Can you please evaluate my profile?

Question

Italian native with a degree (BS in Finance) from a public US school in the South. I came to the US with an athletic scholarship to play tennis and was a one of the most successful players in that school.

I now live in NYC and I have 4 years for sales and trading experience at a large institution but I am currently unemployed. I am a level 3 CFA candidate for June 2011 in top of other licenses (series 7, 63 ect)

Current extra curriculum: I am the treasurer and board member of a theatre in NYC, I have launched an investment blog last year and I contribute to other blogs in the investment industry.

I have scored 660 on the GMAT and I have two good recommendations from my former supervisor and from the chairman of the board of the theatre I am affiliated with.

Columbia is my first choice (I love value investing) but also NYU and Northwestern.

Please advice

Thanks

scottshrum · Answer

Hello,

You have the beginnings of a strong profile but here are two things I recommend that you work on / think about before applying:

1) Naturally, you can't help getting laid off. Especially in this economy, admissions officers will be open-minded about that. But, they will look closely to see that what you've done on your down time. Hopefully your theatre work and new business give you enough to talk about during this time. They will ideally not look like hobbies, but two things you are really devoted to.

2) Your GMAT is low for NYU and Kellogg. That score would put you in the bottom 20-30% of people admitted to those programs. Since your GMAT score is still one of the things in your profile that you can improve, there's no reason not to try. Especially since you're out of work (and presumably have some time on your hands), I would *really* advise that you try to get that score up to 700+.

Good luck!
Scott

mikpanzeri · Answer

Thanks for your opinion. What is I apply to a bit lower schools like UNC, Duke or Cornell, is my 660 GMAT and my backgroud are still not good enough?

Regards,

Mikpanzeri

scottshrum · Answer

Yes, I would say your odds are incrementally better at those schools, but you still have plenty of time. Why not try to get that GMAT score up another 30-40 points?

Good luck!
Scott

mikpanzeri · Answer

Thanks for your quick feedback. I agree with you, I have to take the GMAT once more, at least to show that I am commited to get a higher score. By the way, I scored 50M and 29V, so I basically need to improve my verbal skills. However I find it very hard because some philosophical and biological RC passages are full of terms and concepts that I have never heard of, therefore very hard to understand.

Today I spoke with an admission officer from Cornell at a meeting in NY, and I explained her my situation and she said not to worry about the low verbal part but to explain in the essays why it is low, which goes back to your original point.

Regards,

M

Can you please evaluate my profile?

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