donkim81 wrote:
First of all, thank you in advance for your review! I was wondering if you could evaluate my profile and would greatly appreciate for any suggestions.
Asian Male, 30
Education
BA in Econ at Berkeley-2004, GPA: 3.3
Work Expreience
2005-2010: Credit Analyst & Underwriter at community bank
2010-Current: Senior Credit Analyst at one of 4 major banks
Extracurricular
1. Leader of rock band (started in college)
2. Annual Tennis competition with Stanford
3. Intercollegiate golf team
CFA Charterholder since 2010
GMAT: never taken. scheduled for September 2011
Post MBA: work at a prominent asset management company for certain period, then start my own fund company
Targeting Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, Upenn, NYU, Cornell (however, I am open to suggestions)
Assuming I score more than 700 for GMAT, do I realistically have any chance to get into the schools listed above? Some of the concerns in my mind in addition to GMAT are age, no experience in asset management industry, no significant leadership experience, minimal extracurricular and/or volunteer activity post college, etc. I hope I could make it and will try my best, but at the same time I'd better be aware of what the reality is. Also, it would be great if you can suggest some improvement needed.
Again, thank you very much!
I do feel you are aiming a bit high for the profile you've told me about. I don't see any leadership since you graduated 8 years ago (yes, it's 7 years ago from today but 8 years ago from the date of matriculation in the Fall of 2012) and 8 years of experience is beyond what these programs are targeting typically (96 months is 75% higher than Chicago's average of 55 months and more than double HBS's 44 months, for example). I'm not saying that there is no chance for you to get in to these programs, but I do feel that it makes sense to apply to a wider range of programs as well.
The good news is that there are other strong finance programs if you are willing to look beyond the top names. I recommend looking into Georgetown, Zicklin, Simon, Fordham, and Lubin - whose students do have similar average years of employment but either have larger ranges of age and/or are going to be interested in your experiences in a major bank. You may also wish to consider a part-time or executive program at one of the schools you mentioned.
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Regards,
Jennifer Bloom, CPRW
jbloom@accepted.com
310-815-9553
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