Hello,
Firstly, I want to say thanks in advance for taking the time to critique my profile.
You're most welcome. I'll respond inline to this post.I am planning to apply next fall (2011) and would love to hear anything you have to say.
Age: 22 (24/25 at matriculation)
GPA: 3.88/4.00 overall, roughly 3.85/4.00 major GPA
-Only blemishes are:
-First two years, my GPA was about 3.97 and the last two years it was about 3.75-3.80
-Took maybe two-three classes in my minor as pass/fail
-The reason I have for both of these is that I worked full-time to support / pay for my education when during my last two years. Regarding the pass/fail classes, I felt that my workload was almost too much and that taking my minor classes pass/fail would allow me to concentrate more fully my major classes (which I hope is supported by my major GPA)
These are not blemishes. I think they show good judgment.
School/Major: UC Davis, BA Economics, Minor Anthropology, was a Regents Scholar (highest merit scholarship at school), completed incoming freshman honors program, received Department Citation in Economics
GMAT: 730 - 49Q (87%), 41V (91%), 6.0 AWA
Ethnicity/Gender: Caucasian Male
Career: Have spent the last year working as a fund accountant/administrator at a well-respected, large-cap Fortune 500 financial services firm. Assuming everything goes well, I will have 3 - 3.5 years of work experience at matriculation. I anticipate being promoted before I apply next fall and I'm also hoping to take a two to three month voluntary short-term assignment in another part of the country by then as well. If you can speak to how much either of those things would bolster my profile, please do so.
A promotion shows growth and career progress. It is a vote of confidence in you and as such will definitely bolster your application. I can't comment on the short-term assignment. I simply don't know enough about it.EC's: Admittedly, this is my weakest area. I didn't do much in UG, so I will be spending the next year doing meaningful volunteer work. Moreover, I believe I have lined up an opportunity which will lead to a leadership position in a volunteer capacity.
Good move.Future career path: I'm still unsure of this (and this is one of the reasons why I am not applying this fall), but I am considering the following specializations: Human Resources, Health Care Management, and Finance.
Target Schools: Obviously, I need to decide what I want to do before I decide on a few schools, but I have a preliminary list consisting of the following:
HBS, Booth, Wharton, GSB, Sloan, Kellogg, Columbia, Tuck, Haas, Cornell, Ross, Stern, Yale, Fuqua, Anderson, and Emory
If I had to narrow it down to six or seven right now (if you don't have time to evaluate my chances at all of the above), I'd probably go with:
HBS, Booth, Wharton, Haas, Anderson, Emory, and Ross
You do have a competitive profile for these schools, but you are correct that you need to hone your goal before you can really narrow it down. Best MBA Programs: A Guide to Choosing the One for You may be helpful to you.For what it's worth, my actual GMAT was lower than almost all of my practice tests and I think I could raise it to 750 or higher if necessary. As it stands now, though, I think the requisite study time would be better spent rounding out my profile (working hard towards getting promoted and doing meaningful volunteer work). If my thinking is off-base, please feel free to correct it.
I couldn't agree more with your thinking. Your GMAT is fine. Focus on the other elements.Thanks for taking the time to evaluate my profile and please feel free to be as candid and forthcoming as possible.