Finishing college with under a 2.5 cumulative GPA in Econ

[Anonymous]

My daughter will probably have a 2.3 GPA in her major Econ courses. She wants to return to the DMV and work. How will she find a job in her field? College placement might not be an option. She is looking for an unpaid internship (in Chicago) to boost her resume. She had an excellent paid internship when she had the grades at the end of her Soph year. Her math based Econ track was difficult and her cumulative GPA is low because her first major was chemistry. Additionally, she played a sport for four years at an excellent university. She would not drop sports because she is a good athlete and became captain her Jr. year.

Will a government agency hire her? What other employment options for her field?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Is 2.3 her Econ GPA, or her overall GPA? If that's her Econ GPA, there is absolutely no way her resume would get past initial screening at my consulting firm, or any other high-end economic consulting firm. Sorry but if she actually wants to put her econ degree to use, focusing on sports instead of math was a bad life choice.

[Anonymous]

What school? U Chicago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will probably have a 2.3 GPA in her major Econ courses. She wants to return to the DMV and work. How will she find a job in her field? College placement might not be an option. She is looking for an unpaid internship (in Chicago) to boost her resume. She had an excellent paid internship when she had the grades at the end of her Soph year. Her math based Econ track was difficult and her cumulative GPA is low because her first major was chemistry. Additionally, she played a sport for four years at an excellent university. She would not drop sports because she is a good athlete and became captain her Jr. year.

Will a government agency hire her? What other employment options for her field?

Thanks.

That's worse in some ways, because top flight universities seldom give poor grades. FWIW, a GPA like that wouldn't make it past the initial filtering to even be seen where I work. I would also really question someones priorities/brains if they did 4 years of a sport with that GPA.

[Anonymous]

Few government agencies are doing much hiring right now-so the competition for the available spots is very competitive. I can't remember the last time we hired someone without a graduate degree. Plus, veterans get hiring preference.

Hiring that targets undergrads is usually for outstanding grades and requires a 3.5 or higher. I would not pin my hopes on getting a government job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will probably have a 2.3 GPA in her major Econ courses. She wants to return to the DMV and work. How will she find a job in her field? College placement might not be an option. She is looking for an unpaid internship (in Chicago) to boost her resume. She had an excellent paid internship when she had the grades at the end of her Soph year. Her math based Econ track was difficult and her cumulative GPA is low because her first major was chemistry. Additionally, she played a sport for four years at an excellent university. She would not drop sports because she is a good athlete and became captain her Jr. year.

Will a government agency hire her? What other employment options for her field?

Thanks.

Is she attractive and outgoing? I would suggest to look at marketing over pure econ work.

I had a 2.5 cuum but my econ gpa was 3.0 so I was able to get my foot in the door somwhere in the dmv in a large financial firm but this was in the mid 2000's and it still took me 6 months.

Forget .gov, she won't get through without a grad degree and/or being a vet.

What sport and what the range of her 'excellent university'? I.e. top 25? top 10? Private/public? d1?

She should leverage her team's network hard - say if she played tennis (an example) , reach out to network with women's tennis alums from 3-15 years ago.

I would also target my search to firms such as sporting shoe/apparel mfg's (Under Armour, Adidas, Nike, Puma, Brooks, asics, etc) as they place high value on ex-athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is 2.3 her Econ GPA, or her overall GPA? If that's her Econ GPA, there is absolutely no way her resume would get past initial screening at my consulting firm, or any other high-end economic consulting firm. Sorry but if she actually wants to put her econ degree to use, focusing on sports instead of math was a bad life choice.

I have a grad degree in econ who geeks out over reading white papers in my free time and even I wouldn't want to work at a 'high end' econ consulting firm - i'm guessing you are a place like bates white, cornerstone, compass lexecon, etc. It isn't the right culture for a typical successful college athlete.

I would use the degree for something more along the lines of marketing analytics from what I can tell about the OP.

[Anonymous]

Stay at her current University to obtain a graduate degree?

[Anonymous]

She could probably get a job as a research analyst/assistant at one of the many think tank/non-profit agencies around here. Tell her not to put her GPA on her resume.

A lot of them really just need bodies to help lay out and edit research papers, and some working knowledge of the subject matter is helpful.

I'm thinking of my own association in particular, but we don't have any spots at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She could probably get a job as a research analyst/assistant at one of the many think tank/non-profit agencies around here. Tell her not to put her GPA on her resume.

A lot of them really just need bodies to help lay out and edit research papers, and some working knowledge of the subject matter is helpful.

I'm thinking of my own association in particular, but we don't have any spots at the moment.

a place like CFR, brookings, CEP, etc. are going to bring up/ask for gpa as they'll ask for transcripts.

[Anonymous]

What about Sports Management? GW and Georgetown have programs.

http://www.nassm.com/InfoAbout/SportMgmtPrograms/United_States

[Anonymous]

Market analystics?

[Anonymous]

With that GPA, her first priority is to get meaningful employment and she cannot restrict herself to DMV, which attracts grade gunners.

[Anonymous]

A suggestion:
Apply with the temp agencies. Emphasize flexibility and go when they call. It will put her into different industries--some she will hate, and some she may like. It is easier to get a job when you have a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter will probably have a 2.3 GPA in her major Econ courses. She wants to return to the DMV and work. How will she find a job in her field? College placement might not be an option. She is looking for an unpaid internship (in Chicago) to boost her resume. She had an excellent paid internship when she had the grades at the end of her Soph year. Her math based Econ track was difficult and her cumulative GPA is low because her first major was chemistry. Additionally, she played a sport for four years at an excellent university. She would not drop sports because she is a good athlete and became captain her Jr. year.

Will a government agency hire her? What other employment options for her field?

Thanks.

don't worry, there are tons of great jobs available!