Hi Stacy, I would appreciate if you can evaluate my profile. I am applying for an MBA in fall 2008 or 2009.
Target schools:
USC Marshall, Georgetown (realistic goals)
NYU Stern, Cornell Johnson (dream schools)
Career Goal:
Changing career from IT to finance. Specifically, I am interested in investment and portfolio analysis and management jobs. My reason for change is due to my personal experience and influence of my father (detailed below).
Personal:
23 year old male, Chinese Australian, currently living in Sydney, Australia.
Countries lived in:
China (7 years)
Hong Kong (7 years)
Australia (9 years)
Language spoken:
English
Cantonese
Mandarin
Chaozhou-nese (a local dialect in China but spoken by well over 10 million people in South East Asia, namely Vietnam and Thailand)
Undergraduate:
School - University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
Major - Computer Engineering
GPA - 63%, translates to a bad 2.86 (although our engineering faculty is top of the country)
GMAT:
1st attempt: 630 (V29, Q47) overall 78 percentile AWA 6.0
2nd attempt: 710 (v38, Q49) overall 94 percentile AWA 5.5
Work Experience:
- 1 year full time at this point. 2 years at the time of attending fall 08 semester.
- Employed in IT companies handling infrastructure and network design, administration and management tasks.
- Served as team leader and oversaw company product release and testing at various levels.
- Participated in marketing and sales decisions.
- Recommended numerous business practices that led to change in business process and increase in efficiency.
- Obtained outstanding references from 2 previous employers.
Extracurricular:
- Served as Executive Officer of Engineers Without Borders Australia, managed club activities and headed a major technical project targeted at the disadvantaged communities.
- Served as executive member of university Asian Sports Society
- Member of university Hong Kong student society and basketball society
- Served as volunteer in university open source software events to offer guidance to new users
- High school basketball vice captain. Played competitive basketball in local leagues
- Volunteer in local city council
Interests:
- 4 years personal investment and portfolio management experience in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. My career shift towards finance is heavily influenced by this experience and my father, who started his career in finance and served as CEO of 2 multi-million trading corp. in Hong Kong.
- Body building, I was born very skinny but determined to look good in a suit, worked my way to a lean and fit figure (does this even help?)
- Obtained Microsoft Office User Specialist Master certificate when I was 16.
- Other interests include calligraphy and golf.
Current situation:
I am finding it difficult to obtain employment in the finance sector given my technical background. However I have a couple of offers from IT firms. I applied to the University of San Francisco (just for the sake of getting familiar with the application process really) and was offered a position. However I am reluctant as I feel I can get in better schools.
Based on my profile, can Stacy please comment on my chances in USC or even my dream schools for fall 2008? I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, hope it's not too much to read. Thank you very much in advance.
Target schools:
USC Marshall, Georgetown (realistic goals)
NYU Stern, Cornell Johnson (dream schools)
Career Goal:
Changing career from IT to finance. Specifically, I am interested in investment and portfolio analysis and management jobs. My reason for change is due to my personal experience and influence of my father (detailed below).
Personal:
23 year old male, Chinese Australian, currently living in Sydney, Australia.
Countries lived in:
China (7 years)
Hong Kong (7 years)
Australia (9 years)
Language spoken:
English
Cantonese
Mandarin
Chaozhou-nese (a local dialect in China but spoken by well over 10 million people in South East Asia, namely Vietnam and Thailand)
Undergraduate:
School - University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia
Major - Computer Engineering
GPA - 63%, translates to a bad 2.86 (although our engineering faculty is top of the country)
GMAT:
1st attempt: 630 (V29, Q47) overall 78 percentile AWA 6.0
2nd attempt: 710 (v38, Q49) overall 94 percentile AWA 5.5
Work Experience:
- 1 year full time at this point. 2 years at the time of attending fall 08 semester.
- Employed in IT companies handling infrastructure and network design, administration and management tasks.
- Served as team leader and oversaw company product release and testing at various levels.
- Participated in marketing and sales decisions.
- Recommended numerous business practices that led to change in business process and increase in efficiency.
- Obtained outstanding references from 2 previous employers.
Extracurricular:
- Served as Executive Officer of Engineers Without Borders Australia, managed club activities and headed a major technical project targeted at the disadvantaged communities.
- Served as executive member of university Asian Sports Society
- Member of university Hong Kong student society and basketball society
- Served as volunteer in university open source software events to offer guidance to new users
- High school basketball vice captain. Played competitive basketball in local leagues
- Volunteer in local city council
Interests:
- 4 years personal investment and portfolio management experience in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. My career shift towards finance is heavily influenced by this experience and my father, who started his career in finance and served as CEO of 2 multi-million trading corp. in Hong Kong.
- Body building, I was born very skinny but determined to look good in a suit, worked my way to a lean and fit figure (does this even help?)
- Obtained Microsoft Office User Specialist Master certificate when I was 16.
- Other interests include calligraphy and golf.
Current situation:
I am finding it difficult to obtain employment in the finance sector given my technical background. However I have a couple of offers from IT firms. I applied to the University of San Francisco (just for the sake of getting familiar with the application process really) and was offered a position. However I am reluctant as I feel I can get in better schools.
Based on my profile, can Stacy please comment on my chances in USC or even my dream schools for fall 2008? I tried to be as comprehensive as possible, hope it's not too much to read. Thank you very much in advance.
