How competitive am I for MBA programs? How can I improve my chances over the next year?

I'm a 25-year-old white male working at a major technology company (i.e. one of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google) in a semi-technical role (I don't code). I worked for a small startup prior to this where I received two promotions. I have received one additional promotion at my current company.

I went to a top 10 undergraduate (per US News) and finished with a 3.8 GPA in a premed curriculum (science major). I have not taken the GMAT, but I'm a good test taker (got 2350/2400 on the SAT) so assuming that I do well on that test, what schools are targets for me?

I want to get an MBA to transition into a finance career (have discovered a strong interest/passion in the past year but it had never been on my radar before then), but I don't have anything related to finance on my resume.

My goal is to take the GMAT and apply sometime in the next year. What can I do over the next year to make myself more competitive and make that narrative more fluid?

 
Most Helpful

Hey there! You have all the elements of a strong application. The academic background especially and fast promotions will be strengths, plus the "prestige" of coming from a major tech firm. Here are the main things I would focus on...

1) GMAT, of course (aim for 730 or higher) 2) Demonstrating your interest in Finance in a concrete way (job shadowing someone in Finance, or helping with a Finance related project at work, taking Finance courses outside work, working on personal "projects" like investing, possibly studying for the CFA, etc.). I'm sure others on this forum would have ideas too. You don't need to get tons of exposure here, just enough to prove your interest and help provide backup for your story. 3) Do you have activities outside of work now? Volunteer work, community leadership, personal accomplishments, etc. If not, this is an area to work on now as b-schools care about this involvement.

If you can do those things, I think you can be looking at top 10 schools. Booth, Columbia, Wharton are the most well known for finance but depends on other factors important to you.

Kate Richardson Senior Consultant, mbaMission www.mbamission.com Sign up for a free phone consultation: https://www.mbamission.com/consult/
 

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