Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

I'm 26, female, born in Latvia but have lived in the US for 19 years and am a citizen
GRE score of 313 with 160 Verbal and 153 Quant
Graduated Barnard College of Columbia University with a 3.67 GPA and double-majored in English and Economics

My CV is attached (this is a rough draft)

I have worked at the same company since graduating and grew from a client manager to a team lead, with 3 direct reports (all of whom i hired and trained). I also manage a product line we offer to quantitative hedge funds.

I have developed a niche expertise in the area of alpha capture but have lost interest in the field due to the lack of innovation and the industry's overall resistance to progress. The financial services arena has lost its appeal to me and I am hoping to do some more rewarding work down the line, possibly by going into Corporate Social Responsibility or going to an organization such as Acumen which invests in social ventures.

I am primarily interested in Social Entrepreneurship and regular Entrepreneurship, but am also very curious about Advertising and Marketing. Growing up in a post-communist state, I watched my father open the first private supermarket and pharmacy in the country and that instilled a desire in me to one day build my own business. I am looking to diversify my experience and am hoping be pointed in the right direction career-wise. I am also looking to improve my management skills as I enjoy helping people grow and motivating them.


Schools of Interest, in no particular order -
-NYU
-Columbia
- MIT
- Georgetown
- Fuqua
- Darden


Any feedback on my profile and my list of schools would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Elana,

A few thoughts on your profile:

1. Overall, your experience at the intersection of technology and finance looks pretty interesting and non-common. The group you have seems to have the right pedigree in terms of its management team. All those are great points worth highlighting in your application
2. The first issue, especially given your school list, will be that of the GRE score. The score is likely to be pretty modest compared to what these schools look for. So at a very high level, it might be prudent to throw in a few more practical schools in the mix
3. The next is a disconnect of your post-MBA goals with what you've done so far. Shrugging away 3+ years of hard work by trying to get into a completely unrelated field can be a bit of a non-starter for most adcoms. Sure you've done some Vounteer work, but that seems very recent. Sure you have a family background in entrepreneurship, but there's no evidence of you having dabbled into it. Sure you may 'like' advertising, but how will you convince a future employer on your skills in that area? It will be important that you objectively think through these before you start penning down your application essays. Given the point above, it is even more critical that you have well thought through post-MBA plans

Hope this puts some new sparks in your thought process

Cheers,