Dawgie wrote:
abhattac5 wrote:
SilverTT94 wrote:
The interview is my weakest area and I am scared. I'm making a dry run to USC in about 5 hours so that I'm familiar with the campus.
My stats:
3.638 cumulative gpa
3.905 major gpa (economics, ucsd); econ3 TA for 2 quarters.
700 gmat, 5 awa
i think my 2 recommendations are pretty good
interview: TO BE DETERMINED
dun dun dunnnnn
USC is the only school i've applied to. this is do or die basically. i'll let you guys know of my defeat/victory.
Those are fairly good stats. Yah, the Cum GPA could be a little higher (GPAs count *a lot* for both MSAcc and Big4). Yah, USC Marshall is Top10. But you're in the ballpark >> a solid interview coupled with compelling essays and stories should seal the deal. Your resume / GPA / scores are just one part of the package >> 2/3 speak for themselves (major GPA, Gmat) at this point. The main thing is to now sell yourself to the program -- keep confidence up, know the program cold and know what you want to get out of it, and go in with your head held high.
He doesn't have to sell anything, did you even look at the class profile? He's above average in all stats.
Agreed >> the numbers are good. But having passed through one of the Top10 programs and worked for a Big4, what I described is what I saw in my experience. A lot of it is presentation and confidence -- goes further than many realise if they aren't sure about some aspects of their application.
Regarding "selling," unfortunately I've also found that sales is just part of human interaction. You have to "sell yourself" constantly at work, even more so now with a recession. You have to "sell your application" to MBA or other educational programs. At my Big4 job, it was common knowledge that partners basically had to "sell" the services of the firm to prospective clients for most of the time (to justify their multiple-hundred-dollar billable hours). Even in quantitative fields like commercial loan work and investment banking, "selling" eventually becomes part of the job with increasing responsibility. Trust me, I hate sales as much as the next non-sales orientated person, but it is what it is (at least based on what I've seen)....