im a rising senior and have a gpa like 3.3/4.0. am i screwed up quantitative finance full time jobs recruiting?
yes
lol not totally screwed, how far can you get it up this year? if you get 4.0/4.0 senior year, will it become a 3.5?
do you have any internships lined up this summer? Also, if you’re getting a B.S. in Physics from MIT or something, this GPA isn’t all that bad.
4.0 at MIT is 3.0…they consider Ds 0.0…
haha ok well then… 3.0 is rockstar then
not bad gpa. work on networking and other skills that your classmates dont have
yes I have an internship in quant risk team at a major us bank in nyc this summer. in fact, I have been working there since january as a part time internand will work full time during the summer. I want to get a full-time job, work for a few years, and then get a masters degree in financial engineering. But my gpa sucks lol.
shit!!
sounds like a good start for work experience at least
GPA is really important. I’d even take some summer classes and do a summer graduation if it would boost it just a hair. My GPA is much lower than yours and I always get shit for it if it comes up!
GPA is important for financial engineering. Get a perfect score on your GRE quant…take the GRE math subject and crush it. Go to one of those $12,000 coding bootcamps. Get CFA. That might differentiate you a bit to take eyes off the GPA. What’s your major btw?
Operations Research
I can’t think of another area of finance (besides legal, obviously) that gpa actually matters more. If you want to run money as a quant, you’ll need your Ph.D. And, if you want to work someplace nice, you’ll need that PhD from a good school.
Network your ass off dude.
Pretty sure he is a she.
For what you want to do, GPA is really important (actually in almost all things). It may not come up on the job but you can’t get the job without passing this screen. Do your very best and try to crush it this year so at least you have a ‘improving trend’ story to tell. Network and prop up the extracurriculars to compensate.
GPA matters if you’re looking to get in any big name firms in any field, or a top grad program (MBA or PhD).
Now for a lot of people not getting into McKinsey, BCG, or Goldman = failure.
But, there are too many opportunities (assuming you’re in the US) to be bogged down by a low GPA and dreading not getting into a big name firm/program. With a 3.0+ GPA you could easily land an internship in DC/NY/SF and go from there. If this doesn’t work out, buy yourself time with a Master’s (choose a program that provides funding, or network your ass off both within the program and externally to get a fellowship/TA/RAship).
You could always start at a mid level firm. Some people do better at work than in an academic environment. If you really want to, you could progress later to bigger firms.
low gpa is of course a hurdle you must tackle along with many others but it is not the end of your career. I agree with Tactics above.
It’s not great but 3.3 is not a deal breaker, try to get it closer to 3.5 if you can. Also depends on where you get it, I imagine you are not from an ivy because they inflate grades like crazy (Brown has an average GPA of 3.7 for example).
GPAs are a funny thing. They really do not tell you how smart you are, simply tell you how good you are at “checking the box”. That is something finance desperately needs less of. Your school and the classes you took along with your overall background are significantly more important indicators of a potential successful person than some artificial measure about how well you follow the rules.
With that said, and recognizing the fact finance people care about GPAs, a 3.3 GPA is not horrible but it doesn’t make you standout. Coming from my own experience, if you do not increase it to a 3.5 you’ll need something else to show potential employers that you’re a serious contender otherwise come up with a backup career plan.
yeah 3.5 is a bit of a magical number
its cum laude at many schools
also, you need a 3.5 at least for grad school unless URM
This kid sounds camera shy