Hi, I am from Vietnam. I am applying to Olin Business Schoool in St.Louis, Wisconsin and Carlson. My work experience in management consulting has shown me that financial management is a critical weakness for Vietnamese firms. My short-term career goal is to join an international consultancy in Vietnam, such as McKinsey, to help close the gap between local corporate operations and international practices. My long-term goal is to become a founder partner of a local consultancy providing financial management advisory services to small and medium sized enterprises. Thus, I am opting for the concentration in finance/corporate finance. Could you please provide an assessment of my chances of getting in with a decent scholarship from the schools?
- Academics: GPA: 7.89/10, top 10 percent of the class, major in International Business, Dean's list for the last three years of university. Won first prize in a university-wide student research competition.
- GMAT: 750 (Q: 49 - 86%, V: 44 - 97%, AWA: 5.5 - 77%)
- Work experience: 2.5 years in management consulting with KPMG Vietnam (I started working full-time in the last semester of my undergraduate studies when I was supposed to do an internship. So post-baccalaureate-wise, I will have had only slightly more than two year of work experience by the time of enrollment. I guess that I will need to explain this to the adcom during the interview).
- Extracurricular involvement: 1 year of leading a volunteer team of a local chapter of AIESEC, a global non-profit student-run organization, during university.

If you're looking to work in mgmt consulting, why would you do a MSF or MBA specializing in finance? It's a bit odd. As far as I know, consulting firms don't typically hire from MSF programs - they focus almost exclusively on the top 16 programs.

So borrow the money (student loans) like everyone else and go to a target school (top 16 ideally) - and have a shot at getting a mgmt consulting job.

Or, go to a school outside the top 30 on scholarship, and have a near impossible time of getting a mgmt consulting job.

Your choice.
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Alex Chu
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