Profile evaluation: future MFin applicant.

Question

Hi there.

Age:currently 20, will be applying at 22, Russian male
TOEFL:112/120
GMAT:740 (49q 41v)
GPA: currently around 3.7/5 in top-1 university in Russia, math/computer science major. Will be a possibility to improve GPA up to 4.5/5. Currently 3 years finished and 2 more to go (we have 5 year degrees)
Work ex: 1 year at largest Russian system integration company, dealing with CRM implementation for major financial services firm. Currently on 5th month of my internship in Big 4 FS consulting and planning to do it till next summer. In summer, I hope i will get a BB or our local IB's internship(in Russia our local banks are much bigger than BB's). I am also thinking about passing CFA lvl 1 till my graduation.
Extracurriculars: Actually none for now, except for participation in case competition with no awards obtained. Think will become a member of student-managed hedge-fund this fall.

Target schools: MIT Mfin is number 1 priority
Then go claremont mckena, villanova, vanderbilt, WUSTL

So the question is-do I have a shot in MIT? And what should i do in that year and a half that i still have before application deadline?

Thanks in advance.

Admissionado · Answer

Hey there,
I think you will be in very good shape, and will have a shot at MFin at MIT. You have a fantastic profile with all the right boxes ticked - good long internships (continue along the route) great grades, great test scores, top Uni. I like your idea of managing a Hedge fund if you can work it out. the only thing that is a bit missing (and could be nice) is a bit of volunteer work to round yourself off as a candidate. That and make sure you take every opportunity to get every good internship you can get, and you should be as strong as you can get when it comes time for you to apply.

Best,
JF

fessxxx · Answer

Thank you very much. Will try to figure out how to do some volunteer work, although it seems nearly impossible with full-time work + full-time study. Also the grades are actually very bad (they are on 5 points scale).

Admissionado · Answer

You're right your grades aren't thaaaaaat fantastic on a five point scale. But tell me, for your university, do they do rankings or percentiles? And where would your grade fit?

fessxxx · Answer

There is nothing like this in my uni, i even don't know my exact GPA, as i don't know, which grades will be in my diploma and which will be not (not all grades count there). For now it is approximately 50 percentile, but noone really knows. Still such grades in my uni account for 5.0/5.0 in most other in the country

Admissionado · Answer

Hmmm, allright, well then in that case leave things as they are. The grades aren't necessarily going to help you out, but they don't look bad either, and all the rest is in order.

fessxxx · Answer

Thank you very much.

Admissionado · Answer

You got it sir,
Good luck.
And if you got anything else, you know where to find us,

Profile evaluation: future MFin applicant.

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