<p>I currently attend ND and I'm hoping to get a job with the big 4. My goal is to possibly work in China in the future. I know the big 4 recruits heavily here but I'm extremely worried about my GPA right now. I received a 3.45 after my first semester and I currently have two Cs after midterms. I'm hoping to raise them up, but regardless it's really stressful.</p>
<p>The best way to be considered is at least a 3.5gpa? What can I do as a freshman and later on in my college career to help myself and optimize my chances? I've been accepted into both the summer Taiwan study abroad for this summer and for Beijing next spring to study Chinese.</p>
<p>Considering that taxguy’s sons, both accountants with strong GPAs (and the best of connections, being the sons of taxguy), didn’t get into the big 4, I wouldn’t stress over it. Seems like a crapshoot to me.</p>
<p>I agree with sp about the Big 4 being slightly overhyped. While it does offer good opportunities, its definitely not a place everyone will be successful at, and not everyone that works there enjoys it. Take a look:</p>
<p>But just do your best and hope for the best. Get your name out there, get some work experience, etc., but really, a lot of this seems to be a crapshoot/out of your hands. So just do what you can and hope for the best.</p>
<p>I know 2 regional, public accounting firms (I know them particularly well) that are paying starting salaries that are $10,000-$13,000 MORE than what the Big 4 firms are paying.</p>
<p>Which ones? I think non-Big Four options are certainly reasonable, but they’re a much less homogeneous group so it’s harder to get a handle on what each one is about.</p>
<p>And this means they’re better jobs than Big 4? Maybe they’re paying more than Big 4 because they have to in order to attract talent, whereas Big 4 doesn’t. Even if they pay less, Big 4 opens doors in the long term that others can’t open.</p>
<p>big 4 opens more doors is a myth. lots of them that went to school with me have been laid off by now. the ones still there can’t wait to get out.</p>
<p>gobluecpa, none of what you said relates to whether or not it opens more doors or not. Yes it opens many doors, that’s first hand experience after getting laid off.</p>
<p>lol this guy is funny, he has 3 years to pull his grades up. honestly a 3.45 as a freshman is great considering alot of people have trouble adjusting to college.</p>
<p>and like they said working for the big 4 isnt all that</p>
<p>This is true for majors that are taking their major classes in their freshman year. For a business student, I beg to differ. There’s such a stark chasm between your actual business school classes (especially for an accounting major) and freshman-year-of-college dribble, that the junior year is a far bigger adjustment, IMO.</p>
<p>as far as i know, big four does not look heavily at your gpa… they say 3 is enough but high gpa is always better. </p>
<p>For jesus christ’s sake, Chinese human resources guys are really different. I bet few of them even recognize ND… (I love nd so much, it just rejected me…) anyway, i doubt the best way to work at big four in China is internal transfer… i believe they prefer Chinese graduates because they are cheaper (20grand dollar/year is considered as a huge high salary for chinese grads…)</p>
<p>Eh, depends on your AP credit. I took the BC Calc AP test and thus avoided Calc II in college, but I think Calc II(not Calc for dummies/business students/sociology majors or whatever) ought to be harder than Intermediate II for many, particularly those not adapted to college life. When I first went to school I had nearly all of my core classes covered by AP’s and my ego put me into a lot of difficult upper level classes. That wasn’t too smart.</p>
<p>The OP knows whether he really tried or not this year. If he didn’t put a lot of effort into his classes then he has a chance to improve. Things may get harder but everyone else isn’t getting any smarter.</p>