I am a 28 year old Asian male who graduated in December of 2005. I have a BS from UW-Madison in Finance with a gpa of 3.1. The two glaring grades on my transcript are the C's I received in one of my Calc classes and my Accounting Financial reporting class. Below is my math and accounting progression along with the grades received in each:
Math:
Calc with Algebra and trig 1: BC (2.5)
Calc with Algebra and trig 2: B (3.0)
Finite Math: AB (3.5)
Business Stats: B (3.0)
Intermediate bus Stats: AB (3.5)
Calc/intro differntl Equats: C (2.0)
Accounting:
Intro Financial Accounting: B (3.0)
Intro Managerial Accounting: BC (2.5)
Financial Reporting 1: C (2.0)
I have taken the GMAT multiple times, however my best score is only a 650:
650 (79%)
verbal: 34 (69%)
math: 45 (71%)
AW: 4.5
I have also taken and passed CFA level 1.
I have been working as a proprietary options trader in Chicago for the past 6 years. I was at my first firm for 4 years. I started there first as a clerk on the index options desk, then moved to junior trader, then moved to electronic market maker for the group. I'm currently at a different proprietary trading company, but now i'm have taken on a more senior role with my current group by having more responsibility with the overall group position.
For the past year I have been a member on the Special Events Committee for United Way's Youth Leadership Society. My primary responsibilities on the Special Events Committee is to organize various fundraising and networking events for other members within United Way's YLS program. Other responsibilities included volunteering at a food bank, conducting mock interviews for recent college graduates, and participating in seminars for students in the Upward Bound program discussing topics on networking, internships, relationship and resume building.
I want to get into a MBA program to study more about investment analysis and company fundamentals since ideally I would like to work at a hedge fund or at a bank. My goal post MBA is to be a portfolio/investment manager. I think my experience thus far in the trading world and passing the CFA level 1, coupled with obtaining a MBA education would provide me the necessary skills to reach this goal.
Ideally, the schools that I would like to attend are Columbia, NYU, U of Michigan, and UCLA. However, knowing that my gpa and gmat scores are not up to par, I will be happy with getting into a top 30 program (maybe Georgetown, UT-Austin, Emory, Nortre Dame are in reach??). I was wondering how reasonable this seems to be?
Also, I have been thinking of building an alternative transcript. Considering my low gpa and GMAT score, was thinking of taking an UCLA-Extension math class (math for management or a Calc class) or an accounting class to address the two C's on my transcript and my lower quant score on my gmat. Does this seem to be a good idea? If so, is there a preference in which class I should take? I don't plan on taking the GMAT again since I have taken it multiple times.
Any words of wisdom/advice/insight are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Math:
Calc with Algebra and trig 1: BC (2.5)
Calc with Algebra and trig 2: B (3.0)
Finite Math: AB (3.5)
Business Stats: B (3.0)
Intermediate bus Stats: AB (3.5)
Calc/intro differntl Equats: C (2.0)
Accounting:
Intro Financial Accounting: B (3.0)
Intro Managerial Accounting: BC (2.5)
Financial Reporting 1: C (2.0)
I have taken the GMAT multiple times, however my best score is only a 650:
650 (79%)
verbal: 34 (69%)
math: 45 (71%)
AW: 4.5
I have also taken and passed CFA level 1.
I have been working as a proprietary options trader in Chicago for the past 6 years. I was at my first firm for 4 years. I started there first as a clerk on the index options desk, then moved to junior trader, then moved to electronic market maker for the group. I'm currently at a different proprietary trading company, but now i'm have taken on a more senior role with my current group by having more responsibility with the overall group position.
For the past year I have been a member on the Special Events Committee for United Way's Youth Leadership Society. My primary responsibilities on the Special Events Committee is to organize various fundraising and networking events for other members within United Way's YLS program. Other responsibilities included volunteering at a food bank, conducting mock interviews for recent college graduates, and participating in seminars for students in the Upward Bound program discussing topics on networking, internships, relationship and resume building.
I want to get into a MBA program to study more about investment analysis and company fundamentals since ideally I would like to work at a hedge fund or at a bank. My goal post MBA is to be a portfolio/investment manager. I think my experience thus far in the trading world and passing the CFA level 1, coupled with obtaining a MBA education would provide me the necessary skills to reach this goal.
Ideally, the schools that I would like to attend are Columbia, NYU, U of Michigan, and UCLA. However, knowing that my gpa and gmat scores are not up to par, I will be happy with getting into a top 30 program (maybe Georgetown, UT-Austin, Emory, Nortre Dame are in reach??). I was wondering how reasonable this seems to be?
Also, I have been thinking of building an alternative transcript. Considering my low gpa and GMAT score, was thinking of taking an UCLA-Extension math class (math for management or a Calc class) or an accounting class to address the two C's on my transcript and my lower quant score on my gmat. Does this seem to be a good idea? If so, is there a preference in which class I should take? I don't plan on taking the GMAT again since I have taken it multiple times.
Any words of wisdom/advice/insight are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
