Top Tier MSF Chances?
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Don't wait til round 3 to apply. Apply R1 or R2 if you are serious about attending (https://www.themuse.com/advice/is-it-worth-applying-to-business-school-…). You only have 1 year of work experience and you are applying to B school? You should consider getting some more experience. While some B schools are trending younger, most still expect you to have at least 3-4 years of experience.
I am talking about Masters of Finance programs, not MBAs.
So the 2.8 obviously hurts you. That being said, the GMAT is super strong and the work experience is good. If you are a domestic student, you will be even better.
UTA tends to favor non business students so keep that in mind. I would say SMU is a good option and choice. Definitely building off your existing Dallas network.
Vandy and WUSTL. This is tough. They get a lot of very good applications and the 2.8 year hamstrings you here. CFA L1 and more work experience might get you over the hump though. 2 years of professional work isn't too much for a masters and would help offset the GPA.
As for R3 goes, it cuts like this for the MSF. If a program is hurting for applications or has some last minute slippage from students going to one school over another, your last minute application could slide right in. If a program is stacked with committed students, they can use the final round to really smooth our their class (maybe tweak the male/female ratio, add someone with more work experience, diversify the UG schools going to the program, whatever).
If you apply and get dinged you can always re-apply. You'd have to do something to improve your application, which I would suggest a certificate program or something like that to show a secondary GPA. If you get in, then you are golden.
Hope this helps.
Only one way to find out, but I think with the strong gmat score and work experience in a similar industry, you have a shot.
IB internship might not help your chance but it changes the game for IB.
WUSTL has few IB placements. Ask others about Vandy, you may get a better picture. But OCR starts in September, so you will repeatedly get knocked about that GPA, because you have no MSF GPA to talk about when OCR is there!
if you can intern, nice but probably 2 year MBA from those schools or better will give you tremendously better odds.
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