Ask Admissionado

Admissionado:

Hey folks! Wanted to welcome you to out (new) forum, where you can ask away anything about MBA programs of other related Graduate programs (MS in economics or finance). We are here for your questions.

Thanks Admissionado

Looking into grad programs, not MBA.

Stats GPA: 2.85, upward sloping from 1.5 freshman year. 3.75 major GMAT: 700 School: California non target for finance. Major target for defense/aerospace (one of the Cal Polys) ECs: VP investment banking club @ school, chess club, director of comm jewish club WE: summer finance intern at F100, current finance intern at major defense contractor, 1 year as CFO of a start-up (also current)

Targets: Vanderbilt MSF UT-Austin MSF Duke MMS Villanova MSF Tulane MSF USC MACC UNC MACC

Thanks!

Admissionado:

Hey folks! Wanted to welcome you to out (new) forum, where you can ask away anything about MBA programs of other related Graduate programs (MS in economics or finance). We are here for your questions.

Admissionado,

Thank you for taking out the time to answer our questions. I am definitely planning on doing a MBA and just wanted to see if my stats are ok for the schools that I am targeting. If not, I would appreciate if you could recommend some schools to me.

My top programs are: 1) Harvard 2) Wharton 3) Stanford 4) Columbia 5) Tuck 6) Kellogg 7) Booth

GPA: 3.4 at a top 20 US liberal arts college

Job after employment: IBD at a mid tier bulge bracket firm working with clients in both Europe, Middle East & Africa.

Work Experience: Expecting 4/5 Years. I am not sure where do I land up after my current banking gig, or if I was to stick here.

GMAT:Yet to take it but very confident about getting above 700

Note about GPA: It's less than 3.5 only because I had one rough semester where I got a 2.2 due to family problems. I was constantly going in and out of the US. It dropped my overall from 3.5 to 3.4. That particular semester, I got a D in a non-major related course including a B- and a B+.

Other stats include:

• Director of my dad's firm that provides audit and consultancy related services. I only started getting involved recently once I started my new job in banking
• Strategy Head of a Non-Profit org. that provides free uni counseling services
• captain of horse polo team

I am also an international student.

I would appreciate if you could provide me advice on what schools you feel I should target, and how many years/type of of work experience would candidates like me generally require to compensate for the low GPA.

Many thanks.

Admissionado:

Woohoo! Our first post... It's like an early christmas.

Allright let's get started - overall, you are looking pretty good for the schools you chose. A bit of a shame about that low GPA, but you do have a nice GMAT to (sort of) compensate for it. If you have any other reasons (like you were working full time, family issues, etc. etc.) you might want to explain that in your application. Also, if you did really poorly on any math/stat/finance-related courses, maybe taking a course or three BEFORE you apply can give you an extra boost too.

The CFO of a startup thing can be nice, but it will depend also on how big/serious the startup is. Are you still at the "boys in the garage" stage? or is it something a bit more serious.

Also, I'm a bit curious about the logic behind the CA-accounting, but everywhere else finance? I mean you CAN do it, but wouldn't it just be better to decide what you really wanna do and apply first to your number one preference, and keep the rest as a backup plan???

my 2 cents...

Thanks for the quick response.

I know my GPA is a killer, and I'm currently working on improving my GMAT above 720. There are several reasons for the low GPA, which I will be glad to list for the adcoms. My major GPA is high, and quant classes have never been a problem for me (calc A, diff calc A, sing/double var calc A, stats A...etc). The bad GPA stems from a terrible first year (did Aerospace), and a mediocre second year. But since then I have average 3.75 every quarter, and I hope adcoms see this. Fall quarter (just ended), I managed to land a 3.9, in 4 classes, 3 being upper-division finance.

The startup did start in garage mode January 2011, but we got about 350K in revenue first year, on track to log a 200-250% increase in revenue. I have been having some problems with my partner, so I might duck out early.

I'm from LA, and I think USC (despite being a MACC and not an MSF), would help me land something in IB here in LA through networking on my end. But, I am 50/50 on LA/Texas. I would be happy in either place.

