Was just corrected by my son that IB is his first interest, but he is equally keen on equity management and other finance options.
(to be honest I don’t understand any of that)
I don’t think 2 Bs in general ed courses would matter.
If one gets 2 Bs and 3 As in five courses with equal credits, the overall GPA is (2x3+3x4)/5=3.6.
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As noted above, he has time to pick up his GPA. Unless he qualifies for special internships for sophomores, the key internship is summer of junior year, so he’ll have 3 more semesters of grades to increase his GPA. The quantitative nature of his major is a plus. The GPA targets that have been cited above are consistent with S’s experience for the upper end of the IB’s at a Target school. Does he have P/F options on Gen Ed courses that he may have issues with to manage his overall GPA? There are regional and mid market shops that may not have such high GPA cut-offs.
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A few comments:
–Breathe.
–He is working hard and enjoying college life. Sounds like a huge win to me!
–Even a perfect GPA will not guarantee a top IB job. Those jobs are few and far between.
–My kids GPA improved steadily after freshman year as they adjusted to the demands of college and took more and more classes in their major.
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Thank you.
I am happy to see how well adjusted he is. He feels he fits in.
Likes his classes, good roommate, has great friends and awesome teammates.
he doesn’t get bothered by small things like dorm room (old old building) or food (which is terrible considering what we pay!)
Deep breath it is…onward …
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You are likely already doing this but please encourage your son to continue to do his best and to try not to stress about a B or two. Sounds like he is at an elite college which I expect is filled with bright, engaged students – unlike HS he may not be top of the heap in every disipline and that is OK. Keep reminding him how well things are going and how (appropriately) proud you are. Sounds like a great kid!
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There are some firms that screen with grades. I hate everything about that, but mostly that it discourages kids from taking risks and working on things that are not strengths. And yes, he can bring up his GPA, but if he doesn’t make the cut, there are still second chance ways to break into IB.
Your S will have good options available to him with his focus. Please don’t let him get too flipped out about this.
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NACE surveys indicate that the most common screening GPA for prioritizing interviews for college recruits is 3.0. However, “elite” employers may use higher screening GPAs, as mentioned in post #10 and succeeding posts.
If general biology is the one for biology majors and pre-meds, that can be a not-so-easy course with lots of work (due to lab time), with plenty of competition for grades if it is competitively graded (“on a curve”).
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You are correct. I asked my son and I had the wrong idea about general bio. I assumed it was the same as high school bio and it is not! It is designed towards biology majors/pre-med track students and is pretty tough. The test questions are not straightforward but require application of principles and theoretical knowledge of biology. H had to take a general ed class. Chem is a lot tougher so he took bio.
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If he needed a lab science for general education, it seems like (calculus-based) physics would have been the most enjoyable one, given that he is an applied math and statistics major who is already in more advanced math.
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