Profile Review

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Profile Review

by joz1 » Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:57 pm
Nationality: Middle eastern
GMAT: Male
Age: 26
Languages: Arabic (Native), English (Fluent), French (Beginner)
Education: Bachelors in Finance from a well respected (Top 50) private school in the US.
GPA: 2.8/4.0
Initially majored in civil engineering, I barely studied and I did not attend most classes, was on academic probation most of the time. My spiraling depression and anxiety combined with my responsible and immature behavior resulted in a low GPA. Started going on medication which helped me immensely so I switched major to finance, got my academic and social life in order, got a 4.0 the next semester and never went below a 3.4 after that.
GMAT : 730

Working experience:
14 months financial analyst at a fintech startup, 7 months as a senior analyst working on a blockchain-based project, 12 months as a vice president of investments at a venture capital firm.
Will have about 4 year of experience by matriculation.

International exposure:
Rotating between 3-4 countries in the Middle East and North Africa but most of the time is spent in 2 countries.

Extra- Curricular & Volunteering:
Boxing
Orphans care program, probono startup mentoring, and finance tutoring (mainly CFA)

Achievements:
Passed all 3 levels of the CFA exam

Post-MBA goals:
Work in the United States.
Management consulting is the first option and the second would be corporate development.
Something that I truly love about my current job is that it is considered an operating partner so we really get our hands wet helping our portfolio companies with operations, strategy, and fund raising, so a lot of parallels can be drawn between management consulting and the work that I'm currently doing. I also love quantitative investment analysis which is something that is not heavily utilized in venture capital but can be found in corporate development.

Schools that I'm applying for:
Michigan Ross, Johnson Cornell, USC Marshall, Texas Mccombs, Rice, Toronto Rotman.

Please let me know if you think any other school would be a good fit given my profile.

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by Inventing Minds » Fri Jul 26, 2019 1:05 am
You have an excellent profile - b-schools look primarily on the diversity of the candidate - and you have that all. From civil engineer to finance and financial technology to digitial marketing to block chain, and above all boxing. You would get preference because you are a boxer - it proves your courage with which you can take bold decisions and build something extra-ordinary. Knowing three languages and living in different geographical locations is another great advantages - it shows your understanding of different cultures across the globe.

B-schools you are targeting - should be very much within your reach -Michigan Ross, Johnson Cornell, USC Marshall, Texas Mccombs, Rice, Toronto Rotman. In fact, you can apply to even higher ranked schools.

So don't worry about low GPA - in fact GMAT score of 730 is also good.

While preparing your application, just have these points in mind -

B-schools look for value creators and not job seekers!
Universities Prefer Innovators Over Bookish Learners & Degree Seekers
What Matters The Most Is A Vision For Future, And Not Your Past Academic Successes
Showcase In Your Applications What Difference You Can Make To The World
Don't Describe Yourself Prove How You Are Different From Others

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by Jon@Admissionado » Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:09 am
Congratulations on a solid GMAT score, passing all 3 levels of the CFA and having some really cool work experience! At 4 years post college, you are right in the sweet spot for MBA admissions career-wise. Your apprehension around your GPA is understandable, but it's not a deal-breaker given your other accomplishments. Know that STEM in general and engineering from a top school in particular offers a bit more "give" GPA-wise. You just need to make sure that you "sell" the rest of your application as well as possible. For example, here's how folks in similar shoes to you can SHANK IT: your unique blockchain operational experience + fintech start-up experience combined with your CFA pedigree uniquely qualifies for corporate development at a financial institution looking to organically expand / acquire into crypto exposure, for instance). This is just an example, and there are lots of ways to sell your numerous strengths, but developing a killer career trajectory for the AdComs is what I'd wanna look at most closely for starters.

Honestly friend if I put on my AdCom goggles I wouldn't be too worried about your GPA but potentially concerned about consulting recruiting given your lack of traditional corporate employers and lack of strategy work. It seems as if most of your employment is what career centers at top MBA programs would label non-strategy "enterprise recruiting" - not at all a bad thing but maybe doesn't sync with your post-MBA ambitions of mega-cap corporate consulting. Lots of people write about consulting ambitions so if you want to write about it, you should be able to have water-tight career trajectory indicating your interest/qualifications in the strategy field. There's definitely a great consulting admissions essay in you somewhere, but I'd need to hear the outline of it and ask you a million questions to see if it holds water relative to your other options.

Many MBA programs have boxing clubs and finance mentorship programs run by MBAs for undergrads, so you could write about these existing long-held passions in your applications (make sure to cite school-specific clubs) to signal that you are interested in giving back to the school community while you are an MBA. Wharton and several other schools have a "who are you outside of work" essay prompt and this is great material for that section.

Ross, Cornell, Marshall, McCombs, Rice, and Toronto Rotman are all within your reach assuming you put together a differentiated applications package (esp. resume & essays) and ace the interviews. I think you should also apply to a few "reach" schools as well. You miss all the shots you don't take and you check most of the boxes for top school stats.

If you you're wondering if an Admissions consultant might be helpful to you in your journey, feel free to reach out. You're always welcome to hop over to this page:
https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/ and we'll get into it. Oh and take your time and really sink into that form, the more stuff you say, the meatier & more helpful the chat.

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Reach out, and let's gab. Our only requirement is that you don't prefer warm milk over cold milk. Everyone else, 100% welcome.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 866-409-4753
Hit us up on WhatsApp.
Ping our satellite: 0884#&@-2#101101
Contact us via web form you lazy git: https://admissionado.com/contact/
Mostly, email Claudia.