Thanks for the advice!

TechGuy:

Hey there, my stats are the following:

GPA: 3.66 GMAT: 680-720 (still need to take, just estimating based off practice tests) School: Arizona non-target double major for Operations and Accounting ECs: Co-Founder/Director in 501(c)(3) that has raised over 20k, served over 90 clients, aims to help low income entrepreneurs with consulting and small loans, consultant in on-campus organization (provided consulting to a fortune 100 company and a shopping center, will most likely be on the executive board next year), president of an organization of 20 people that provides networking/speakers/competitions. WE: Future Procurement Internship at a Big Oil (Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell), Planning Internship at Fortune 1000 Semiconductor Company, Phone Tech Support/On-Campus Recruiting for a year (while in school) at a top technology company Future WE: Either Big Oil (presuming I like it) or management consulting. If Big Oil, at 4 years, I would either try to do an MBA or go expat for a few years, then do an MBA. Expat would be my first option.

Targets: Sloan, Booth, Kellogg, HBS, CBS, SBS, SGSB, London Business School, Insead (I realize the language requirement), Haas, Wharton, Tepper

Things look very solid for you buddy. Still would have to dig deeper to find out a bit more about your WE. After all it is pretty important. But let's assume strong WE and progress etc. If you can hit the upper end of your GMAT range, you are definitely in contention for Top 10 schools. You have a very good GPA, come from a strong industry, and your 501 is far more than the norm, and is very impressive, so make sure you milk that baby for your app.

I see you are aiming higher (and rightly so), but still you may want to look into the "Oil Schools" in Texas (Mainly Rice and Mccombs) and have one of those in as your safety school.

So now just do your job and land that GMAT score.

shorttheworld:

here comes a hoo-dinger that im curious to ask ALL of the reps on this site about because I am not sure how many people are experienced on this topic since it deals with the Consortium

On the Consortium's website, it says that the schools are not aware of the rankings PRIOR to the fellowship round and they are not used in admissions decision making. HOWEVER, there is a huge amount of evidence that certain schools are very sensitive to the ranking that they are placed in in terms of admitting you -- Tuck, Yale, NYU, maybe even Berk and I've heard things about Anderson and Johnson being picky too. From what I've gathered, these schools like to be put in the top 2 or 3 of your list. I've heard that Tuck must be #1, Stern really prefers #1 but will take #2 but 3rd you're very ding worthy... Yale is fine with 1/2/3, Berkeley I have no idea.

Are schools like this for the fellowship award too? I heard from the Consortium that theschools you arent accepted into 'drop out' of your ranking and the schools who accept you re-arrange your rankings (ie 1 and 2 no offer, 3 and 4 move to 1 an 2) but I am not sure if this is true because they say your ranking metrics dont matter for admissions purposes

Ross is currently the only school that supposedly 'blacks out' the listings but these other top programs use it as an admissions metric as I had said above -- do you have any specific knowledge of which schools do this?

Thank you for your time!

This is a very good question, and one unfortunately I don't have the answer to. We'd have to have someone on the inside of every AdCom to know whether or not they black out the rankings. On the other hand I can say that I've seen folks apply through the Consortium and get into more than their number one and two schools, so I don't know how much effect this might or might not have on your chances for admission. How much is anecdotal rumor and how much is fact? I would love to find out more about this myself.

wsomonkey90001:

Hello, and thanks for all the help you have provided for applicants,

MBA Targets: Yale, Dartmouth, Rice, Texas, USC, UCLA, UChicago

Academic info: 3.0 GPA no-name state school in Texas 3.8 GPA MA Econ- NYU 750 GMAT (q49, v42) Member of under-represented minority

Work experiece: 2 years as real estate analyst for major PE firm 2 years as RE investment banking analyst for middle-market investment bank

Thank you

As an underrepresented minority are you thinking of applying through the Consortium? Might not be a bad idea!

