Hi Guys,
Go ahead, call me insecure for making this post but I'd like to get an idea of what are my chances at a top b-school.
GPA: 3.27
GMAT: 760
Undergrad Institution Rank: ~55th
Major: Finance and Math (my finance GPA is 3.56)
Extracurriculars
Very active in a professional business fraternity (Treasurer, head of professional affairs) where I accomplished a lot for the chapter. Was a director of the finance club. Also president of a math club but I had a lot of clashes with my chapter advisor over the direction of the club.
Work Experience
Interned at a top tier VC fund ($1.7 billion AUM, had two $350 mm exits in 2009, portco's commercials can be seen during the SuperBowl) for 1.75 years during college where I helped with sourcing. Now I'm off to a middle-market investment bank (not as big as Jefferies or PJC but not boutique) honestly because it was the first job offer I got and at the time I had no idea what I wanted to do for a career.
Don't know if I can get into any worthwhile PE firm with the low GPA (nor am I sure I want to do PE or even VC) but something I strongly consider is to save up money from banking and start a tech company after my ibanking stint.
B-school is something I think about a lot cause I did so well with the GMAT (took it to mitigate low GPA) and now feel like it would be a waste not to apply to reset my academic profile (shitty reason to go to bschool, but given my mediocre profile, it is something I think about).
So what do you think are my chances given just the numbers? Any thoughts about the worth of bschool to augment my academic profile? Will the internship at the VC fund during college have any weight on my bschool app?
from my understanding, unfortunately for alot of schools GMAT won't completely mitigate low gpa--my understanding is GMAT is a check the box thing, where you reach the a hurdle or you don't and then there are some qualitative modifiers there.
After a couple years of work, bschool will be a very good decisions for you is my thought.
-DONT do bschool if you're going to be an entrepeneur. It's your out in case you fail. -DO do bschool if you like your job and want to move up in the banking world. You probably won't (read: you won't) get into Harvard, but the top 20 are probably within reach IF you kick ass at what you do. -It's probably going to take you four years of work experience to get into one of those better bschools.
As people have said multiple times, business school is either 1) an out or 2) the way to get to the next level. If you find you don't like what you're doing, go to business school to change direction. If you find you DO like what you're doing, most banks want you to go back and get your degree.
I think thats all I wanted to say.
Top 20 within reach? I would think he's a shoe-in for the 20th ranked school, no?
I don't know much about admissions out of the top 10. And within the top 10 all I know is it's a shitshow and pretty random.
I think he has a shot at the M7. I gave my stats a few times on here, but just again for his own data points: 2.9 UG GPA 720 GMAT
In at Booth and Columbia.
Wow Booth and Colombia with a 2.9? Damn looks like I've got a shot after all
Are you shitting me. If you can't rent a car (25) or have not applied to business school, save your misinformed commentary.
Your profile is fine. Your GPA is fine, especially given your major. Your GMAT is strong. Extracurriculars, especially at the undergrad level, and especially if they involve fraternities, don't matter at all...unless you started some amazing thing. Brand name of work experience matters to some degree but your progression is far more important. Even more important than that is the why an mba/why now/why here. Your answers to those questions drive 80% of your success in business school applications.
Get some work experience though, because that will hurt you. Also, don't overestimate that good GMAT, they're a dime a dozen and someone with a 700 and a 3.0 from the University of Directional Louisiana could easily take your place if they say the right things and you don't. As I wrote elsewhere, I have a friend who has 4 yrs exp, 760 GMAT, 3.9 GPA Econ/Finance double, from a good school, and was dinged (5 schools) or waitlisted (1) everywhere he applied.
And when it is time to apply, take inventory on where you want to be, not just on the rankings. It makes no damn sense to go Stern if you want to work in Los Angeles. HBS, Wharton, Booth, different story. But "Top 10" is really more like top 6 (MIT should not be included in that mythical M7). Beyond those, everywhere is regional.
Yeah, the schools aren't kidding when they say they take the whole person into account.
Thanks ACEinTHEhole and Cartwright for the feedback
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