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US Profile Seeking Honet Reality Check for Target Schools

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US Profile Seeking Honet Reality Check for Target Schools

by overmind1632 » Sun Nov 03, 2013 11:13 pm
Hello Experts,

I would sincerely appreciate an honest critique of my current profile and targeted schools/programs. Are my targeted schools within acceptable range or are some schools way too far of a reach? Thank you very much.

US Male, American Born Chinese
Age 25
Undergrad: Topish Liberal Arts School (Colgate, Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette etc...)
Major: BS Biology BA Economics
GPA: 3.4 Overall, 3.5 Biology, 3.8 Economics
GMAT: First Score 690 (47 Quant, 38 Verbal) Second Score 660 (50 Quant, 29 Verbal) 6.0 AWA both times, 8 IR first time, 5 IR second time
Work Experience- 2-3 years- Investment Banking Internship at Middle Market Firm, Analyst at SK-China Real Estate (Property acquisition and management), Portfolio Management Analyst at MetLife China
Leadership Roles in College and NPO
Extra Curricas: College- Founding Father at now one of the top/most popular/successful fraternity, sat on a lot of committees and boards for the fraternity,AIDs walks, Habitat for humanity, Bucknell buddies (tutoring program) etc....
Post-Grad: Leadership at NPO with successful projects in China, mainly helping underdeveloped areas and children
Work Experience in both USA and China
Learned how to read and write Chinese in just a year (Goal was to be able to read a Chinese newspaper within a year) and lived in China for 2 years, Did not previously know Chinese even though I am a Chinese Born American
Personally invests in both US and Chinese Stock Markets

Goals: To get a solid financial education given my science background and work in areas like Healthcare or Cleantech IB/PE (Like I did during my banking internship) but with China, Chinese financial opportunities (Capital raising, project/deal sourcing, etc....), work at a managerial level for a Clean tech/Waste management firm, or any new possible areas I may find interesting during the course of my MBA education.

Targeted Programs: UC Berkeley MBA+Masters Public Health Mgmt, Duke MBA+Master of Eniv Mgmt, Dartmouth Tuck MBA/MPH, and Stern MBA. Still researching Yale SOM but seems promising. Yale has both MBA/MPH and MBA/MEM.

Thanks guys for your help
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by MBAPrepAdvantage » Mon Nov 04, 2013 7:31 am
As you know your GMAT is a little on the low side, but not so low as to preclude you from applying to the top programs. Tuck, by the way, will combine your 50 Quant and 38 Verbal scores. But a lower GMAT is a little less worrisome for you because you did well in a difficult subject (Biology).
Your work experience and leadership activities are strong.

I think those schools are within range. Do you think you need an MPH as opposed to concentrating in healthcare? Your career goals might not require a dual-degree. If not, you might be able to consider a wider swath of schools.

Also, clean tech and healthcare are two separate directions. Schools with strong healthcare programs include Wharton, Kellogg, Duke (which you mention), etc. Schools with strong clean tech/energy programs include Haas (which you mention), Ross, etc.

Best of luck,
Michael Cohan
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www.mbaprepadvantage.com

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by overmind1632 » Mon Nov 04, 2013 11:11 pm
Thank you for your reply,

I may not need an MPH but I would prefer to get something special (MPH or MEM or some dual degree program)during my MBA education. This way, I have more options and am more flexible after graduation.

In addition, I chose my target school not only for their strong programs, but also for their small class size and strong culture. Thus, I did not include Wharton, CBS, Ross etc.....

But looks like you are pretty optimistic about my profile. Are there any other experts who would like to share their opinions?

Thanks
MBAPrepAdvantage wrote:As you know your GMAT is a little on the low side, but not so low as to preclude you from applying to the top programs. Tuck, by the way, will combine your 50 Quant and 38 Verbal scores. But a lower GMAT is a little less worrisome for you because you did well in a difficult subject (Biology).
Your work experience and leadership activities are strong.

I think those schools are within range. Do you think you need an MPH as opposed to concentrating in healthcare? Your career goals might not require a dual-degree. If not, you might be able to consider a wider swath of schools.

