Hi
Aringo,
Looking for some feedback about my chances at 4 schools in particular: (1) Indiana-Kelley, (2) Iowa-Tippie, (3) Notre Dame, (4) IESE
Basics: 26 y/o male. Dual citizen American/Jordanian.
Academic background: BA in Political Science + 3.31 GPA at the University of Iowa '10;
JD w/ business and corporate law concentration + 3.39 GPA (roughly top 30% of my graduating class) at the University of San Diego School of Law '13.
GMAT: 1st take March 2014: 6/8/620 (38, 37)
2nd take June 2014: 6/8/660 (44, 38)
Work experience: Currently working abroad as a "trainee" (i.e., not yet qualified associate) on the project finance team at a top regional law firm in the middle east. I've been here 10 months so far, will be at 13-15 months when I apply, and about 23-24 months when I matriculate. Despite only being a trainee, I've been given associate level work since day 1 and have essentially become the managing partner's "go to" for securities matters and derivatives transactions. I haven't received a "promotion" per se but they've increased my billable rate and my salary once already (at about the 6 month mark, which is not something they do for every trainee - i.e., there are others who started before me but whose rates have stayed the same) and I'm hoping for another at the 12 month mark but I'm not sure they'll do so once they find out I'm planning to leave next summer.
"Why MBA" story: While I like law, I am much more interested in the financial side of deals. I've noticed that since I've been here there are, broadly speaking, two main aspects to a particular transaction: (1) words, (2) numbers. For example, when I was working on a rather large bond issuance ($1.25 billion dollars), I would catch myself wondering more about the rate that the bonds were going to yield. I would spend my spare time looking up similar bonds (i.e., similar sized issuers, time length for repayment, market status - i.e., pace of QE, etc.) to try and guess what the rate on these bonds might be. It occurred to me that I could do that kind of stuff for a living, and not on the "side". In other words, I'd much rather work with the numbers on a deal than on the words. It's also a little about information consumption, as a transactional lawyer my information consumption is mostly statutes and regulations (some case law), but if I were in fixed-income research (where I want to start) I would be looking at charts, graphs, spreadsheets, using excel, crunching numbers, etc. In terms of goals, short-term: entry level fixed-income research analyst focusing on structured products and derivatives, mostly for the reasons I mentioned above; long term: derivatives and similar products structuring, for example, right now I get to tailor a certain derivative contract to fit within the relevant legal framework and meet my client's legal needs, which is cool but I'd much rather structure the contract from scratch (i.e., the client comes to me with a particular idea or problem, then I use some creativity to come up with a novel concept, some financial modeling/quant skills to nail down the nuts and bolts, and some commercial skills to pitch it accordingly to the client). I think I have a good understanding of the "words" of such contracts (i.e., the language mechanisms that control the contract) but I really need to improve my quant skills to have a good understanding of the number mechanisms that control the contract. That's where the MBA comes in, it will boost my quant skills, financial modeling skills, commercial skills, and provide me with the knowledge, credential, and network that will help me transition from law to finance much easier.
Misc. Not full time work experience but worked part-time at a rec center throughout college to help make ends meet, interned for a federal judge in law school, and did an internship at a talent agency in NYC summer going into my senior year in undergrad.
Don't have a ton of volunteer experience, but did "dance marathon" (i.e., raising money and participating in a 24 hour danceathon for kids with cancer) my soph year in college, volunteered for about a year with junior high school kids through United Action for Youth my senior year in college, and did a high school student reach out program for a day in law school.
Got the highest grade in my corporate finance course in law school, a straight finance course with no law and it included several finance majors. I also did very well in my corporate and securities law courses. Including the highest grade on a group project that involved the economics and governance of a volatility linked structured product.
Did a research project/paper for the nationally well known political poll "the Hawkeye poll" (my specific paper was on the level of trust people had in the UN and how that impacted their opinion of the UN as an organization).
Speak Arabic proficiently. Will have lived/worked abroad for over a year when applying, and nearly 2 years when matriculating.
Native Iowan (lived there from age 8 through undergrad, this might only matter for Iowa-Tippie, if at all).
Questions: Can you give me any insight/estimates on my odds at the schools I plan on applying to? I'm applying ED/R1 to all of them.
Also, how much can I improve my chances if I were to boost my GMAT score? In other words, lets say I could only afford another GMAT re-take or one of the smaller
Aringo packages (i.e., 3 or 7 hours) (if I were able to get a discount, either through gmatclub special or the lese fund), which investment would have the greater payoff?
Apologies for the length and thanks in advance.
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28 Apr 2014, 20:53
