Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi, I just finished my GMAT yesterday and got 750 on it. My GPA so far is 3.97 out of 4.00, and major GPA is 4.00. I am wondering if it is realistic to get into a top 20 MBA program with some internship but no full time working experience. If so, what types of grad schools should I aim for. By the way, any master programs related to Financial Mathematics etc., that accepts GMAT scores could also be a consideration. My undergraduate majors are Actuarial Science, Risk Management, and Finance. Currently a senior in UW-Madison.

Hi royce - congrats on that awesome GMAT score!! And the high GPA too - your hard work in school will likely be paying off for you in the future!

There are a variety of specialized MBA programs that are designed exactly for people in your position, including the HBS 2+2 program, the Yale Silver Scholars, and in Spain, the IESE Young Talent Program. Many top MBA programs will accept an application from someone still in college (though some, like Michigan Ross, explicitly will not). However, except for those three that we named at the beginning, it can be really tough to get accepted to a top-ranked program coming straight out of college. The reason is that bschool is geared around furthering the professional career, and most bschools feel you will get the most out of it if you have some real work experience under your belt. They want you to be able to hold your own in classroom discussions with guys (and gals!) who've been working on Wall Street or on important consulting projects for the past three or four years. If you've not yet had enough real-world work experience, then many of the admissions committees feel you won't be able to contribute as much in the classroom, and you also won't benefit from the education as much.

With your basic stats of GMAT and GPA, you are most definitely qualified to try for the Harvard 2+2 program, along with those others -- and you certainly still could apply to a variety of other top MBA programs, though as we said, it's rare for them to accept candidates straight from school (though many of them accept a few each year).

The reason that 2+2 and Silver Scholars are different is that they're designed with a built-in work experience component; they're essentially four-year programs. You can read more about 2+2 here: https://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/2+2/a ... ocess.html

Now, there are a lot more factors that go into acceptance at one of these programs beyond GMAT and GPA, but you have cleared a lot of hurdles already with those impressive stats, and you should absolutely explore these options if you're interested.

On the Financial Engineering-type courses, look at:
UC-Berkeley Master's in Financial Engineering https://mfe.berkeley.edu/admissions/index.html
Booth Master's in Financial Mathematics https://finmath.uchicago.edu/admissions/ ... ents.shtml

There are others too, Columbia has a few new Master's programs for example. Most of these prefer work experience but it's not as strict a requirement as at some standard F/T MBA programs.

Hope this helps and let us know know if you have other questions!
EssaySnark

Thank you so much for the help. That has saved my life.
Some more questions. I am an now international student in UW-Madison, just wondering if this will hinder my possibility for admission to HBS 2+2 program due to visa issues. Also, I am considering to get some strong recommendations. Would it be better to get one from my intern employee for the MBA program? and get all the three from academic background people for Financial Engineering masters?

Also I've checked the link you provided for Booth's program, seems like they are not interested in GMAT scores?

Hi royce--

HBS 2+2 accepts a lot of international students, and they also work closely with a number of companies who hire 2+2 students, so we're assuming they can help you with the visa issues. We haven't seen that be a problem for students before.

On the recommendations: For any business school application (including the financial engineering programs), recommendations from the workplace are preferred. For people like you who are still in school, all the adcoms will accept an academic recommendation instead, however you should not submit only academic recs. So yes, get one from your internship, and one from a professor is fine. For those applications asking for three recs, maybe you have a community project you've been involved with or leadership at a student club, and you have an advisor in a capacity like that who can write a rec for you. Getting recs from a variety of areas of your life can help the adcom better see the entirety of your profile.

On your other question on the Chicago program - you're right, it looks like they only want the GRE test. Sorry for the misdirection, we hadn't noticed that requirement initially. There are several other good fin eng programs out there and many accept the GMAT, so possibly you should just cross this one off the list for now.

Hope this helps, let us know if other questions come up!
EssaySnark

ps: we've got a series of posts about 2+2 planned for our blog coming up in December... https://essaysnark.blocked

Thank you so much.
Would it be helpful if I can find a student supervisor write a rec for me? I am currently a tutor in our school program and it is mostly run by students. There is one person I know that is in the ultimate charge of this that is not a student, but he does not meet the students much. Also, is finding someone, a professional in the financial area, that I know in person going to help or hurt my app? Just making sure things don't go the opposite way.

Hi royce--

Most bschools do not want to get a rec from a peer; the one exception is Stanford, who specifically asks for one, but the other schools want someone who's a superior to you to provide the primary recs. If the student was literally your supervisor, then maybe it is OK, but generally we would suggest going with someone much older/more experienced if possible. You're right, though, if the main person in charge has not worked with you directly that much, then he's not the best choice since he wouldn't be able to talk in detail about your strengths and contributions.

Not sure we fully understand the last question but it sounds like you're asking if you should ask a friend who happens to work in finance to do a rec. In most cases, that's not the best idea. That would be a personal reference instead of a professional recommendation. Again, you want to choose people who know about your work style, your abilities and skills, and even your weaknesses. The best ones to choose are those who have worked with you in a professional setting.

Here's some further guidance on this topic: https://essaysnark.blocked/2010/11/ ... tions.html

The recommendations are very important, so it's good that you're looking at so many different options!!!

EssaySnark

thanks a lot. I will follow your suggestions and see if I would come up with any more questions in the future!