Now to give you a full evaluation, you haven't really given me enough meat to bite into. Need more info about your WE your extra-currcis etc. I'm tempted to say though that as a minority with a 750 + 4 years of good WE, Uchicago is the only school on your list (and maybe Yale too) that would be a bit of a challenge. At the other schools, you should have more or less good chances of getting accepted.

lasampdoria:

I mentioned how I would like to apply to USC's MACC program and leverage that name into an IB/MBB offer. Do you believe this strategy might work? How likely is this to happen?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm not all that familiar with the specifics of that program.. I would say the first thing to do is look at an employment report of alumni who graduated the program, and try and hook up through LinkedIn with some folks who went through it to see if that will help you leverage the offer. Additionally, you could try and get some informational interviews at potential employers, and see what they think about your idea.

Blax0r:

This should be fun:

I plan to apply for FT MBA at Booth, Kellogg, Stern, Columbia.

GPA: 3.3 in engineering from a top 15 national university (at least according to usnews) GMAT: 760 (50q, 42v)

WE: software developer for a firm that regularly competes with MSFT, Amazon, BBRG for new hire talent, and quant developer for a once-major mutual fund.

Extras: nothing ridiculously amazing, but I'm sure it won't hurt me and is probably unique (not tutoring/mentoring/fundraising, but have definitely spent over 100+ hours on it)

Thanks.

Well your GMAT is certainly impressive, your GPA is not that bad. You didn't really write much about all the rest and that is where the meet is. I mean just being a software developer aint gonna get you in anywhere (aint gonna keep you out either).... buuuuut are you a software developer with leadership? are you a great team player? are you the best developer in your group? (i.e. fast promotions???).

With a 760, you should have good chances at Stern, at the others you would be competitive, but your acceptance would depend a lot on the things I mentioned above as well as how you present your goals (and your presentation of yourself in general)

Hope this helps!!!!

prn927:

Hi! I'd like to apply to HBS 2+2. I am a junior, will graduate with a BBA in Finance from Texas a&m. I have a 4.0 gpa, am an occupational day trader, and had a marketing internship at a startup. Any chance i get in? I must say i have about 40 hours from community college (during high school i took them), so that may prove to be detrimental. thanks!!

Well, with a 4.0 in an undergrad in Finance, with day trading in the bag already its a good start.Texas A&M isn't ivy League, but still, pretty good. So you have a shot... if you can beat a 700 (better if you can beat a 730), then that'll confirm that. But be aware that that alone isn't gonna guarantee you an in. Involvement counts for a lot, as does leadership and extra-curriculars (and also keep in mind that folks will be applying with an Ivy League advantage). Nonetheless, with a 4.0 you are definitely off to a good enough start and I'd say that it's worth giving it a shot.

Looking good my friend, you are working int he right industry, have a good GMAT and good GPA... you also have an ace in the hole in your firm's sponsorship of you (guaranteed job postMBA is honey to MBA AdComs)

If you believe you can score significantly higher on the GMAT it is for sure worth it, as you have the luxury of time.

Otherwise, if you can write some kicka* beautiful essays which are a charm to read, that can definitely push you over the top.

prn927:

Admissionado, I forgot to mention I have a minor in math as well, not sure if thatll help or hinder. Praying I get into HBS, wharton, mit, or schools of that caliber. Unfortunately due to financial constraints, I was forced to go to a subpar state school. Sigh. Can you please define the fact that i have a "shot"? (i.e. 20% chance, 40% ,etc.). Also, if you don't mind, do you think I will get an interview from any of these schools? I feel that I just need the chance for an interview, and then I can really set myself apart from other candidates. Thanks for the input!!

Don't think the math thing will make any difference at all... Any way you can get elected president of the GO in the next year??? that would help!!! :) What are your chances??? Well, tough to say really... less than 40% I would say for HBS 2+2.. how much less o(or perhaps more?) we would need to speak first...

But you know I was half serious about this student GO thing... things like that can be sooo helpful to making you stand out!

Anyway, whatever your chances are.. go for it! You only get one shot at these early programs, and the best that can happen is getting in, and the worst is having to apply for a regular MBA (not tooooo bad either!)