Which schools should I target?
Hi all,
Hoping to get an idea of which programs I can realistically target... Here are the stats:
- 3.7 GPA from semi-target southern state school, major in Finance w/ a minor in accounting. 4.00 major GPA including multiple calc classes
- 2 years FDP at top 5 oil & gas company including a rotation spent overseas in Africa (7 months)
- 1+ years in energy trading (power)
- 720 GMAT (Q47/V42) ... Slipped up on math (70%) w/ a few early mistakes but have taken multiple calc classes w/ A grades in each. Math was actually always my best subject in school.
- ECs include some volunteering, intramural sports, leadership position in business fraternity and captain of high school soccer team
- I'm sure I can find a few half decent Rec's
Ideally I'd want to shoot for a top ten school but not sure how high I can aim (H/S/W?). Really not even sure what my end goal would be at this point but I know these schools can open a lot of doors so I'd like to keep my options open.
Thanks for the help!
Also, would LSE be a possibility? I'm definitely interested in the idea of traveling abroad for my masters.
You can def drop for Wharton or something, but I'd put bulk of the effort in lower M7 (Chicago, Kellogg, Columbia) and don't ignore the likes of Ross/Fuqua/Darden.
Looking at the criteria, GPA and GMAT are above average of almost all schools. Work experience is okay (not GOOG or setting up an orphanage in Bhutan), but a top 5 energy brand should give some sexiness to the application (as sexy as oil/gas can be). Recs and ECs seem to be average as well. It's often overlooked how critical it is to craft an overall story of your history and your vision of your future endeavors, with how an MBA from XYZ School of Business can help.
I think you'd have at least a 50/50 shot at something in the top 10, and should be good at just beyond that. If you know where you want to work, you can leverage this as those schools just outside the upper elite tier can be almost as good as HSW depending where you want to work ----> Haas in SF, CBS in NYC, yada yada yada
Thanks for the information guys! Do you think retaking the GMAT to up my quant score would be a good idea? How much weight would that add to my application?
It could, sure. Did you take any practice exams that gave you 49s or 50s in quant?
Obviously, the higher the better. But a 720 is already a great score, and since you have a quantitative background both academically and professionally, they won't be as worried about that Q47 as they would be if you were coming from a humanities major who went to TFA.
That being said, if your goal is M7, then yes, I would retake it. There's a perverse pissing contest between the schools' admissions departments on their GPA and GMAT numbers. It's really silly since there is almost no different between a 720 and a 740 on how they will perform in business school or after. But if someone comes along with a similar enough profile, having those extra twenty or thirty points will make the difference between two applicants.
47/42 is a 720? Damn a lot has changed in.... 5 months?
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