GPA to starting salary

dude... it's not even based on your major; it's based on what field you wish to enter.

i-banking and engineering pay the highest salary out of school

highest potential is from a sales role through commissions

now did you recently break up with your girlfriend via powerpoint? that is the real story....

brainwashed wrote:

It depends on the COLLEGE. If you get a 3.5 out of Duke, or MIT or Harvard, you are slightly better position than the guy who got a 3.5 at a community college.

Nothing against Duke, but does it really carry the weight of an MIT or Harvard degree?

3.2

$57,500 / yr

$8,000 signing bonus

Engineer

I work for a fortune 100 company. As one of the guys said, luck does play into the availability of jobs. We hire, unfortunately, in a feast or famine way. Depends a lot on how the company is doing. Getting the first job that will provide you useful experience is important-easier to trade up if it so happens to be famine time. For B.S. level positions, we get lots of resumes via an internet submission form. First we look for the major and that it is from a reasonable school, preferably one your familiar with. Next is the GPA, 3.0-3.3 pretty much minimum. Only one time have I ever interviewed a candidate with a lower GPA and that was one of those sex and minority situations that was perhaps worth considering. Remember you have an alternative of listing major or overall GPA, give the one that makes you look best and if questioned explain. Then comes the phone interview, then the formal followed by an day-long in-house interview. If we are fortunate enough to get the transcripts prior to the interview it helps in the discussion (HR department has gotten better). In the end we do get the resumes and yes the GPA should correspond. For PhD's we are a bit more rigorous and focus quite a bit more on the research experience and the educational program.

After the first job, if you have a couple of years of experience, no one cares about the transcript. P.S. personality and looks always count.

Well ... I'm quite certain that an Engineering degree from Duke is going to get you a much higher starting salary (on average) than a Liberal Arts degree from Harvard. Plus, just about everyone who graduates from Harvard does so "with honors", so the 3.5 GPA doesn't add much information.

MIT is a different story.

Which college you went to has a big impact on your starting salary. Especially for students with lower GPAs. You can go to a halfway decent state school, plan your career out well, get a 4.0, find a couple of internships and do well out of college. My guess is a 2.5 at a big, mediocre college vs. a 2.5 at a place like MIT is a MUCH bigger difference.

big4 public accounting auditor, starting salary 62K, northeast area HOLLA.

GPA has no correlation to starting salary once you are selected to be given a job offer. It only effects whether you get the job or not, if that. Normally they'll just say GPA must be above 2.8, or 3.0, or 3.2. That way they can weed out the candidates they wouldn't be considering anyway.

Cooler Ethan wrote:

GPA has no correlation to starting salary once you are selected to be given a job offer. It only effects whether you get the job or not, if that. Normally they'll just say GPA must be above 2.8, or 3.0, or 3.2. That way they can weed out the candidates they wouldn't be considering anyway.

Right, but if you have a higher GPA, you'll most likely be offered better jobs, and hence will most likely get a better starting salary.

How many people get recruited to Goldman Sachs from your school who have a 3.2?

Mechanical Engineering, 2.65 or so Cumulative.

$55,020. I didn't negotiate either. Probably should have. It's all about the field you're in.

PS, this from a small private school in the NW.

doesn't the federal government have a pay scale where grades matter? A GS-5 is the starting salary for someone getting out of college with average grades, but a GS-7 is the starting salary for people coming out of grad school or who had a good under graduate GPA.

slacker guide wrote:

Unless you're heading off to med, law, or grad school, GPA means zippy. Your school's name and reputation means a lot more.

you're dead wrong about GPA not mattering, and only people who get bad grades claim this. every single resume you send out should and will have your college GPA on it unless it sucks, and employers know that. almost every online job application asks for gpa unless the company sucks. and MANY interviews have minimum gpa requirements. if a company doesn't talk about grades, it's because it is a highly competitive one with good pay that only even looks at people with over a 3.5, or because it's a shit company that's a bottom feeder in the applicant pool.

all of this means that gpa will by and large affect your post-grad salary. please don't be fooled by the few exceptions you hear of, or the bums who dragged ass through college and are trying to make themselves feel better. there are already plenty of applicants for all good positions out there with top grades, internship experience, and social skills. you're charm isn't going to be enough to overcome a 2.9 gpa in psych (or even engineering in some cases) when you're competing for a great job.

ps. i was an engineering major at a top 20 school with a very "big name." ALL of the places I applied to wanted to see my gpa before even starting to talk.

transplant wrote:

doesn't the federal government have a pay scale where grades matter? A GS-5 is the starting salary for someone getting out of college with average grades, but a GS-7 is the starting salary for people coming out of grad school or who had a good under graduate GPA.

Yes. For those just getting out of school, GS-5 will usually be those with a BS and grades under say, 3.5*. GS-7 would be for those with a BS and grades higher than 3.5 OR if you have a year of graduate study. GS-9 if you have a Masters, GS-11 if you have a PhD.

* Don't remember what the actual grade cutoff is.