Question about Haas - Financial Engineering.

[nathanalgren]

I want to apply to MFE of Berkeley and according to its website, they have only one round in a year. The deadline is in December for the March 2011 candidates. I am getting my BS&MS degree in Teaching Mathematics in a month or so and I am planning to take GMAT in a month.

The problem is that my GPA is going to be around 2.5. I was wondering if they rule out any applicants whose GPA is lower than 3.00 or do they still look at the other stuff such as GMAT score. I mean could I stand a chance if I scored 740-750 from GMAT?

Another question: Do I have to send scores to schools when I take GMAT, or can I send it to no one during the test and later send it to any school I want?

Thanks in advance.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

I could be wrong but I think Haas' fin engineering program only takes the GRE.

[nathanalgren]

I could be wrong but I think Haas' fin engineering program only takes the GRE.

Nope, they take GMAT too. I asked the questions I had in my mind and they said, they are looking for 90 percentile in Quant and 70 in Verbal, also minimum 3.00 GPA. But they do evaluate all the applications, I mean they do not reject your application if your GPA is lower, but GMAT is higher, or the opposite.

[essaysnark]

EssaySnark says, unfortunately a 2.5 GPA is going to be more of an obstacle for you for the Haas fin eng program than the standard Haas MBA -- and the standard Haas MBA is tough enough with not-great grades. This is going to be a stretch. Obviously you'll need to NAIL that GMAT -- particularly the quant score -- this goes without saying. And, EssaySnark recommends you take some very quant-heavy classes NOW to demonstrate that you can handle the tough academic environment you'll be walking into. Haas even offers online courses to the general public in subjects that would be relevant.

Here's a link to some standard math classes available online through UC-Berkeley Extension -- EssaySnark thinks these may even be taught by Haas faculty, some of them: https://extension.berkeley.edu/cat/math.html

Any of the following classes (whether taken at Berkeley or elsewhere) could help your profile:
- statistics
- calculus
- accounting
- finance
- others too potentially...

The very best classes for you specifically would be those offered through Haas directly, which are unfortunately not available again until next January: https://mfe.haas.berkeley.edu/academics/preprogram.html

You can find articles on overcoming low GPA on the EssaySnark blog (link below).

ETA: Yes, in answer to your second question, you can take the GMAT and then later send the scores to the schools.

Good luck with it!

[nathanalgren]

EssaySnark says, unfortunately a 2.5 GPA is going to be more of an obstacle for you for the Haas fin eng program than the standard Haas MBA -- and the standard Haas MBA is tough enough with not-great grades. This is going to be a stretch. Obviously you'll need to NAIL that GMAT -- particularly the quant score -- this goes without saying. And, EssaySnark recommends you take some very quant-heavy classes NOW to demonstrate that you can handle the tough academic environment you'll be walking into. Haas even offers online courses to the general public in subjects that would be relevant.

Here's a link to some standard math classes available online through UC-Berkeley Extension -- EssaySnark thinks these may even be taught by Haas faculty, some of them: https://extension.berkeley.edu/cat/math.html

Any of the following classes (whether taken at Berkeley or elsewhere) could help your profile:
- statistics
- calculus
- accounting
- finance
- others too potentially...

The very best classes for you specifically would be those offered through Haas directly, which are unfortunately not available again until next January: https://mfe.haas.berkeley.edu/academics/preprogram.html

You can find articles on overcoming low GPA on the EssaySnark blog (link below).

ETA: Yes, in answer to your second question, you can take the GMAT and then later send the scores to the schools.

Good luck with it!

Thanks a lot! Well I took, two statistics, probability, differential equations, two calculus, linear algebra and many more math classes to get my BS&MS degree in Teaching Mathematics. Do you think that would help?