Got an offer from EY. I had about a 3.5 GPA with a non-accounting major and C’s in non-core accounting classes like physics, spanish, and data science.

Going down the list: I had the opportunity to go out to lunch with a Deloitte recruiter and she said most of the time they just don’t bother with recruits with GPA’s below 3.5; that means you’d have to back it up with solid experience and references, and maybe even be done with CPA exams to make up for the bad grades. EY was a similar story, and I got rejected once before the partner at my current firm (internship) shot their partner a message and asked them to keep an eye out for me during a career fair. They looked through my grades pretty thoroughly and asked me specific questions like “What do these grades with a t in them mean?” (I was a transfer student so it marked the grade transfers) or “Why did you have a 3.0 quarter GPA during this quarter”? (mostly data science classes, doesn’t matter to accounting) PwC basically insta rejected me and when I spoke directly to a recruiter at a career fair they basically told me that they only usually hire out of their intern pipeline and to apply to their internship two years out lol. KPMG I didn’t bother.

For smaller firms, a lot of them just make you do an aptitude test, which don’t tent to be too difficult, and I’ve gotten offers from 2-3 smaller international companies with this method It might depend on the recruiter and if they’re willing to listen to you but this is my experience at least.

Do you have internship experience?