My Stats:
Undergrad: Top 50 USNWR (think Brandeis or Lehigh)
Majors: Electrical Engineering and Economics
GPA: 3.63
GMAT: My most recent 3 practice exams have been in the following range: 690-730
I'm currently working as an actuary and I hate it. I worked for a well-known firm after graduation for about a year. The division I was working in spun off to form its own company. I worked there for about 1.5 years before there were massive layoffs. I'm currently in between jobs, but I'll have some thing lined up before the beginning of March.
I hate snow and cold weather, so I want to live on the west coast (LA or SF). What schools have decent networks with west coast banks? Do I have a decent shot at MBA business schools">M7 schools or should I not waste my time applying for them?
Here's a list I've compiled so far:
Wharton
UCLA
Stanford
INSEAD (Singapore)
Haas
GSB would be a huge stretch.
Anderson and Haas both get a lot of respect on the West Coast with Haas having an edge between the two.
I'm in a very similar situation, working in the actuarial department and hoping to end up on the west coast. You could add USC to that list. From what I've read the OCR isn't great but the network should be strong.
With your goals the best bet is to head west. UCLA, Berkeley, and Stanford are the schools to target. Keep in mind that UCLA has a pretty high GMAT average in relation to its ranking. I'm not sure how USC places in IBD, but that might be a good option also.
Agree with @"TwoThrones" on this one. As with almost every post-MBA job, school location matters. I'd target Stanford (big long shot, you'll be against people with your stats or better from BB, MBB, Google, etc), Haas (potentially doable if you get a 720+ GMAT), and UCLA (good match but as he said aim for 700+ at least on GMAT). Might want to consider USC but if you go there you're going to have to hustle to get into IB.
INSEAD Singapore doesn't really add that much value on the West Coast in finance. Not sure why it is on your list.
Thanks everyone for their input. I think I'll hold off on USC. I have INSEAD's Singapore campus on here because I assume banks in Singapore recruit there, and I'd be down to live in Singapore as well.
I made this post mainly because I'm taking the GMAT Monday afternoon and wanted to make sure I had a good list of schools to submit my score to. I'm sure I'll get at least a 700+, but I'm hoping for 730+.
Thanks again!
If you wanna live in Singapore, check out NUS or HKUST, which are also both strong in Southeast Asia.
Otherwise, Anderson and Haas both place great into IBD in the West Coast. If you were to get into Stanford, people may question why you want to go into IBD from there.
You wrote
But I challenge your logic. People do go into investment banking from Stanford GSB; just look at the employment reports. More go into consulting (16% of the graduating class of 2014 vs. 4% for IB) and indeed 17% for PE or VC, but still, with 400 students in the graduating class, that's 16 students that took IB jobs in 2014. Doesn't seem that questionable.I saw that HKUST has good recruiting for HK, but I read on mergers and inquisitions you need to be able to speak mandarin fluently to work in HK, which I do not. Can you confirm or deny this?
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