Ok so update..received a positive result on the waivers from MIT and NYU. MIT's came 36 hours after I submitted and NYU's came a week late per when they said they would inform us. So, I received waivers from Ross/Darden/NYU/MIT. Will be trying for Cornell again, but, as I mention in another post, their process is such that you request a waiver as a part of the application process. The others let you know ahead of time if the waiver request is granted (much more preferable).
For those asking (quite a few people messages me yesterday) about how I went about the process, here are some basic facts about me to know before I get into how I wrote my request letters/packages:
-72 months of professional experience at planned matriculation date (i.e. August 2022)
-46 years of Big4 audit experience in two different office locations (one is a mid sized city and other is largest city in the nation)
-26 months (at matriculation) of transaction advisory services (i.e. Deal advisory/Due Diligence) at a niche firm but not Big4
-Licensed CPA
-3.21 undergrad GPA from a top 50 undergrad business program
-White and born in the US
-A lot of leadership extracurriculars (On various boards at Big4, Fraternity President, Actively involved in alumni relations, etc.)
Waiver Requests: Focus on quantitative achievements and connect it to the bigger picture and why it matters. For me, that was simply saying that I am a licensed CPA (which was obviously not a simple process to earn) and that I deal with a ton of data every day over a variety of industries, am fast in excel, and am good at making an overwhelming amount of information simple to understand. My work affects the decision making of blue chip private equity firms as they consider to purchase/invest in a company or not. I am the quant behind the graphs and tables but also can write up what it means and why its important to them. Essentially, I relayed to them that I think of myself as a Poet and Quant (like the website).
I also did this in a manner that explained how I started my career at big4 and what i learned--> how it made me choose my current role --> and why these things would make me a good candidate for admission into their program. I also created a separate analysis PDF package from an excel file that I created that analyzes my GPA (3.21) and explains why they should really think of the GPA as a 3.46. I do not want to get into the specifics of why they should believe/follow that story, but i am proud of the work that I did to explain my perhaps lower GPA away. I didn't lie and there were very good reasons for it, so don't think that I was being dishonest. If you cannot explain away your lower GPA,
don't do it. My package had visuals, explanations of the visuals, "pro-forma GPA" calculations, etc. It looks like a professional package because I took it as a chance to show off some of my skills. If you do this and don't clearly/concisely explain what all of it means, you will probably annoy them so be careful.
With the exception of MIT, I started and finished my waiver request on the first day that it was open to the public. I wanted to show them all that I was very serious and believe that punctuality conveys this often. You will not be able to do this at this point in the application, but get it over with ASAP. At the end of the day, this is all a business case. Give a good/honest story and explain why you can hang/fit in with your future classmates.
aet0407
sunshinedaydream
anyone receive a waiver for the gmat and other standardized tests from NYU yet? I received gmat waivers from Darden, Ross, MIT already. Waiting on NYU only and Cornell makes you go through the full application process but allows a waiver request.
Not yet. But yes I did received the waiver from MIT as well too!
MIT responded in a very quick manner - the decision took less than one week