The "Am I good enough for Investment Banking/Consultancy?" Thread

I was thinking about going into IB and I have to ask this. I will be attending university of warwick this year and will be studying like 65% of my course at WBS. I understand Warwick is well respected but I have VERY mediocre grades at GCSE and A-levels. Will my poor GCSE and A-level grades mean that even if I get a 2:1 or 1st I have no chance at going into IB?

GCSE - 5As and the rest Bs
Alevels - AAB

Oh right thanks. I actually do know some people in IB and they said the same thing as you but some of the people on here seem to say you need like a gazillion A* so I was curious as to if the policy has recently changed. The IB people also said that around 90% of people are from target unis when they went into their internships (this was like 6 years ago tho). Is this still true or are the banks a bit more lenient lately.

Is it bad that my A2 subjects will be maths, physics & applied business ???

Is it bad that my A2 subjects will be maths, physics & applied business ???

It would be better if you did something else instead of applied business but it doesn't really matter in comparison to which uni you go to and what you do in your spare time.

Except that the which uni part depends quite a bit on the which a-levels part.

isnt it still hard regardless getting into IB from one of these institutions

I think if you're british/ HK is fairly easy. I guess it depends on your definition of "hard" too. The problem with the UK is that they have no selection to get into Uni. Everyone pretty much gets the courses they want to do as long as they pay, because grades aren't selective. Then you end up with a bottle neck at the end of your degree and employers might as well flip a coin to hire people. I met some people working in IB who look really smart and others who look like some of my worst colleagues in High School, only they are wearing a suit and making lots of money instead of being behind a counter. It's stupid.

7 GCSEs Maths, English, Double Science A to C
3 A Levels Business Studies C Economics A History B General Studies A
BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance Liverpool John Moores University (Not quite target I know, but predicted confortable 2:1)
Hoping to do an MBA at Cass at some point.
I know I might not be academically gifted like some of you nerds on here, but I have the gift of the gab and have done really well in part time sales jobs. I have also helped fund myself through uni with Betfair. I've heard that's a lot like the financial markets, knowing when to take a calculated risk etc. I've heard a lot of Investment Banks like these wide boy characters, which my mates think I am, because investment banking is all about bluffing and schmoozing clients right?

No, you are.

Therefore everyone gets lots of A's. I cannot answer for all Uni's in UK, but i took a course at the LSE and 90% of people scored A+ in the final exam, probably to keep clients happy as well.

A Levels: I'm an international student, but I think my results converted would be a mixture of A and A*
Uni: I study Accounting & Finance at the LSE equivalent of my country, have averaged a 1.1 in all exams
Work Experience: International internship at big 4 last year, this year interning at Merrill Lynch
Extra curriculars: Not much on the finance side, but I dance competitively on an international level and tutor disadvantaged students. Also I speak near fluent french, went to the Sorbonne for a month.

As an international student I have no idea of my chances for IB, I would appreciate any opinions :-D

It would really help if you did a bit of research first - firstly as to which of the two career paths you want to go for, and secondly about the career paths themselves. Accenture and McKinsey should never be mentioned in the same breath, but since those are the two you ask about: yes, it's definitely good enough for Accenture; it COULD be good enough for McKinsey but only with excellent extra-curriculars and work experience.

That's the summer school....hardly a sound basis from which to criticise the entire UK education system, or even LSE's (also I have a strong suspicion you've exaggerated that number).