cihmi wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to review my profile.
I'm planning to apply to some European business schools. Fall 2011 Intake.
Nationality: German
Gender: Male
Age: 25 (26 at matriculation)
GMAT: 780 (Q 51 , V 49) AWA 5.5
TOEFL: 115
Education:
Bachelor of Business Information System from a small university of cooperative education in Germany (cooperative education means you have a contract with a company and work during all term breaks)
GPA: 1.9 (scale of 1-5 with 1 being best), that's around top 20% in class
took two additional economics courses (because that was coming short a bit at my school) at a distance-learning university and received very good grades.
Work Exp:
During my undergraduate studies, I worked a total of 18 months in various projects in the IT department
after graduation: 2 years (3 at matriculation) in a market/business intelligence function of a globally operating semiconductor firm. The department has employees from all over the world, so I do have international exposure to some extent. However, I don't have any leadership responsibility.
Extra-curricular:
1. Very active in sports in general, volleyball and beachvolleyball in particular
2. Captain and coach of our local volleyball team for several years (that's basically my main leadership experience)
3. Created and maintained websites for several sports clubs (not just plain information sites, but more complex community pages).
4. Elected as player representative for the beachvolleyball commitee in our state federation (therefore conciliating between players and the federation as well as taking part in the conception of the tournament series etc)
5. Organized several tournaments
Recommendations:
1. I'm sure I get a very good recommendation from my direct supervisor
2. ??
Post-MBA Targets:
I would love to get into the finance industry, Investment Management in particular (planning to take CFA I before school starts). As a starting point, I could see myself researching the semiconductor industry. However, as I know that's a very hard-to-get-in field, I would also consider
Target Schools:
As I want to live in Europe after the MBA, I'm targeting European Schools. Being a career changer I'm mainly looking at 2-year programs that include an internship. My top choices are:
- LBS (obviously best European school for finance careers)
- IESE (in addition to IESE being a very good school, I'd really love to live in Barcelona and brush up my Spanish skills)
I'm not considering any safety schools, as I don't mind waiting another year if I don't get into my top choices.
Questions:
1) How are my chances at the above mentioned schools?
2) Round 1 deadlines are rather close (esp. for LBS, October 6th), so I don't think I can manage a school visit before that. How much of a disadvantage is that regarding my admission chances? I already know that I want to attend those schools, so a visit isn't necessary from my perspective. However, I'm planning to visit both schools in November, in order to help my decision, in case I get admitted to both.
3) I'm not sure who I should ask for the 2nd recommendation. I could definitely get another good one from the boss of my direct supervisor, with whom I'm also working a lot. However, I don't know if that's a good idea because both recommendations would relate to the same job?
Thanks!
Overall, you have a competitive profile. You GMAT is sky high. Your grades and work experience are good. It sounds like you can make the multi-cultural exposure case. Your leadership is on the light side. However, as you say if you don't get in this year, you can reapply. YOu certainly have enough work experience to be given serious consideration.
Best,
Linda