Ask mbaMission

I am a Caucasian male, and I will be 28 at time of matriculation for fall 2013.

Schools:

Dream and main goal: Stanford

Then: Columbia, Wharton, Haas, Booth

Then: Fuqua, Darden

I would consider practically any of the top 15.

Academics:

GMAT: 700 (Q48/V38) Waiting on AWA-GMAT is below what I was expecting, I'll explain below.
GPA: 3.90 Suma cum laude overall at a top 40 southern state school known for football more than academics
Double majored in Accounting (3.92) and Finance (3.98) (UG accounting program is top 20)

Awards: Dean's or President's list every semester; numerous merit based scholarships
Activities: Served as a member and a chairman for a student liaison group between the Dean, school's board of governors, and the student body. I helped to establish a mentoring program which links current students and past alumni in mentor-mentee relationships. This program has continued to expand and has been a huge success. I was part of the first team of students to be selected for our student investment fund. I was also a member of one of our professional business fraternities.

I know my undergraduate school's reputation is not the strongest; however, I have my reasons for going to it. I was a strong student in high school and could have gone to a better school, but I would have had take out an excess amount of loans. I went to my school because I grew up loving the school, and it was 100% paid for on scholarship. The promise I made to myself by choosing to go there versus a higher ranked university was I had to graduate with a 3.9+ GPA, which I did. How competitive am I with a 3.9 coupled with my 700 GMAT?

A note about the GMAT score. I feel like I am a 720-740 GMAT scorer, however, I underperformed on my exam. During the exam the building's fire alarm went off (false alarm) and completely disrupted the test environment. The incident was marked, and I am waiting to hear back from GMAC if they will let me retake the exam for no charge. It was really a letdown to see a 700 as I was expecting higher. Should I retake the GMAT if I can make a 720/730? Should I only retake it if I can make a 740+? Would is severely damage my profile if I retake it and score another 700 (give or take 10 pt)? Am I better off just taking the time to focus on my completing my resume with extra circulars at this point? I am really torn about what to do. I need to decide soon though, so I can start studying again or move on.

Work Experience:

I interned in local government my junior year of undergraduate. I worked in Intergovernmental Affairs. I analyzed proposed State legislation to determine the impact on County Government and gained firsthand experience of the legislative process of a bill's life from proposal to enactment or failure.

The summer after my junior year I interned with a top 3 investment bank as a Controller in New York City. I worked as a Real Estate Controller handling the accounting processes of the firm's international RE funds. I accepted a fulltime offer to return after my senior year. I currently work in Regulatory Controllers. I work with internal risk systems to manage and report the control environment of the firm's businesses. I have created new reports and metrics to meet our regulators' demands. I have had the opportunity to be a peer mentor for two interns and an analyst. I was promoted after eighteen months, which is quicker than previous analysts in my group. I am heavily involved with recruiting at my firm. I regularly speak on panels and help with recruiting efforts. Within the next six months I plan on rotating to a new group, or leaving for a smaller firm to work in Sales and Trading (if attainable).

All in all I will have worked for four years by the time I go back to school. I will have worked for a little over three by the time I am applying.

My work experience question is: will working in as a controller role hurt my experience quality? Should I try to get to a front office job at a smaller firm? Would it be beneficial to stay at a name brand bank in the back office? Or is it a wash? Is there anything else I haven't considered or should be thinking about?

Extra-circulars:

I serve as a board member on my UG's business school's Alumni Board. I am one of the founding members that have helped get our board off the ground. Our focus is on strengthening the school's connection with our alumni base. We have a huge alumni base, but a relatively weak alumni network. Our goal is to help build the culture and environment to foster a connected network through various initiatives we have started.

I serve as a member on the Chapter Advisory Board for my school's chapter of one of our business fraternities. I am the financial advisor to the Chapter Advisor. We oversee the chapter's budget and the housing foundation.

I volunteer from time to time. Annually I help clean up public schools in the New York area. I helped my team raise $5,000 for Alzheimer's research (personally raised $500). I will be joining a mentoring program for at-risk teenagers in the new future. I am also joining a summer tutoring program for high school kids.

Other personal notes about my story: I love traveling. I studied abroad and backpacked around Europe for a summer. I like to cook. I love to run and workout. I am passionate about supporting my school and helping my college improve.

I know I need to keep becoming more involved. I don't hold any executive leadership positions in the groups I am involved in, but I am active and on committees. I feel like I don't have a 'wow' factor or anything that pops. I am a white male in finance. My relatively weak UG school coupled with an average 700 on GMAT scares me. I would really appreciate advice on how to improve my profile whether it is retaking my GMAT, focusing on improving my work or leadership experience, etc. I urgently need to make a decision on retaking the GMAT or not. I have approximately 19 months to work on my applications, so I have time to improve!

Is Stanford within reach? Should I temper expectations? Thank you for any help!

Thank you Jessica! That was an incredibly prompt response. To answer your questions:

1) I scored in the 83rd percentile in quant and the 82nd percentile in verbal. So, I did hit the 80/80 split, albeit barely.

2) I took 150 hrs. I took two majors. I completed all the course work require of me to complete these majors. I was invited to the student investment fund class, which you have to interview for. There were a couple challenging undergraduate finance courses I would have liked to have taken that I did not. This was due to scheduling conflicts. I did not seek out any graduate level courses, or go out of my way to take extra courses. I did take honors Chemistry I, honors Biology I, and honors General Pyschology. I was unsure if I wanted to major in the sciences or business at the beginning of my college career. So, I am not sure if that would be considered taking the hard courses or not? I chose to double major, accounting is considered the toughest business major on campus, and I took everything required of me.

What if I were able to score a 750+ will some effort? I think I could, but I would need to dedicate the next month and a half or so to studying again. I'm not sure if I want to put myself through that though. I appreciate the guidance, and will work towards building my leadership experience. Thank you for your advice!

Thanks for everything Jessica!

Just giving an update--I decided on a whim to retake the GMAT. Studied for a week and scored a 740 (Q 86th %tile / V 95th %tile) yesterday! Strategy is still the same (beef up my extra cirrculars), but I feel a lot better about my raw numbers now!

Thanks Jessica! And I agree with you, but honestly I retook it more for myself than for the score. The increase is great and all, but I needed to retake it to prove to myself I was a higher scorer. I knew I was, and that fire alarm really messed up my focus on verbal the first go around. So, I wrote a goal of 49/42 at the beginning of my studies, and I attained it. I haven't felt this happy since before I began my journey to beat the GMAT!