the ONLY thing you need to know about law schools is GPA+LSAT score. Unlike undergrad admissions and med school admissions, where all kinds of other things are important, the law school game is 95% two numbers.
Just enjoy college. Get involved in some activities where you can follow your passions.
Good luck.
Are there school dances at BC? If so, how similar are they to high school dances?
@appplicant During my tour a long time ago, my guide said that there is not a trading room but students have access to Bloomberg terminals in the library. Could you elaborate on what those are, and how they could potentially be beneficial in the future for employment purposes?
@appplicant I placed out of Micro, Macro, and AP Calc BC. I know portico is required during the first year along with a few other required classes. Do you know if I’m allowed to take Macro Theory as a freshman?
@1zogden1 Apologies for the delay. Had to finish up finals and decompress for a few days.
Yes, there are formals. They usually surround larger clubs and sports. So, for example, I’m a 1on1 guide and greeter in the student admissions program. Through my participation, I was invited to go to SAProm, which is a big event where are volunteers are invited, plus a date from outside the program. There are also other really fun events in other realms of the school (depending on your various involvements usually, but they’re a lot of fun and ussualy an excuse for people to look nice and pre-game/post-game the event.
There is one Bloomberg terminal in the library. It is dead center on the “main” floor and has helped me numerous times for some of my CSOM classes. There is rarely a line and it’s really a wealth of information. Through it, you can certify yourself in Bloomberg Market Concepts, which is their introductory training module. I got certified over the course of my last summer internship in Boston, which gave me a leg up as I navigated the terminal for a major investments paper I had to do, which required an insane amount of historical financial info. It depends on where in finance you’d like to go, but Bloomberg is pretty universally helpful, even if you will not be using it at whatever your future job might be (because the terminal is ridiculously expensive, and interns are sometimes not afforded that luxury). It really is a staggering load of financial info though. I would recommend you familiarize yourself and see about the logistics to starting the training module (which takes about 8 hours, and can be completed in segments). It’s really a great thing to say you have the certification on your resume as well.
@Pugslife To my knowledge, yes. You can take macro theory if you got a 4 or higher on AP macro and micro in high school. However, I’m not 100% sure as I see through this link https://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/economics/undergraduate/Major-arts-sciences.html that there is also an introductory course in economic statistics, which I’m not sure is a prerequisite to the theory courses. I believe it is not, but I honestly can’t say with absolute certainty. That would quickly get cleared up before your selection time with your academic advisor, though, so it’s an easy question to address quickly to be absolutely sure.
@appplicant Is there a limit on how many classes you can take in a semester? I know the standard is five, but are you allowed to take six?
You can only take five courses in your first semester. After that, if you have at least a 3.0 and permission from your Associate Dean, you can take a 6th course. In the first semester, you’ll be spending some time getting acclimated anyway, so five courses makes a lot of sense there.
@appplicant , I have a couple questions pertaining to CSOM.
How hard is it to maintain a good GPA within CSOM. Also, what would be your tips to excel gradewise? ( I plan on majoring in Finance)
What are the study abroad opportunities for CSOM students?
How hard is it to balance school work and social life? Also, how much will I be able to go into the city of Boston?
@appplicant , Also a couple more questions.
Apologies for the delay.
I hovered slightly above the median GPA for CSOM prior to my recent semester, at which time my GPA was a 3.51. They provide you with a ranking after each semester on your student portal, and I’d speculate the median is about a 3.48-ish, with a likely leftward skew by which the average is somewhat lower. To excel, really diligently vet your professors and leverage your friends experiences, the PEPs professor review website, and even sometimes other recommendations even of other teachers and/or mentors.
For study abroad, 35% of CSOMers study abroad (+/- a bit), and I believe nearly all the programs available to students in the other schools are available to CSOM. However, I lay in the alternative 65%, and cannot say so with absolute certainty. Just study abroad in the northern hemisphere. That’s my main recommendation, so you don’t miss a chunk of a summer, and therefore not be inhibited from pursuing a valuable internship, which is paramount in CSOM. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, more often than not, you are in a situation where summer and winter semester periods are inverted and your summer in America is impacted.
My balance has always been great. However, that’s my experience. I came in with a large number of credits and therefore could ease off on my class schedule for a few semesters and work less than many friends at times. Collectively, CSOMers on the whole work less than STEM and more than many of the humanities. Are there exceptions? Sure. It depends on how fast you grasp material (which affects how long you study and how often you go to office hours). For me, I am not a naturally smart person, unlike many of my peers. I have to study much longer to wrap my head around some material and be able to succeed, and I’ll still gasp when people glance through a prep sheet for an hour and proceed to crush an exam. People vary and in that regard I wasn’t gifted with some naturally savante-caliber intellect (not by a long shot). Generally, you will have time, and it is on you to use that time toward pursuing internship/career opportunities as much as you see fit. Boston is easy to access, and, therefore, any time you have about two hours to spare, you can go. Having two hours to spare will happen often, but really most people that go tend to do so on weekends. I wouldn’t necessarily say its a big thing, though. There’s lots to do in the immediate surroundings of campus.
It’s very hard. However, we have a good reputation among three of the nine bulge bracket banks (Citi, DB, and UBS) and send kids to many of the others as well, though it’s usually more in the 1-2 kids per bank range (rather than 5+), particularly in IBD. It took me a year or so of networking and solidifying my resume and studying interview prep books. I even took networking calls on breaks during my sophomore summer internship. It’s a lot, but it can be worth it if you’re really passionate about it.
General note to future questions. I will probably be slow to answer. I just finished training week for my internship and will be on the desk for the next nine weeks. Some patience would be appreciated.
