sudden wrote:
aaudetat wrote:
I have an econ development background in a community development credit union (i.e. a crazy liberal who likes finances and poor people). 3.94 gpa, Phi Beta Kappa, but a small tier-2 private liberal arts school in the midwest. 710 GMAT, with great verbal (99%) but ho-hum quant (64% -- but I did get an A in calculus in college). 6 years work experience, much of which is national-level stuff. Kickin' community experience, lots of leadership in the office and out. International experience - 4 languages. Planning to take statistics starting in January - a little late since I am applying now, but I figure it can't hurt and they can always ask to see my mid-terms or something. Cornell, Yale, Duke, UNC with a long-term goal of staying in economic development and taking the credit union field by storm. Short-term: CRA for Block or Citigroup. Gotta know the other side to fight 'em. And it'd be nice to finally make some dough and have some resources to throw at the problems I am working on.
congrats on Duke. you have a strong, interesting profile.
a couple of questions:
1) did you get hassled about your low GMAT quant? one math course with an A is better than none, but you hardly qualify as a quant jock. do you find the b school math too challenging? my sense is the focus on one's quant background is a little overblown. accounting? finance? regression? please. i majored in english lit and i don't think any of those subjects are hard.
my GMAT is similar but slightly more balanced. my GPA is lower but average at the schools i am applying to. i went to a state school.
2) the schools you applied to are great schools, but i am wondering why you decided not to take a crack at the UE cluster. it seems like you would have been competitive. (duke is a great school -- please don't get me wrong -- i'm just trying to expand my knowledge of how nonprofits fit in and get in, and you may know something i don't.)
3) can you elaborate on your community experience? i think my community experience is actually better than my workex (which is of average quality) -- i am wondering how this will be perceived. for example, in addition to the stuff listed above, i raised $255,000 for charity --that has to stand out in the app process, but don't know if it will make up for other weaknesses (quant, lack of pedigree, a few black marks on transcript).
congrats again and thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for the kind words.
1. I didn't get hassled about the quant stuff. Some of my classmates were required to go the summer math camp, but I wasn't. It might be that I did well enough on the GMAT - it's not great, but it's not like I totally bombed it. It could be the econ and calc in college. It could be that I took stats over the summer. It could be that I worked in a credit union. I dunno.
As far as feeling behind the others -- it's ok. When i look at the world, I think of it in terms of words, not numbers. sometimes that puts me behind. While I immediately get stuff that's word-based, the numbers stuff takes a bit more time. But if you look at my grades, I'm obviously keeping up. If you did CFA, you should be fine.
2. When I was choosing my portfolio, I focused on schools that were small (duke was the exception), strong in gen mgmt, but also strong in NP. I didn't worry too much about rankings, provided the schools were at or above the near-elite frontier level. Of the UEs, I considered Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, and Wharton. I ditched Wharton for being to quant-y and ditched H just for being annoying. I really liked Stanford and had planned to make it my 5th school -- had the application 3/4 done -- but my life fell apart on me and it didn't get finished in time. When deciding where to apply, I practically flipped a coin between K and Duke.
I guess I regret not applying to S or K a little bit, especially Kellogg. I think I would have been competitive, and I really like Chicago. I love Duke and am perfectly happy, but there's always that "could I have gotten in?" question in my head. But whatever. I try not to worry too much about the rankings.
3. As someone else mentioned, some schools are way more into the community stuff than others. If your extracurrics are good, then work them into your essays to demonstrate your abilities and values. Besides, you want a balanced package that shows your work and your life.
I sort of consider my work experience also community work -- I mean, I made no money and worked with low-income people for 6 straight years, one of those years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA (think domestic peace corps). But I did other stuff too - founding member of the Ithaca Cooperative Softball League, spent two years as team captain and League Commissioner. Take Back the Night Treasurer. Board Member: Recycle Ithaca's Bicycles & Ithaca Health Alliance. On the steering committee of my trade association. Did foster dog care. Talked about all the work we did on our house in Ithaca. And was super-busy in college with this stuff, so some of that was included.
4. My unsolicited advice: don't worry about the black marks. You seem like a well-rounded person with a good package. Think about what your profile is, and how you want the adcoms to think of you. Socially Minded Finance Guy seems like a good label. Make sure your essays support that, or whatever other themes you have in mind.
Where did you apply?