<p>I am a rising junior and am having a mid college career crisis. I have carefully mapped out my education/career path since I was in middle school and now I feel like everything is falling apart and I have a very little chance at being as successful as I want to be. </p>
<p>Here are my goals:
1. Land a top internship next summer as a rising senior
2. Get a fantastic job at a fantastic company upon graduation
3. Get into a top 10 MBA program in a few years</p>
<p>I'm not really sure what I want to do after that. I just am worried I am not going to reach my goals. The reason I am worried is because my GPA is very bad and I just realized how screwed I am. My main concern right now is making sure I am doing everything possible to get a great internship next summer. Some companies I am thinking of out of the top of my head are google, microsoft, nielsen, proctor and gamble, amazon, apple. Any companies that would be great for people going into marketing. </p>
<p>I go to a tier 1 college and I am double majoring in business and communications. I want to go into marketing or public relations. I have leadership positions in 5 clubs, have 2 part-time jobs, and have 4 past internships. I am sure I can get great recommendation letters from my previous employers. Unfortunately, I will have a 3.1 unweighted gpa when applying for internships :( </p>
<p>Do you think I have no shot at any good internships next summer? I should have at least a 3.5 GPA upon graduation, do you think I will be able to get a job at a top company? I am sorry for the rant, I am just really upset.</p>
<p>Any suggestions? Shorter question: What GPA do you think you need to land a marketing/communications related internship at a top company such as google, apple, nielsen, proctor and gamble, etc?</p>
<p>I don’t the answer since I’m not a top company or HR ^^; …but I think you could get a good internship. A 3.1 is decent. Not stellar, but decent. Be proactive and apply to lots of places! Show them your skills and attitude to make up for the GPA.</p>
<p>Don’t lose hope about graduate school either. You need to try harder in college. If you can raise your GPA to 3.5, you will have good opportunities at many grad schools! With the internship and superior letters of recommendation, will help as well. Also, doing well on the entrance exams (GRE? I believe)…or what the program you are looking at requires.</p>
<p>Do not be afraid if life changes its course on you a bit. You may have had these plans for a long time and so it feels terrible if it’s not happening, but let your plans be more flexible. If you not enjoying struggling for those goals, either think of new ways to complete your life goals or alter the goals slightly so you are heading in a favorable direction still.
Rather than the prestige or career, it’s important to know what you can do with your present situation and how to step to the next frame of mind, rather than suffer focusing on one thing in your life. One thing at a time.</p>
<p>You sound like you have drive and ambition, you will surely go great places! Just relax and be confident, give it your best in your classes!</p>
<p>Oh sorry didn’t see the question you added. ^^" I think a 3.5 GPA or higher will be safe. Or course, the higher the better, as high as you can get it. Aim for straight A’s!</p>
<p>Also, don’t let this thing make you feel like you’re not successful in life for a moment. The smartest thing to do is come with a stronger plan for the future, enjoy your youth and don’t stress more than necessary!</p>
<p>if you have a 3.1 right now and are projecting a 3.5 at graduation, that means you are projecting a 4.0 (basically) for your last two years. The chance that a 3.1 student suddenly turns into a 4.0 student seems remote.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to sound insulting, I was a 3.1 student in undergrad. Just be realistic.</p>
<p>btw, the facts are it doesn’t matter what shot anyone here thinks you have. You should apply to every opening you can find that you think you would be interested in. Then go from there.</p>
<p>The best thing you can do (coming from another person who graduated with a 3.1) is get a dominating resume and cover letter, and learn how to crush it at an interview.</p>
<p>A good resume is the difference between getting an interview and getting ignored in many cases.</p>
<p>For now, it’s time to readjust your goals. A top internship is unrealistic, and a paid internship is probably even a stretch; a regular summer job isn’t bad, though! A fantastic job at a fantastic company is very doable (I have a fantastic job at a fantastic, though unknown, company and have had it since graduation!). And for B-school, it’s probably pretty unlikely that you’ll get into Wharton or HBS, but you’ll need to take the GMAT to know for sure.</p>
<p>Obviously you should apply to every place you can, but be prepared for an up hill battle and a lot of disappointment!</p>
<p>I think this explains your low GPA. I cannot fathom why you chose to load up on so many club activities and time-consuming jobs… You could consider easing up on the load.</p>
<p>Sorry man, but telling someone to “network” doesn’t really help. One doesn’t just magically decide to network… either you know how to do it and do it consistently… or you don’t know how to do it because it is a ridiculously amorphous term. Also, networking won’t get you around a low GPA as an undergraduate, no matter how wide and deep your network is.</p>
<p>You really need to work on your GPA - communications and business (marketing) are among the two most cupcake majors that you can pick in college. You are competing with people that have 3.8 + so chrisw’s post is not far off. You need to refocus on your academics and set realistic expectations</p>
