Anderson or Berkeley

Question

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted some insight on which school I might have a chance at and which school would be best for my career path.
Here is a little info on my background.

I was an older student (26 years old at graduation) who graduated with my BBA in finance from Georgia State University in 2011 Cum Laude with a 3.53 GPA. Currently working for a natural gas firm in Denver, CO as an analyst dealing with the Nymex and day trading. Worked full time (40-50 hours a week) as a Sous Chef for 3 years while in school full time (15-18 credits) managing 5-10 people. Had an Internship with MetLife summer before graduation where I was elected team leader for my group and asked to design and present a case study involving an extensive financial plan for a fictional couple. My team won the competition against all 60 other interns from across the country. We were awarded $1000/person and I was asked to present it to all other interns, grading professors, and VP of MetLife. Last two years in school worked for an insurance brokerage firm contributing to sales quotes for group benefit packages. Have worked at least 30+ hours a week since I was 14 and paid for my entire education on my own. Want to apply to UCLA or CAL in Fall 2014 (giving me 36 months of work experience at matriculation and 29 years old). Looking to continue my passion and career path in Wealth Management and eventually want to be a Portfolio Manager running my own firm. I feel confident I will get at least a 700 on GMAT taking it this fall but without any studying got a 640 on practice tests. 
So here are the questions I have:

Realistically, do I have a shot at getting into these schools? 
I Truly fell UCLA is the best fit and program for me but can I get into this school am I competitive seeing as how it is a great program? 
Would I have a shot at Berkeley considering it is a bit harder and what program of these two schools has a better Wealth Management/Finance concentration for what I want to do?
Should I consider any other schools like Stanford or Harvard?

Thanks for any input

Jason

method · Answer

Easy, tiger! You have one year of non-elite-pedigreed business work experience and you're bringing up Harvard and Stanford.

With everything you're listing in your post, it's clear you're trying to show that you've done a lot of work, which you have certainly. But many MBA admissions officers don't want to know about your undergraduate internships, as in... don't put on the resume. Sous chef is interesting, and might even be a plus if you were talking about doing brand management in the food industry, but you're aiming at finance, so I'm not sure that does anything for you.

You don't have much work experience, so if you want to prove you have the stuff, this might be a case where you need to think about the CFA. Get a level or two under your belt and apply to somewhere like UCLA.

Youngjames · Answer

hi jrcheves...it's hard to say whether or not you'd be competitive at UCLA or Haas, b/c there's still a lot of data missing. such as, why you graduated late, what you want to do post grad, what kind of recos you could get, etc. but if you just want an evaluation of the numbers, your numbers are not what will keep you out (provided you can hit 700+ on the GMAT). your grades are solid. not the strongest program, but you did well in a quant subject. but to the points mentioned above, getting into UCLA (let alone S or H) requires extremely strong career progress. based on what you've written, i'm not sure you're there just yet. with all that said, there's never a hard in rolling the dice and applying. altho the process is very time consuming.

hope that's helpful
-james young

hope that's helpful
-james young

Anderson or Berkeley

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