I’m interested in doing the business analytics co-major, but I don’t know what to do as my second major. I’m currently down for finance. Do you have any recommendations of which other majors might complement business analytics? I’m torn between finance, information systems, and operations management.
How early did you start trying to find internships or relevant work in finance/business? Were you in any business clubs that you would recommend?
What happened regarding Barclays-i.e why is it not a core school anymore?
We still send close to the same number of people there. To my understanding, there are certain BC-enforced restrictions that enable the school to regulate a bank’s recruitment timeline if they are considered core. Barclays is being clever by voluntarily backing out of that title so they can recruit as they please.
Like I said, though, that’s my understanding of the situation. I could be entirely wrong, but that’s what I’ve heard. Bottom line: nobody has a better/worse chance of going to Barclays since they dropped the core designation.
Hi, I realized that this thread was posted last year and I want to thank you for the tremendous information you’ve shared.
I just got accepted as a transfer student (rising junior majoring in Finance at CSOM) for fall2018. I’m thrilled about this offer but also feeling so much stress as a transfer junior.I am interning at a hedge fund company now and would like to check out investment banking career path. While I’m figuring out what it’s like to be in BC, I also have to get prepared for fall IB recruiting. I understand that networking is crucial during this process but I’m not sure how should I approach BC alums as a transfer student. Would it be weird since I do not have any shared BC experience with them yet. What would be your suggestion regarding this situation?
I just deposit my enrollment fee and I’m already contacting the career office lol. I’ve also contacted with an alum who graduated couple years ago and happens to be the co-founder of IBST. I’ve seen you mentioned this club several times in your posts. I’m assuming it’s a vary prestigious and helpful club for students who are interested in IB. Is there any other clubs/ activities that are pivoting toward finance and ib that you recommend?
Besides extra curriculums, is there any book/reading material that helps prepare for ib interviews? I’m currently reading RosenBaum’s “investment banking”… and I’m also thinking about preparing for FRM and CFA, do you think these two will be helpful? Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thanks.
@Rainyzrl515 Hi, if possible you should private message me. Although I am still waiting to hear back from BC, I am following a similar path as you and I think we could really help each other out if I get accepted to CSOM!
I think you share a common thread with the alums. You both were accepted to BC. and said yes. If you contacted me I would be glad to share my insights with a transfer student. It would be a change of pace snd refreshing to discuss the things you will soon experience
@Rainyzrl515 Would definitely recommend the Mergers and Inquisitions guide, which is essentially the Bible equivalent for banking interviews—- suuuper helpful, if you really want to get into the technical nitty gritty of it. A lot won’t make sense at first if you’re new to the business terminology but it might help just to get your feet wet.
Monkey business is a good book that surrounds banking. It’s a bit dated but it gives you a good idea of a candid life of being a banker.
Regarding the transfer situation, you can definitely bend that to a positive. Maybe you can reach out to alums, express interest, and slowly pivot the conversation toward your recent enrollment and see if they have any recommendations for ways to spend time on campus. It’ll prompt them to reminisce and you can have an ongoing discussion piece that could help as you try to spread your name a bit.
I’ll be a sophomore in CSOM and I’m not really sure what I want to pursue in business. Also, it seems like recruiting keeps getting pushed ahead, so I’ve been worried abut not having a set path yet. I heard IB recruiting happens in sophomore spring now according to BCHeights?? How did you decide what career path to pursue? I know everyone wants to do IB, but I think I might want to do consulting, but I don’t know too much about it. I joined the consulting club’s email list but barely heard anything over the year.
Also, do you know anything on interning abroad? I really wanted to study abroad for a semester, but with networking constantly and then needing to be on campus for events and recruiting, I don’t think I can afford to miss either semester of junior year. I saw online that BC has programs for summer internships abroad and sounded like a cool opportunity to travel as well as get an interesting internship experience to talk about. Any thoughts?
@HSStudent938 For me, personally, I did an investment banking case competition in early spring of my sophomore year (when recruitment was still traditionally in mid fall of your junior year) and found that a lot of my skill set and work ethic is compatible with the IB lifestyle. I’m extremely type A and can have a tendency to be nit picky with details, so the conscientiousness that is required of junior bankers is something that I thought would mesh very well. Furthermore, I kind of put myself into a corner when I decided this route was for me, as I only was interested in a very specific subset, which dovetailed with my extracurricular interests and my minor at BC. That said, IB is still something I’m very interested in overall (duh, considering my career path), but I originally wanted it for a lot of the wrong reasons actually, and ended up finding some of the good stuff only once I was actually on the desk for my internship. The route is really different for everyone, but just make sure you can speak in an educated way about your path to IB, as that is a super frequent interview question.
I recommend reaching out to the board of
IBST (investment banking-sales and trading club) to learn more about them, and see where you fit over the course of your first half of sophomore year. It’s definitely not a profession that fits for everyone, and it’s best to find out sooner rather than later. Luckily, you seem well aware of this, and this can be a decision that can be made (in your case) over a few months rather than over a few weeks,which is often the case as recruitment deadlines keep surprising people.
I personally didn’t go abroad, and I’d be wary of interning abroad, particularly if you want to go into IB, where experience and a good resume is absolutely vital. These internships abroad, from what I’ve heard, aren’t too intense and may not give you Any help in developing technical industry-relevant skills, as they often understand that people will intensively travel during that time. However, that’s painting with quite broad strokes on my part and I’m sure there are exceptions. Consequently, you just have to be careful, if you’re convinced of going the abroad route.
^^I believe interning abroad can be a plus if you speak the local language, particularly one that is in business demand For example, an internship in Hong Kong speaking Mandarin could be a valuable asset to IB. OTOH, a gig in Italy probably not so much.