iby1229 wrote:
Hi Jon,
Looking for feedback on my profile. I will be applying R2 this year. I have a decent GMAT and low GPA, so I think there will be quite few that can probably relate to me. If you could give me some feedback, that would be great! Thanks
Background:
(Currently) 23-year old Asian-American Male
Applying to enter Fall 2015 (Class of 2017) would be most ideal, or Fall 2016
Academic:
BS double major in Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering - top 10 engineering school (think Georgia Tech/Carnegie Mellon/UMich)
Overall GPA: 3.03
GMAT: 750 (Q50/V41/IR7/AWA5.0) FWIW I got IR8/AWA5.5 on my first attempt (lower overall score)
Work Experience: 27 months at matriculation (or 39 months for Fall 2016)
4 months in Manufacturing at big pharmaceutical company (Merck/Pfizer/GSK)
1 year at IT Consulting firm (Accenture/Deloitte/E&Y)
Extracurricular:
During college, co-founded company that received funding from notable accelerator program. Founded another start-up that did not gain as much success. Founded other small ventures for community/campus. Founding father of a social fraternity (harder to start than you think). GPA was affected by my extra-curricular activities/ventures. I wasn't exactly "lazy" during college, I just directed my attention at things outside of the classroom.
Goals:
Short Term - Investment Banking at a healthcare or TMT group.
Long term - VC in healthcare or biotech. Yes, I realize VC is extremely hard. Not sure if I should talk about it in my essay or not. But maybe I can spin my technical/biomed/entrepreneurship background for this? idk
Schools:
H/S/W are my ideal goals, but I will apply to all the M7 schools and some backup schools.
My biggest concerns are my GPA and my low work experience. I realize I am applying at a very young age, but I want to transition into finance as early as I can. What are my realistic chances at these schools. I'm not sure if I'm way over my head on this. Thanks again for taking the time to do this. Your insight and help is greatly appreciated for me and hopefully others!
- IBY
Hey IBY,
Okay dude, so what's good is first off that your concerns are exactly the same as my concerns. Your GPA, and your low work experience. I understand that you must have good reason to apply so quick, but I should at least mention that applying this year as opposed to next will weaken your profile. It doesn't mean it's a bad choice, because you may have other considerations, but it will make things tougher as the schools may be like "Okay, this guy seems good, but he hasn't done enough yet to prove himself". The majority of folks applying and getting in with low work experience are MBB/IB folks.
As for your low GPA, I think that with your entrepreneurial experience, you may have pretty much as good a reason as one can have for a low GPA. It won't efface it, but it will help.
The one place where I do diverge from you are your goals: Pharma to IB is NOT a good idea. Why? A, because Pharma is a very strong and unique industry. B, becuase everyone who applies to B-school wants to go into IB/VC. C, because you have no IB experience. In reality of course, once you graduate you can try and get any job you want. But as far as presenting goals to the AdCom, they're not that convincing.
And now a question for you: You have one year in consulting and four months in Pharma? That only makes 16 months. Where's the rest? And what comes first? (and what are you doing now?
As for the schools, it will depend a bit on the details of the work experience. H/S/W are real long shots with a 3.0 GPA, but you can try. M7 + some in the top 20 is more reasonable, and it's good cause that matches too with what you wrote. Exactly what schools and where, you can see which ones appeal to you the most.
Hope that helps, and if you have anything else, just drop me a line!
Best,
Jon
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19 Aug 2014, 15:17
