UT-Austin MPA program? How can I get a shot
I am hoping to obtain a MS Acct. Looking at UT-Austin (top choice), SMU, UTD, TCU, in short: any Texas school is under consideration.
Undergrad GPA/background: B.A. Advertising from Southern Methodist University. Upper Level Course GPA (what is used at UT) - 3.35 (may go up as I guesstimated this on the lower end).
Minor in Business Administration.
Grades in pre-reqs for UT-Austin program:
A in Macroecon
A- in Microecon
B in Financial Accounting
A in Statistics
Work experience during undergrad/present:
Present - I currently work at an advertising agency (200+ employees, 4 offices in 3 cities) specializing in internal operations and processes. Much of what I do relies heavily upon financial reporting and analysis. I work very closely with our Finance Manager, Senior VP Operations, and Director of Project Management and make a lot of effort to perfect our billable time (making sure everything that is billable has a billable rate associated, just for an example), in addition to manipulating lots of our financial data to get actual numbers to give to management throughout the company. This job has made me extremely proficient with Excel and I feel very comfortable and have created from scratch new reports to meet the needs of my manager.
Past - I have 6 months of teller experience working at a bank.
Irrelevant but still work experience: I have had a semester long internship at an advertising agency specializing in event coordination for promotions.
Letters of Recommendation (confirmed):
- Financial Planning and Analysis Manager at current job
- 2 professors from upper level undergraduate coursework (including my capstone class professor)
- President/CEO of the bank that I worked
- VP of the bank that I worked at
3&4 will probably double as personal recommendations, as they have known me my entire life.
Community Service:
I have put in a considerable amount of service to Campfire USA while in undergrad.
GMAT: I have not taken, hoping you all can advise on a score to shoot for to have my best chance at UT-Austin. I am a good test taker (I have scored a 174 on the LSAT when I was considering law earlier in my undergrad career). I have a plethora of the official guides on hand to study in addition to the set of 8 manhattan GMAT guides.
Other: I am a lifelong TX resident, first generation college student (first to graduate in my family w/ Bachelors).
Can you all advise on if I would have a shot at UT-Austin, if so what GMAT should I be shooting for? Does this work experience help alleviate what appears to be a lower GPA? Is this GPA ultimately going to kill me even with a high GMAT?
Sorry for this being so long, wanted to be thorough.
I don't know about the standard 2-year MPA program for graduates, but admission to the 5-year MPA (undergraduate + MPA) program is a joke. I applied at the last second, wrote a couple of paragraphs about how exciting accounting is, and was accepted. From what I hear, it's harder to not get accepted, at least for undergrads.
If you're coming from SMU, you should be fine. McCombs really talks itself up, but it's not really that great. It's your best choice among second-tier b-schools if you want to work in Texas, though.
You can make up for a low GPA by writing a coherent essay; most of the undergrads and graduate students I've worked with (case competitions, etc) have been exceptionally poor writers, so it's definitely a skill set that can make you stand out.
I have no idea what you need on the GMAT, but it's probably not as high as you think. Frankly, you have a much better shot at McCombs than you do at Cox.
Go for at least a 650, if you can crank out a 700 you should be golden.
174 on the LSAT? And you are worried about GMAT? Something isn't adding up.
To be fair, I studied the LSAT for 6 months, took it twice, and also had a prep course.
Looking to take the GMAT in less than a month, and really have no idea how it compares in difficulty overall.
Not even sure if I should be in a rush to apply. The early deadline is Dec 1 but there's no way I could get my scores in in time even if I took it tomorrow.
UT MPA Question (Originally Posted: 04/20/2010)
Question:
Do you know people who are only in the UT MPA program who have gotten offers from IB firms in Houston? How difficult would it be to get an offer without being in BHP?
not sure about UT but I know some guys at Stern who did the masters in accounting track there, and Ibanks weren't too hot on it
that said, McCombs is hardly tier 3, solid school
Just wanted to clarify:
I currently attend a tier 3 school.
In 2 years, I would be looking to attend UT for my MPA.
MPA is accounting right? I knew big4 recruit heavily there.
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