<p>The OP is a rising junior. There is plenty of time for him/her to network - and yes people do “magically” decide to do so. I did when I was job hunting, and I’m a very introverted person. I’ve known people with 3.0s get top IBanking jobs through networking (whereas most places throw your application away with <3.5), so it can do a LOT. The whole point of the recruiting process is to identify smart, capable, sociable candidates. Like it or not, there’s a lot of hiring decisions based on whether the applicant seems like a good person to have a beer or shoot the breeze with.</p>
<p>GPA helps as a funnel, but if you already know the person is smart, capable, and sociable recruiters can (and do) ignore it. If you have someone plugging for you inside the company, even better.</p>
<p>Remember that networking nowadays isn’t necessarily going to networking events. I know people working at prominent tech companies who found connections through gaming, reddit/reddit meetups, and the like.</p>
<p>dude, you have a story. you have reasons for your gpa: your internships and extra-curricular activities. sell the story in your cover letters and during interviews. you’re much more interesting than the average bear.</p>
<p>besides, most employers look at a threshold GPA… usually a 2.0 2.5 or 3.0. It’s rarely a 3.5 – they would lose some REALLY good potential employees if they did that</p>
<p>^For business positions, I’ve heard that they do have cutoffs around a 3.5, if you’re a business/communications major. If you’re in math/science/engineering, the cutoff might be lower.</p>
<p>Who do you know with a 3.0 who works at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley or JP Morgan? Those places throw away most applications if the GPA is lower than a 3.7; if you’ve made a particularly good impression on a recruiter, maybe you can sneak in with a 3.5. But a 3.0? I’d like to know the person who even got an interview, let alone a job, with a GPA that low.</p>
<p>Networking skills can help you to get a job at a great boutique firm, where their recruiters are looking for ten people a year and care the most about fit. But at the big players, you will be competing against people who are excellent at networking AND have 3.9 GPAs from top programs.</p>
<p>You don’t need anything that drastic. I know someone at GS with a 3.2 and someone at JPM with a 3.3 (3.0 was a bit of an exaggeration). Both IBanking. Neither were URM, sports captains, etc. One was the president of a frat though. I also know someone who got into MS with a crappy GPA, but unless you know the daughter of a MD to date, you’re SOL on that front. FYI - I reached the final round of GS and Barcap and got CS. And I had a 3.4. So no, they don’t throw away <3.7s - I didn’t even really network for GS.</p>
<p>Admittedly, 3.0 flat is rough. Assuming he can salvage that into at least a 3.2-3.3, he should be ok. I’m not sure how GPA-centric the internships he’s looking for are, but I doubt they’re as bad as IB’s.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for the replies everyone! </p>
<p>I’ve realized that I put a lot of pressure on myself and never settle for less than perfection, and this is something I need to change. I feel like people think I am not capable of being successful, and I really want to prove them wrong. This is why I tend to bite off more than I can chew. It just sucks because it really might be too late to fix my mistakes. I wish I had a time machine and could start over, because I know I am more than capable of getting at least a 3.5. Neither of my majors are particularly challenging, I just have severe test anxiety. I would have a solid A in a class, bomb the final and end up with a B. But that’s a really pathetic excuse. I think I was also too involved on campus. I am definitely going to lighten up my extracurricular involvement and jobs when I get back to school. I tried to beef up my resume to be competitive to top companies by taking part in several clubs and jobs and still proving I could stay on top of my schoolwork, but as you can see that obviously didn’t work. Lesson learned. </p>
<p>As far as the internship thing, I realize that Google, Apple, and other companies are probably a big stretch. Its a huge pill to swallow since these are companies I have dreamed of working at for so long now, but that’s life I guess. I’m still going to try and apply to as many as possible. I am at a top college, have several internships and jobs under my belt already. I am completing my 4th internship this fall and have had three previous jobs. I am also a URM and I think I can sell myself in an interview. Even if I don’t get an offer from a top company, hopefully life will go on.</p>
<p>It depends on where your previous internship experiences have been as well. I found that after checking off the box at a couple of brand name companies for internships, I have gotten away with not listing my GPA on my resume (and they never ask either)</p>
<p>People who are harping on an on about needing a 3.7-3.9 GPA are deluding themselves. This is generally only for the most competitive jobs (i-banking, management consulting, top med/law schools, google or apple types). The large majority of jobs out there require a 3.0 cutoff and beyond that consider GPA only marginally (in comparison to work experience/social skills/interview). I am one of those people with a mediocre (3.0-3.5 range) gpa and a long work history and I have gotten a full time job in pretty much exactly what I’m interested in. The work experience that you have will speak volumes. Just do your best to improve your GPA and maybe take on a slightly less intensive load of clubs (focus on the ones you care most about/are most relevant to your career) and you’ll maximize your chances for success</p>