Chances at Masters in Finance?
Hello all,
I'm in the early stages of planning graduate study (hopefully 2014-2015) and am attempting to narrow my options down further. I'm pondering two degrees primarily, a Masters in Finance and a Masters in Data Analytics/Business Analytics.
Some background:
24 years old.
-Undergraduate degree from a strong regional university with a double major in History + Public Policy and Administration; management concentration. Minor in Classical Studies. My GPA was 3.1. Before that I was at a community college before transferring and had a 3.4 GPA.
-I haven't taken the GMAT yet but have taken the GRE. A caveat; I took the GRE with the intention of getting into graduate school for Urban and Regional Planning and was accepted but I became disillusioned with the field of study/career path and did not enroll. I took the GRE with absolutely no studying or preparation and hadn't taken any math courses in 2 years. As such, I believe with relation to the quantitative score of the GRE I could do much better with some studying.
My scores on the GRE were as follows:
163/170 Verbal
148/170 Quantitative
311 Total
According to the GRE concordance tables this roughly translates to a 1240 on the old GRE scale and projects as a 590 on the GMAT. As previously stated, I think I could increase my score considerably with studying so being realistic, I don't think a 625-675 on the GMAT is out of the question. .
In addition to my education, I have (thus far) been employed as a Financial Aid Administrator at a top tier university for 7 months. While this work doesn't involve complex quantitative analysis it does require strong mathematical and financial skills.
I have a fairly strong understanding of statistics as well and have previously used SPSS and SAS for undergraduate research.
Forgive my deluge of information, I suppose I will get to an actual question.
Based upon my my information, do I have a shot at a Masters in Finance? And if so, what universities should I (realistically) be targeting? My interest in finance is relatively broad at the moment but I am working on exploring things further and narrowing it. Any feedback on the Masters of Business Analytics would be appreciated too.
I am located in Virginia but am more than willing to relocate if a program piques my interest.
Any help would be much appreciated.
that quant score could be a killer. Honestly, I have seen low GPAs get in, but low quant, that's not good. More than likely, the program you are looking at will accept GMAT, so study and take that. Then you won't have to submit your GRE. Just my 2 cents.
I agree that I definitely need to study this time. As I mentioned, I didn't study at all and hadn't taken a math course in some time. I honestly think with some actual preparation I can score a 650 on the GMAT.
You could get into a decent school but you absolutely need to retake the GRE or even better destroy the gmat. A 148 is somewhere along the lines of 35th percentile which looks really bad. Like you mentioned, you didn't do any prep of the basics which is really all the GRE covers. I'm sure ANT and KKS can weight in as well
Purely hypothetical but assuming I range in the 625-675 on the GMAT, what kind of odds would I have at some of these schools:
American George Washington Portland State Virginia Commonwealth University of Texas-Austin University of Colorado-Denver University of Denver Villanova University of Florida Drexel
If you want to go to school near Virginia not UMD, JHCBS, or OGSM.
Good connections are much more important than quant scores.
UF only admits UF undergrads, so if you are not one, you can cross that off of your list. I would only target UT or Villanova out of that list. Those others are not going to place you or give you access to any sort of network. I am at Villanova, and there are a few kids with lower GPAs than yours, but they also had higher GMATs and work experience to make up for it.
Spend a quality month or two studying for the GMAT. A good score is certainly possible.
I think UT might be a stretch but you could weasel into villanova with a good score.
Dude, I've done tons of research on msf. I've been obsessively reading about them for a long time. If you can't get into villanova+ I probably wouldn't go. It sucks, but it's the truth. Crush the GMAT and don't look back.
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