asked a couple of older guys). The other one is myself.
fair game to retake sat after freshman year in your experience? or firms might check and might look bad..
My firm didn't ask me to verify my scores but maybe other firms check (have never thought of asking friends at other PE shops). I definitely would not advise lying though (I know you aren't suggesting that).
can I just say I got a 36
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