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Profile Evaluation Please?

by jesterov » Thu Aug 11, 2011 8:08 am
If it's possible, could someone with reasonable knowledge give me a barometer as to where I stand at the following schools. I'm fairly certain I have little to no chance but it would be nice to get a clearer picture.

American White Male, age 25
GPA: 3.5 (Rutgers University)
Degrees: Finance, History
GMAT: 720 (95th percentile), Quant was 74th% and Verbal was 95%, AWA 6.0
Work Experience: 3 years now, Government Relations (My job is to receive requests for information from government regulators like the Federal Reserve or State insurance departments and work with very high level staff (even board level) and coordinate a response. I do a LOT of relationship management and project management, but only a small amount of Quant work.)
Clubs: Treasurer of Toastmasters at work, other than that not much
Recommendations: From two VPs and one from Senior VP
Other: Speak English and Russian

What would you say my chances are at:
Harvard
MIT
Wharton
Columbia
Cornell
NYU (PART TIME)
Dartmouth
Yale

Would you need anymore information?
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by essaysnark » Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:41 am
jesterov, why do you say you have little to no chance? Your profile is really strong. (We even were wondering if this post was a joke because of how strong it is.)

With the basic "stats" that you've provided, you qualify to try for any of the top programs. However, the only way we can evaluate your chances at those would be to know more about your career goals, in order to talk about "fit." But you're meeting more than the basic criteria in terms of having doors opened to you and being a suitable candidate to any of the schools on your list (yes even potentially Harvard). If you want to tell us more about what you want to do with an MBA and what fields you're interested in studying, we can offer more insight on your candidacy at the schools you've listed out. On the surface, you should be in good shape to tackle any of them that you're most interested in (yes, even with that somewhat lower quant score on the GMAT - it's not a showstopper, in our opinion, and the 720 total score is great).

We'd love to know more so that we can try and answer your question better!
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by jesterov » Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:58 am
Wow this is great to hear and quite a surprise! I assumed a top GPA from an ivy was required to get into the top business programs.

I can share an edited piece of one of my essays to NYU to help explain my career ambitions (edited a lot out):

Over the long term, I envision myself in an Investments position with international emphasis. For example, my company has an Investments unit that focuses on foreign sovereign bonds and foreign corporate bonds. The managing director of this unit frequently travels to MetLife's various offices throughout the world on company business. Each managing director, regardless of investment unit, and their direct is an MBA from a top-10 program.
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by essaysnark » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:45 pm
Hey jesterov,

Your GPA is fine and Rutgers is a good school. You have no weakness as far as academics are concerned.

And, that goal is a start but it's not really enough (and if it's part of your main bschool essay you actually need to do a lot more than this). You need to focus in on what YOU will do and why you need an MBA to do it -- mentioning that other people in a certain role have an MBA is actually not that helpful in the context of your bschool pitch. Here's an article on Vault that may be useful for you in this exercise: https://bit.ly/kIbHPx

But, to get back to the "which schools?" question: If your main goal is finance-focused (perhaps you want to work in a prop trading desk at an ins co?) then of course the heavy-hitter schools are Wharton, Columbia (and Chicago Booth), with all the others on your list also being suitable to one degree or another. Of the ones listed, Cornell would be the "easiest" to get into just based on their acceptance rate/yield, and NYU Langone is also in that category of "easier" (if there is such a thing!) because there's less competition for the spots they have available.

Wharton is one of the few programs with any focus on the insurance industry, so if you're planning on staying in that field, then it's a natural fit for you. Harvard is obviously tough for anyone but you can always give it a try. :D MIT likes to see a strong quant score so you could consider retesting if you're serious about them; your current GMAT is generally strong, you'd just need to shore up evidence of the quant skills based on the slightly lower (46?) score. Dartmouth prefer students with more work experience (NYU, Columbia, Wharton are also in this category though Tuck is more of a stickler for it than they are). You would have more trouble at Tuck since you're so young.

In all cases, you'll need to be able to express to each individual school why you've selected their program. If you're in the Northeast then you really should try to get on campus (it sounds like maybe you're already in NYC in which case you sort of have to visit Columbia and NYU if you're applying there -- they would wonder why you didn't, since you're local to them). Each school truly has a different culture and while the opportunities they offer and the education you'd get seems similar when you're looking at their websites, the bschool experience is quite different from program to program, and you'll want to find the one that has the people and the "vibe" that makes you feel at home. So on-the-ground research is really helpful in this regard.

