IhateCR

Should I stop thinking investment banking from now??

I'm a freshman at UVa. This is my worst grade at least for now. I know I'm going to get bad grade on this class but I never expected a B-. I know ibanks want people with good math skills, and now I got a B- on this class. Is my chance of getting hired by them lowered significantly?? Should I take another math class again to show that I'm not a person with low quantitative skills?

My basic math is not bad. I got 750 on SAT Math and I got A on AP Calc BC back in high school.

This is totally out of the blue. I don't know what to do. Please help.

g8erbait

You are an idiot.

YOU

^haha.. I thought they only care about your overall GPA?

CNI

I'm a high school senior, but I took linear last semester. Out of curiosity, did you ever go on Course 18.06: Linear Algebra ?

This is Gilbert Strang of MIT 's website, and his lectures are AMAZING. I had a horrible teacher, but I ended up pulling an A because I just learned from Strang ( he wrote our book, which helps too). If I were you, I'd just make sure I knew the properties of basis and eigenvalues/eigenvectors, as those were, to me, are the most important parts of linear that I'm using in diff EQ (which is what I'm assuming comes after linear in college?)

Either way, don't sweat it dude. I sucked at calculus, and I consider myself at least pretty decent at math. I think people oftentimes get the misconception that math is all the same thing, when it really isn't. It's good that you're a freshman, because that means you can still improve. I may not be in the industry, but I can pretty much guarantee that recruiters would rather see an upward grade trend than a downward one. If investment banking is what you really want to do, then no, you should never give up.

Majayiduke09

Investment banking requires addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; if you are thinking S&T, you may need to find a way to explain it.

Additionally, for the most part, they will only look at your overall GPA, unless they ask for your transcript beforehand at which point they would see individual grades.

However, many do not request a transcript until background check time.

C-Revs

Not even really true about S&T... only particular products are really quantitative. Your overall GPA is a bigger concern.

lakhannv

yea man. based on your SAT score and B-, I'd totally give up. Save yourself while you still can man. he he

IhateCR

thanks guys... I was just totally freaked out when I saw that B- so I got really distressed when I started this thread. Anyway, I did very well on other classes though and hopefully I'll have 3.7 this semester.

gellino

I had both a B- in Linear Algebra and a 760M SAT and got a job in IB, although it was before the days of recent grade inflation.

As a freshman, you can't be focused on each grade and how it relates to your future career. You're going to drive yourself crazy and isn't really how it works anyway.