Also, clean tech and healthcare are two separate directions. Schools with strong healthcare programs include Wharton, Kellogg, Duke (which you mention), etc. Schools with strong clean tech/energy programs include Haas (which you mention), Ross, etc.

Best of luck,
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by MBAApply » Tue Nov 05, 2013 4:23 pm
overmind1632 wrote:Hello Experts,

I would sincerely appreciate an honest critique of my current profile and targeted schools/programs. Are my targeted schools within acceptable range or are some schools way too far of a reach? Thank you very much.

US Male, American Born Chinese
Age 25
Undergrad: Topish Liberal Arts School (Colgate, Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette etc...)
Major: BS Biology BA Economics
GPA: 3.4 Overall, 3.5 Biology, 3.8 Economics
GMAT: First Score 690 (47 Quant, 38 Verbal) Second Score 660 (50 Quant, 29 Verbal) 6.0 AWA both times, 8 IR first time, 5 IR second time
Work Experience- 2-3 years- Investment Banking Internship at Middle Market Firm, Analyst at SK-China Real Estate (Property acquisition and management), Portfolio Management Analyst at MetLife China
Leadership Roles in College and NPO
Extra Curricas: College- Founding Father at now one of the top/most popular/successful fraternity, sat on a lot of committees and boards for the fraternity,AIDs walks, Habitat for humanity, Bucknell buddies (tutoring program) etc....
Post-Grad: Leadership at NPO with successful projects in China, mainly helping underdeveloped areas and children
Work Experience in both USA and China
Learned how to read and write Chinese in just a year (Goal was to be able to read a Chinese newspaper within a year) and lived in China for 2 years, Did not previously know Chinese even though I am a Chinese Born American
Personally invests in both US and Chinese Stock Markets

Goals: To get a solid financial education given my science background and work in areas like Healthcare or Cleantech IB/PE (Like I did during my banking internship) but with China, Chinese financial opportunities (Capital raising, project/deal sourcing, etc....), work at a managerial level for a Clean tech/Waste management firm, or any new possible areas I may find interesting during the course of my MBA education.

Targeted Programs: UC Berkeley MBA+Masters Public Health Mgmt, Duke MBA+Master of Eniv Mgmt, Dartmouth Tuck MBA/MPH, and Stern MBA. Still researching Yale SOM but seems promising. Yale has both MBA/MPH and MBA/MEM.

Thanks guys for your help
Keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of east Asian/Asian-American applicants are in finance (for some reason you will find far fewer in other industries such as consulting, marketing, corporate, or even engineering) - unlike white or other applicants, it's just heavily skewed towards finance, just not quite to the same extreme as engineering is for Indians but that's another story altogether.

With that in mind, your GMAT is a significant handicap simply because you're being benchmarked against a ton of other applicants with similar resumes as yourself, but with scores that are at the average or above (basically there's more than enough with 720+). Again your profile overall is solid for the schools you listed, but not *so* exceptional to outweigh the GMAT.

If you can squeeze in another retake before R2, I would strongly recommend it (a 2nd retake with a strong score is certainly better than what you have now, so don't worry about retaking it too many times). Otherwise, if you are burnt out from taking the GMAT once again, just know going into the application process that it's going to be a roll of the dice. Good luck
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:30 pm
*I know I replied to your identical post on another thread but when reading it here something came to mind*

Michael and Alex have made some great points. I'd like to address a specific thing you said:

"I may not need an MPH but I would prefer to get something special (MPH or MEM or some dual degree program)during my MBA education. This way, I have more options and am more flexible after graduation."

An MPH is not a path towards enhanced flexibility. It's the opposite. It's specialization. Your value comes at the intersection of public health knowledge and business savvy. You are defining your intersection. Specializing in Healthcare, however, can lend itself to a little more wiggle room. For example, no concentrations, for the most part, are official. So if you graduate and don't want to say you focused on healthcare, you don't have to. You can move to, say, clean tech. It's that easy. You can't, however, downplay an MPH.

Does that make sense?

On a side note, I agree with Alex - a slightly higher GMAT really wouldn't hurt.

Bhavik
Critical Square | MBA Admissions Services

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