Required GPA to land an interview with MBB

Hello, 

thanks a lot for the question. :) 

First of all congratulations for your recent graduation. 

Even if a GPA of 3.4/4 could not be considered the target grade for MBB, it is really difficult to make generalisations. In particular, it depends on 4 key variables: 

• MBB → Generally speaking, McKinsey is still looking for candidates with top grades while BCG and Bain are becoming more and more flexible regarding this point 
• Geography → The location of the office is a key factor and could make the whole difference
• Competition → The profile and preparation of other candidates play an important factor 
• Seniority  → While for entry level position, excellent grades are generally required, lower importance is given in case of experienced hires 

To conclude, I would give you 3 key advices in order to increase the probability of a successful application: 

• Your CV and Cover Letter → Be sure to create a strong first presentation of yourself. It would be fundamental in order to balance your potential medium/low grades (please let me know in case of deeper help) 
• Your story → Prepare an interesting and convincing story about who you are and what you did. Perhaps you have been a bit weak concerning grades but you did some interesting activities where key competences (e.g.,  entrepreneurship, problem solving and proactivity) emerge. Moreover, focus on interview preparation in both parts: motivational and business case
• Your network → Be sure to build a powerful network. It is extremely valuable if you want to have more possibilities in passing the screening process (above all in case of medium/ low grades) 

Do not hesitate to reach out me in case of further questions! I am currently offering a free coaching session.  

Good luck!

Matteo

Hi there,

I agree with Ian, 3.4 GPA is normally considered low for top consulting firms. A good GPA for MBB is usually 3.7+. 

You can compensate for a low GPA working on your CV, Cover and finding referrals. I provided a few tips below.

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1) CV

The key elements they will look for and that you can optimize are:

• University brand
• Major
• GPA
• Work experience
• Experience abroad
• Extracurriculars and volunteer experience

If you are an experienced hire, work experience will be a lot more relevant given. In your case, you should compensate GPA with some of the other points.

Red flags include:

• Low GPA (your current issue)
• Lack of any kind of work experience
• Bad formatting / typos
• 3-4 pages length
• Lack of clear action --> results structure for the bullets of the experiences
• Long paragraphs (3-4 lines) for the bullets of the experiences with irrelevant details
• Long time gaps without any explanation

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2) COVER LETTER

You can structure a cover in 4 parts:

1. Introduction, mentioning the position you are interested in and a specific element you find attractive for that company
2. Why you are qualified for the job, where you can report 3 skills/stories from your CV, ideally related to leadership, impact, drive and teamwork
3. Why you are interested in that particular firm, with additional 1-2 specific reasons
4. Final remarks, mentioning again your interest and contacts

In part 2 you can write about experiences that show skills useful in consulting such as drive, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and convincing others.

It is important that in part 3 you make your cover specific to a particular firm – the rule of thumb is, can you send the exact same cover to another consulting company if you change the name? If that’s the case, your cover is too generic.

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3) REFERRALS

To find a referral, you should follow three steps:

1. Identify the people that can help you
2. Write to them a customized email
3. Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral

You can find more on how to get a referral and new consulting trends (useful to discuss during referral calls as well) below:

▶ How to Get an MBB Interview

▶ 11 New Consulting Trends You Must Know 

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi there,

Thanks for your question. 

Short answer is, it's hard to give you an accurate answer, without further context / details. 

Yes, in general, 3.4 / 4 may sound a bit on the lower end, however it really depends on the context. As you know, MBB firms are all expecting academic excellence from their candidates - what that actually means, however, is subject to a number of factors, such as

• Geography: (e.g. 3.4 or equivalent may be a bit low in US but is quite strong in certain EU countries)
• Specific university: select schools are notorious for lower average grades - MBB firms understand that
• Field of study: certain majors / degrees (e.g. engineering, physics etc) tend to yield lower avg grades vs others (e.g. business) in many geographies 
• Performance vs peer group: if you went to a target school and achieved Top 5 / 10%, 3.4 may be considered strong academics
• Etc

Think you'll get the gist here - it's important to contextualize your grades to fully understand how they will impact your chances. Fortunately, this is something MBB firms are actually very experienced at doing.

That said, while academics are very important across MBB, do also note that they are only one of multiple key factors considered in screening - if the rest of the CV is very strong, candidates often get away with weaker / borderline grades.

Finally, feel free to PM me and share more context / your CV. Will be happy to take a look and provide a more accurate view, based on the details.

Regards, Andi

Hi there,

The short answer is that a 3.4 is low. Also, there's a huge different between civil engineering and astro/chem engineering so we'd need to know this!

That said, a GPA is not everything. If you have strong internship experience, have worked hard to make your resume optimal, and have networked extensively, then all of those things can add to improving your chances!

Hi there, 

I think the GPA is important, but by not means essential or the most important. It's significantly more important if you have other experience on your CV which highlight both interest and ability for consulting, e.g., internships in a similar field