I’m currently a student from a Top 10 non-HYPS (so that narrows it down to 6 I guess). I’ve run into a little bit of a problem: I’m in my penultimate year finishing up my degree in economics, and since I’ve done poorly in a class, I’m thinking about either Pass/Failing or Withdrawing before the final.
I’m currently around a 3.5 GPA and doing data science at a large market research firm this summer (and knock on wood, expect to receive a return offer). The issue is that I’ve already P/F’ed a class last year and have a C and C+ in two other econ classes from last year as well; I know that b-schools don’t care about grades as much but am beginning to worry about where I stand.
I know it’ll come down to GMAT, which I’ll be taking next year, and work experience, but to what degree would b-schools care if I W and retake given my relatively poor performance last year. Am I freaking out unnecessarily?
First, you’ve got a few years until you apply to business school–you need work experience (3-5 years). So, you shouldn’t get too excited right now. If you read through the various posts in this forum, you’ll see that the most important factors in getting into a top MBA program are: GPA (the higher the better), GMAT score (the higher the better) and work experience. If your summer work opportunity turns into an offer after graduation, you’ve got one part of the equation covered.
With respect to GPA, the best option right now would be to do whatever you can to keep your GPA up as high as possible. If a W is what does that, then go for the W. B-schools probably don’t care about individual courses that you take. However, if econ is your major and you are having trouble with the upper-level courses, then the bigger question you should think about is–why you are having trouble? You need to figure that out as you consider the courses you are going to take next year.