Wofford09 wrote:
Hello,
I have been planning to take the GMAT for the last year or so but life seemed to always throw me a curve ball when I was ready to sit down and study. I am officially done with GMAT journey and ready to start the application process for B-school. However, I know that it is R3 and this is the toughest round to get accepted and I am not sure if I should wait till next year or apply R3 for this fall.
Some background information:
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Race: White
GMAT score: 740 (Q 50 V 40 IR 7)
Undergrad degree(s):
I have two undergrad degrees
1st under grad degree: 2.9 from a top 60 liberal arts college in Business Economics. Honestly I believe that this gpa is skewed a little because my college had A- (3.7 and was a 90 to 93) and B- (2.7and was from 80 to 83). There were a lot of professors that refused to give A's and a lot of professors loved the B- cause in their eyes it was in the B range. I did make dean honor roll my last two semesters
2nd under grad degree: 3.5 from a state school in Applied Mathematics. My credits from my first undergrad transferred over and I was able to load up on courses and graduate within 1.5 years
Work experience:
1- Between my two degrees I worked two years at a tech startup for financial services. My role was in data analytics. The company was bought out and I was able to take my stock to invest back into my future and pay for my 2nd degree
2-Worked in Supply Chain Finance for a Fortune 50 company. I started as an analyst forecasting COGs and managed SG&A for the whole supply chain corporate workforce. I was promoted to Sr. Analyst within a year and moved to the online side of supply chain. In this role I was put on the team implementing Activity Base Costing in the company for the first time, automating reports that have plagued the company for years, doing analysis for privately owned skus and freight costs to combat rate hikes (such as the UPS 2015 Q4 rate hike)
3- An acquaintance I met at my previous company joined a Fortune 100 company in town recruited me to join the transformation team. Although my role stayed at Sr. Financial Analyst level my responsibilities now would be the responsibility of someone 2 to 3 levels higher at my previous company; it was an opportunity I couldn't say no to. The company I work at now recently went through a huge merger and my role has been to create business cases on finding and implementing the synergies in the supply chain. My manager, the acquaintance from my previous job, has had full confidence in me and lets me manage the works streams by myself. I have recently been approached by another team in the transformation office to lend a hand in designing the organization (a lot of folks on this team came from accenture). This is where I stand today
Total WE is about 5.5 years
I am proficient in sql, vba, ms office, orgvue, tableau and alteryx
Hobbies/Extracurricular
unfortunately I believe this, besides my age, might be my weakest point. I try to volunteer at the humane society or at the park near my place as often as I can. When I was at the Fortune 50 company, I lead the Supply Chain Finance philanthropy team and we won the highest award from the CFO for services. As mentioned earlier, life has been hectic the last couple years with multiple deaths in the family, getting married etc that I haven't been as consistent as I would like to be.
If I am not at home with my wife and dog, you can find me fly fishing or hiking. I had two goals for the year of 2017. Take the GMAT and hike a 14,000+ ft mountain (love nature but have acrophobia). 1 down and 1 to go.
Target Schools
Sky is the limit. I would be amazed at a Harvard or Wharton but those programs are extremely competitive and I don't know if my profile has the strength. Realistically below are my choices in order:
- Columbia
- Tuck
- Yale
- Johnson
- Darden
- Fuqua
- Goizueta
Any insight on what you think the chances of me getting in R3 for the schools listed above would be helpful or if you think it would be better to wait until next year. I do know that Columbia has a January term, which is very appealing to me and might be why it is at the top of my list.
Thank you very much in advance.
Hi Wofford,
For whatever reasons you were not able to take the GMAT last ear, you have come out on top of that battle with a 740! Its a great score.
I agree with the comments above - applying next admission cycle in R1 is a better bet than applying in R3. Many b-schools on your list have early decision deadlines (Duke and Tuck), Yale typically has a deadline in early September and CBS has a rolling deadline that starts in the early summer. So technically, you are only a few more months away from applying, and those are the best rounds to apply to if you are certain about attending those programs. And this interim time gives you the window to go hiking and conquer your acrophobia, as well as seriously get involved in volunteering.
Hope that helps
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Updated on: 12 Feb 2017, 08:51
