chances of getting into H/W/S/Col/Chi? trader background
Stats:
Age 28
First class honours in economics from LSE
MSc Economics from LSE (fully funded by a scholarship)
4.5 years trading emerging market derivatives for a bulge bracket bank in london (good references, left as a senior associate)
assume 720 GMAT (i haven't done it yet so maybe that's cheeky)
here's the unorthdox bit:
I left my job to go and study Arabic 2 years ago because bonuses looked bad (and they were) and I felt that i was trading a lot of things in far away countries without actually knowing much about the places (sob sob ;-) ). It had always been a personal ambition of mine to study the language (properly, not just a couple of phrases for ordering tea in a cafe) and now i'm approaching fluency in it. anyway, the point i'm trying to make is i left to do something i found interesting and not because i had to (wasn't fired, made redundant or left to avoid any of these).
i'm still interested in finance want to do an mba at a good school with a view to working in private banking or fixed income (emerging markets again). any thoughts on my b-school app? chances etc? thanks
You have a good background, if you can spin it to a great story I don't see way they would not take you in. What will your reason be for getting a MBA?
thanks for the reply. my reason for getting an mba would really be as an acceptable way back into the industry as well as opening up options in consultancy. as i said, i'd be interested in continuing in emerging markets but not necessarily trading (mba isn't even necessarily for a trading seat). to that extent i think my time spent in this region (middle east) fits in with my career interests - it's definitely emerging!
anyone else have any comments or advice for me? basically i want to know if it is actually worth me applying to the top schools (i.e. do i have a reasonable shot) before i go to the effort of taking the gmat and getting the references together. thanks in advance.
I think you would really have a strong case for a top 5 school as more "alternative" type paths are headed into the top schools, especially considering your reason for leaving finance (to pursue something you are passionate about). I agree with Starwin, spin it into a great story and ensure your essays really point out the "why now" aspect of going to Business school.
I agree that you can spin a great story about pursuing your interests and now you want to tie your interests in Arabic/middle east to something in the business world, especially with what's going on there.
thanks for your comments. any further advice on chances or the importance of the essays? the other thing i've been considering is the MPA, i've noticed a few schools offering that and it looks a really interesting program. any thoughts on that? thanks in advance for the advice.
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Hi CARRY,
If you do well on the GMAT then you are a strong candidate, particularly given your interesting Arabic story. There are a number of other considerations (Undergraduate GPA, recommendations, personal essays, etc.), and you will have to make a strong case for why you are interested in pursuing an MBA program.
Cheers,
Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team
thanks for you comments and links. i have had a look at the sipa program and it certainly looks interesting. any more comments on likely chances or where my focus needs to be? is my age going to be a problem? i understand i'm probably towards the upper end of the spectrum. the other thing i didn't mention is that i have some interesting military expoerience but ultimately turned down that option (i.e deployment) to pursue my language study. the region i'm in at the moment is experiencing a huge upheaval and is actually quite scary so i have some good stories/experiences/insights. once again thanks for your comments.
one last thing, a First class honours in the british system is equivalent to a 3.8 to 4.0 gpa on the american system according to wikipedia and a couple of other universities. hopefully that helps with your appraisals. thanks
bump
I think you've got a very good shot. You were at a BB for a long while, you've got an excellent educational pedigree, etc.... H/S are likely out of the question (don't feel bad - they're out of the question for 99% of non-URMs these days), but all those other schools definitely seem doable for you. Get a good GMAT score and write some good essays explaining why you left the industry and all that and you should be good to go.
International Pymp: They're also out of the question for 99% of URMs out there. I'm not sure what point you're trying to get across.
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