Good package overall but weak undergrad gpa

Figure out where you wish to apply
This topic has expert replies
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:03 pm
So I'll just start off with some bare bones numbers :)

Undergrad finance and business gpa : 3.3 - UConn
Undergrad overall 2.8(latter two years much better)
GMAT - 690, 47Q 37V -- going to retake as someone was coughing every minute and hammering/drilling going on slammed my verbal :( and yes through headphones and earbuds it was nicely audible :)
Work Experience - 3 (will be 4 going into MBA) years as a trader on prop desk at a family office -- top quartile maybe quintile performance and rookie of year performance out of 21 individuals, one year of working as economic analyst/intern for state dept of economic development and three years of IT experience on campus prior
Leadership/extracurriculars: In undergrad was always officer of an active student org, outside of that I am a member of MENSA, led a tenants association in NYC in a rent strike against abusive landlord/management and won sizable damages and repairs as well as free rent for three buildings worth of tenants, lots of mentoring/recruiting at my alma mater and for my firm as well, helped run a good amount of networking events across various industries in the NYC scene
MBA Goals: learn more fundamental evaluation skills to work as an associate on a prop trading desk at a bank or in research at a hedge fund before moving to portfolio management/trading
Certs: S7, S55, will hopefully have CFA Level 1 and 2 done by Fall entry, working on NYU Finance certs in financial analysis to brush up on modeling and financial analysis skills to coincide with CFA studies.
Schools targeting such as: NYU, Columbia, Chicago, Northwestern, UCLA, UT, UC Berk, IESE, LBS, Insead

so overall big gaping wound in my application package is definitely my GPA, i overall feel the rest of the package is pretty good to go and above averae or comparable. the main reason that my undergraduate gpa suffered greatly was the fact that ive been on my own since i was 17 and had a lot of OH SO FUN family strife both growing up an during school -- rather broken home -- and that obviously affected my gpa but also since i was working close to full time while going to school full time overall detracted from my amount of study time. however, my gpa for business and finance is decent ((one of which was an MBA level course on hedge funds which i pulled off a 4.0 in) and im also planning on taking NYU's finance certificate classes to both brush up on my modeling and fundamental skills while also being able to show the admissions committees that i am capable of receiving decent grades and obviously am going to write all about this in my supplementary essay to explain the situation to the adcom but also show that ive been able to grow and develop strength from all the hardship ive faced in my life. I'm hoping to go ahead and increase the gmat up to a 710 AT LEAST as I was scoring 42 44 on gmatprep tests for verbal... overall does anyone have opinions on the 'weighting' of certain portions of the package at different schools (namely the ones listed above) and how empathetic they are or are not when they see 'outliers' in terms of overall package in the GPA?

furthermore, im applying for first round consideration -- will this give me a bit more flexibility in my package?

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2010 2:03 pm

by shorttheworld » Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:59 am
anyone? :P

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 25
Joined: Mon May 03, 2010 1:45 pm
Followed by:1 members
GMAT Score:710

by goddy » Thu Sep 02, 2010 2:36 pm
Well my friend. I did not read the whole stuff you wrote. Just grabbed info from the initial para.

Don't worry about the GPA, you cannot change it. If adcoms ask 'Why', then you can explain the reasons. FULL STOP

Bring your GMAT to a level which is above average in the institutions, you plan to apply. It gives a comfort to adcoms to safely assume that you have the necessary will to study and score in exams - with respect to the peers and level of education in those school.

Apply with your head and heart. Make your other parts of application strong and forget the GPA.

Best Wishes
goddy