Profile Evaluation Please?

[jstanwood10]

Could someone with admissions experience please help me decide if these are realistic schools to apply to. Here is my info:

Age: 26
GMAT: 720 Quant:48, Verbal:41
Undergrad: St Mary's College of California, GPA: 3.7
Activities in College: Accounting Association, NCAA Division 1 soccer player
Work Experience: CPA, 3 years Deloitte & Touche audit practice, 1 year sr. financial analyst Quiksilver Inc.

I started my career in accounting/audit at Deloitte, got my CPA and decided to pursue a career in corporate finance, so I made the switch to a sr. analyst position at Quiksilver. My short term goals for business school is to improve my knowledge in areas such as valuation, strategy and marketing that I believe are vital building blocks to become a CFO. Long term goal is to become a CFO in the consumer business industry.

My short list of schools thus far are:

UCLA, USC, Columbia, NYU, Stanford and Berkeley

Can anyone please help me decide if these schools are realistic based on my info?

THANKS!

[Jon@Admissionado]

Well, to give a real evaluation of your profile, we need a wee bit more info, you know any other volunteer work, how much leadership, etc. etc.

But very roughly, it looks like a good list. Stanford and Columbia are dream schools (But you should definitely go for them!), NYU and Berkeley you should be pretty competitive, and the two Cali schools you should have pretty good chances.

Good Job!

[jstanwood10]

Thank you for the evaluation! It is much appreciated

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

If you were my client, I would want to know how many times you have taken the GMAT, and if there is any meat left on that quant bone. If there is, I'd like to see you reinforce your academic firepower to stand out. Of course your essays are critical, and I don't know all your relevant details (for example, did your collegiate soccer team win and were you a captain?), but I would advise you to look at some lower ranked schools as well (like USC) to balance out the rest of your list which is pretty ambitious. Accountants don't get into the top schools in great numbers, but your finance position is a strong move towards a more general management type position.