It's possible that we haven't quite answered any of the questions you were trying to ask - if that's the case, shoot another one at us and we'll see what we can do with it. :wink:

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by jesterov » Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:07 pm
Thank you very much for your reply and consideration, I genuinely appreciate it. I'll put together a response so we can keep talking about this issue (if you don't mind) in a little while, maybe tomorrow morning. Work is overloading me right now.

Thanks again! I hope we can keep this up for a few more back and forths.
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by jesterov » Fri Aug 12, 2011 8:42 am
Hello there. Thanks again for the reply!

So my long term goal in the essay should be something I have a reasonably certain chance of achieving following my MBA? Was I shooting too high? What about short term, if I do a full-time program my short term goal could only realistically be to finish the Graduate Program and develop some connections and get a full time job in an investments unit.

Overall, you are correct, my main goal is certainly finance-focused. Of course, I would love to work internationally, so perhaps some sort of International-Finance focus (Global Business or something) is the ideal goal.

I can't retest unfortunately. To be honest, I never took a practice test and got higher than a 700 (and even that was only once), I feel like I got extremely fortunate on the GMAT. Any retest will likely result in a lower score.

What sort of evidence would you suggest I use to give evidence of my quant skills. I believe I hit Q47. I've been to most campuses already, but not formally. Would you recommend I do so formally?
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by essaysnark » Fri Aug 12, 2011 2:28 pm
Hey jesterov - whoa, lots of questions - let's see if we can nail them all.

First off - did you go through that link on career goals from before? It explains a step-by-step approach for laying out your career goals. The short-term goal should not be simply to finish the grad program (that's sort of assumed, right?). It needs to be an actual job/position. The long-term goal needs to extend naturally from that and be achievable in a reasonable timeframe -- and again, a specific job/position is ideal. Check this out again in case you missed it the first time: https://bit.ly/kIbHPx

On the l/t goal stuff you'd provided before - you weren't shooting too high, you were simply too vague/unclear. You'll need to be pretty specific.

On the "Global Business" idea, you might want to check out this post: https://essaysnark.blocked/2011/07/ ... areer.html Again, the trick with all this is being specific.

Can't really suggest to you anything on "what sort of evidence" re: the quant skills... you'll have to give it some thought and look for ways you can integrate that into your application.

Yes, there is value in "formally" visiting schools, attending info sessions, etc. The best part is sitting in on classes. Unfortunately there's not much opportunity to do so for about another month due to class schedules but if you can squeeze it in, it's helpful (plus it gives you more to write about in the essays).

Hope this helps, let us know if we missed something!
EssaySnark
EssaySnark has MBA application guides for HBS, Stanford, Booth, Wharton, NYU and pretty much any other school you can name - including a fully revised and expanded 2015 Columbia essay guide!
https://essaysnark.com/bookstore/
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The Indians' Guide to Getting In maps out everything you need to evaluate your own profile and select your schools. https://essaysnark.com/ssguide/quicksnar ... ans-guide/
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by jesterov » Mon Aug 15, 2011 10:33 am
You sort of rock. You've helped me out more in a couple replies than an entire slew of websites.

Do you think I could subject myself to that offer on your blog for an essay review? I have a couple of 250 word NYU essays and a 500 worder. Even a look at one would be more than generous. (EDIT: so that I don't have to "bravely supplicate" my essay)
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by essaysnark » Mon Aug 15, 2011 1:10 pm
That's what we're here for - the helping, the essay reviews, and the sorta rockin' part too!

Go ahead and email us if you want (essaysnark at gmail) and we'll see what we think about things.
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EssaySnark has MBA application guides for HBS, Stanford, Booth, Wharton, NYU and pretty much any other school you can name - including a fully revised and expanded 2015 Columbia essay guide!
https://essaysnark.com/bookstore/
* * * * * * *
The Indians' Guide to Getting In maps out everything you need to evaluate your own profile and select your schools. https://essaysnark.com/ssguide/quicksnar ... ans-guide/
* * * * * * *
MILITARY CANDIDATES! We've got some pro bono offers just for you: https://essaysnark.com/military-mba/
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