Strong GMAT, Great Grades, But Poor Work Experience
Is it possible to still get into a top (Wharton, HBS, Booth) biz school with "not great" work experience? Say that I am working in finance in a Fortune 20 company, but not in the best role (IT finance), but I have fantastic grades (3.85 at lower Ivy League school) and great GMAT (I have always done extremely well on standardized testing). I'm interesting in banking in the long run, but am not able to break in now for several reasons. What do you guys think? Thanks.
Possible, but harder. More so for Wharton/Booth than HBS
I am guessing that you went to Cornell?
It Will be more doable at Booth then the other two - probably a long shot at Wharton, and virtually impossible at Harvard, unless there is something more interesting to your profile.
Work experience (and, to a lesser degree - brand of the firm) will matter much more then your numbers once you break 700 and 3.5 threshold.
But if you have a decent story, and some solid progression, promotions, leadership, ec etc. then you should be pretty competitive at top 3-10, and might as well put together an app for Wharton also...I can't see Harvard happening unless you come up with a really great story.
Thanks for the advice so far. So, if I get into a top 10 school, can I still move from IT finance to banking (S&T is what I'm interested in)? Also, what if I get "lucky" and end up in a corporate finance position instead at the same company, would that help my chances alot more? Thanks.
I don't think it will help your chances at admission - but it would definitely help for mba recruiting (and may make your essays a bit more logical)
Ibanking has stronger recruitment from MBA then S&T, so regardless of the school you end up at, it will usually be more difficult to land a S&T job then IB
How young are you? If you want to do S&T, and are still pretty young, then you should look at some other degrees Princeton and MIT have very good 1yr M.fin/MSF programs - and there are also some very strong MFE programs which could help you make the transition - check out CMU. Also, Columbia just came out with a new Masters in Financial Economics (dont know as much about this one)
I think that these alternate programs suit people like you the best (very strong numbers and strong brand undergrad, but mediocre work experience) because it is basically another shot at recruting - while adding genuine technical skills, and it only takes one year.
But if you have been out for 4+ years, then MBA is probably still your best bet.
just my .02
and to add to that...I'm not sure why HBS or Wharton should matter that much for someone that is going to start in IB or S&T...since you are looking to start on the sell side (instead of PE,VC,HF), you should be fine with the Columbia, NYU, Chicago, Types for IB recruting. Of course it will be nice to have an HBS stamp on your resume for the rest of your life, but in all likelihood, you will be starting in the same type of job from any of those schools.
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