<p>Rising sophomore with a horrendous GPA. Faced a lot of personal, family, and monetary issues that detrimentally affected my grades. This year, things have changed and I'm trying to put my best foot forward. </p>
<p>I'd like advice on iBanking, diversity programs, recruitment timeline, and internships because I'm not very informed on the Finance industry, yet very much interested in the prospects.</p>
<p>Humanities Major, French Minor, Economics Concentration (school doesn't offer minor)
2.3 GPA
Top 15ish LAC (Non-Target)
URM (black female)
Student Body Class President (Fresh and Soph)
Varsity Athlete
RA
Student Organizations Finance Committee
Investment Club
Connections (Stepmother has previously worked for top firms i.e JP Morgan as analyst, knows a few "higher-ups" in Citi--not sure if that'll help much)</p>
<p>I feel like my gpa takes me out of the running for most prestigious internships/programs, but if my profile is decent I was hoping I might stand a chance somewhere. I'd very much like to end up working at GS or JP.</p>
<p>Oh, also, Is Finance/IB even worth pursuing at this point for someone with my gpa, atm. I’ve also been considering Law and I’m not sure if I should just set my sights on attending a top law school, rather than trying to squeeze my way into IB. Financial Security, Mobility, and Satisfaction are my biggest goals in a future career.</p>
<p>Your URM status can help you as well as being a female, especially if you are considering trading as in the S & T part of investment banking. But you definitely need to get your gpa above a 3.00, and preferably higher.</p>
<p>Banking is pretty lax with the GPA but it’s still relatively stringent about having a 3.0+. GPA matters a ton more for law school than it does for banking so I can’t say whether that would be the appropriate path to pursue either. The key with banking/finance is that you have a tremendous opportunity to network. Contact all the alumni you can working in finance, have a conversation with them, etc. and they should be able to help you out in getting an interview at places you like (at which point GPA doesn’t matter nearly as much). Getting in a top law school will be much tougher than breaking in to finance because with finance you can work your way around GPA through networking whereas with law you have very few ways of avoiding the GPA.</p>
<p>If you can bring your grades up, you’ll be in a position to explain away your earlier problems. Strong grades going forward and good interviewing skills will put you in a decent position for an I Banking job.</p>
<p>Go into any bank’s job portal, do it asap since the deadlines are either now or just passed, find female recruitment or diversity recruitment and fill out their stuff and attach resume, for summer internship. I’d be highly surprised if you don’t get a few bites for an interview. Then it will be completely how you conduct yourself there.</p>
<p>Thanks, does anyone have any recommendations of IBs that offer diversity programs of which I may stand a chance at given my gpa. I’m hoping by the time my winter grades come in I’ll be at a ~3.0.</p>
<p>Alexa, if you are really interested in getting into IB, you really should be doing some homework yourself as to which banks offer diversity programs(almost all). If you are not at a target school, you will have to work that much harder to be noticed. That means pulling up your grades significantly first. Work with your school’s career office. Nowadays all the target schools have significant number of highly qualified URM students(especially first generation immigrants from Africa and Caribbean) with higher GPAs who will be competing with you.</p>