The "Going nowhere" Thread 2010

Thanks for the good advice both shana and merkin. Definitely have to think through how I convey my goals better.

Just want to argue that I don't study finance to get into the financial service sector. I studied economics/finance to have a better understanding of why companies behave the way they behaves (i.e. focusing only on quarterly income statement rather than long-term viability) so that I can use these knowledge in future negotiations / management. Remember I also have an UG in Economics (honors) with a 3.7 GPA, and CFA is a natural extension (among others) to that, so please do not frame me into just an Engineer. Although I can do GARCH modeling of CBOT wheat futures market better than many in the finance sector doesn't mean that I want to trade futures for the rest of my life.
I studied SOA to have a better understanding of Risk, risk management and the insurance industry, not to get a job as an actuary.
In all cases, study and understanding the concepts is the only concern, passing exams is to give myself a confirmation that I've understood the knowledge, otherwise I will never know if I get the knowledge or not. But the exams themselves are simply by-products.

I understand that I'm definitely walking a non-traditional path, but I'm definitely NOT collecting credentials. Please do not see my intellectual curiosity as a lack of direction (although it looks like it.) I could have done a PhD but I refuse to do it because I'm not learning anything new. Reading through CapitalIQ is a better way of spend my time. (i.e. understanding why mining companies stock fell because their reserve shrinked or commodity price fell, do a NAV model and question yourself whether its stock is over or undervalued.)

And lastly, I didn't say Wharton/Booth is ALL about finance, I said that Wharton/Booth is targeting mostly IB/MC types (or career changer to IB/MC), and I'm not one of them. If that is not true then I apologize that I didn't do enough research (fairly rushed, never visited school until interview), and will do more research this year. I wanted to go to these schools to learn the things (strategy, marketing, negotiations etc.) that I've never learnt before, and develop a network of smart people. For these courses reading 10 textbooks is not enough.
I know for a fact that the educational quality difference between Wharton/Booth/Kellogg and Rotman is huge, especially apparent is the extensive class participation and the depth of knowledge the students have in the classes that I attended, compared to the near silence in a Rotman 2nd year MBA finance course. I simply want to take the best education possible since you only do it once in a lifetime.

So far I've learnt that Booth have a lot of strength in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, and I'll certainly incorporate those into my re-app. (Although I still swear by Merton Miller) Wharton however, is still in my mind a dominate Finance school, perhaps also very good at management, but that's true for all T20 schools. I have a good fit with Kellogg (I think) but it seems the JD portion is killing me. Maybe next year I apply just as an MBA?

My question is if a school's best strength is not what I needed, I should not apply??? If I do apply, how do I show "Fit"??

Again, I appreciate all criticisms. I'll take your advice and not even mention anything about finance in my application next year.