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Augustus
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Joined: 08 Oct 2009
Last visit: 30 Jul 2010
Posts: 63
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Location: Denmark, Europe
Concentration: General Management, Finance
Schools:Darden Class of 2012
Posts: 63
Kudos: 69
Profile evaluation please 07 Nov 2009, 01:32
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Age: 25 (26 at matriculation)

GMAT-score: 730 - 49Q, 40V (first try)

Quote:

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Economist, Danmarks Nationalbank (part-time until 1/1/2010, full-time afterwards) 9/1/2009 —

Danmarks Nationalbank is the Danish Central Bank. I am employed in the Capital Markets Division in a section with focus on financial stability. My main responsibilities are:
- Researching the role and significance of the capital adequacy rules in the banking industry.
- Conducting various analysis of the financial stability in Denmark.
- Giving external presentations on a range of topics, including (but not limited to) monetary policy, financial stability and the recent financial crisis.
Student Analyst, Danmarks Nationalbank (part-time) 11/1/2006 — 8/30/2009

Prior to being an economist at Danmarks Nationalbank I was a student analyst in the same office. A list of my key accom-plishments during this tenure follows:
- Maintained, improved and extended a statistical model of credit risk.
- Carried out individual empirical analysis and also served to assist the economists of the office in their analysis on different financial stability issues.
- Maintained and build databases.
Previous working history summarized 1999 — 10/30/2006

I have worked part-time jobs more or less continuously since 1999 (except for one year breaks at the beginning of college and undergrad, respectively). In addition to the positions mentioned above I have worked as student employee at the National Board of Health, student employee at GE Money Bank, telemarketer at Politiken (Danish newspaper), receptionist at Textware A/S (Danish IT-company) and service employee at Kvickly (Danish supermarket).


ACTIVITIES
- Voluntary leader of activities at a study café Danish Red Cross. I have led a team of 21 volunteers since 08/01/2009. The aim of the study café is to help immigrant children with their homework. During my tenure as leader we have experienced an increase in the number of children attending the initiative and I have increased the number of volunteers from 15 to 21. I was a volunteer at this initiative for 9 months prior to being appointed as leader.
- Social engagement at University of Copenhagen. During my 5 years at University of Copenhagen I have been a tutor (helping new students) twice, mentor for an international student once and, finally, I have been engaged at the introductory program for new students fivefold.
- Military duty. I served my military duty at the Danish Emergency Management Agency from December 2004 – June 2005. During this period I became a trained firefighter, paramedic and rescuer. Moreover, I was the Representative of Welfare of my team.

EDUCATION

M.Sc. in Economics, University of Copenhagen 07/01/2007-02/01/2010 (expected)

University of Copenhagen is globally ranked as 36th best university in Social Sciences (7th in Europe) at topuniversities.com. I am currently working on my master thesis which concludes my masters-degree. My major accomplishments thus far during my masters are:

- A current GPA of 10.73 (out of 12) which puts me in the 99th percentile of the Economics students at the university.
- Getting nominated twice for the McKinsey Prize for Best Economic Seminar Paper (fall 2008 and spring 2009).
- Taking one semester of my M.Sc. at UNL (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) in Lisbon, Portugal.

B.Sc. in Economics, University of Copenhagen 07/01/2004-06/31/2007
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I have landed a fellowship in Copenhagen which gives me $50K for Darden specifically! Upon researching their program, I'm very enthusiastic about it. My interest are finance and GM and I do like the idea of the case method. Furthermore the $50K and many positive personal accounts of Darden (due to the fellowship) certainly appear on the 'pros'-side as well.

The only thing I'm a little worried about is school reputation. Do you guys think that I should go for one of the ultra elites, and do I even stand a chance there?

Thank you very much in advance!
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tmino
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Profile evaluation please 07 Nov 2009, 07:52
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You have a pretty impressive profile (GMAT, academics, extra-curriculars). I think your main weakness is your work experience. On average, students have 4-5 years of full-time work experience when entering the MBA program. You would have 9 months by fall 2010 if I read your post correctly. With the Darden scholarship, does this give you almost an automatic entry to Darden? If so it may be worth pursuing, given that at most other top MBA programs you may have difficulty getting in this year due to your few months of full-time work ex. But that's a personal choice you need to make ($50K plus getting into Darden more easily vs. waiting and attending a top 10 school). With 2+ years of work ex, your chances are probably better. I'm sure you could crack a few top 10 b-schools then.
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Augustus
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Joined: 08 Oct 2009
Last visit: 30 Jul 2010
Posts: 63
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Location: Denmark, Europe
Concentration: General Management, Finance
Schools:Darden Class of 2012
Posts: 63
Kudos: 69
Profile evaluation please 08 Nov 2009, 02:07
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tmino
You have a pretty impressive profile (GMAT, academics, extra-curriculars). I think your main weakness is your work experience. On average, students have 4-5 years of full-time work experience when entering the MBA program. You would have 9 months by fall 2010 if I read your post correctly. With the Darden scholarship, does this give you almost an automatic entry to Darden? If so it may be worth pursuing, given that at most other top MBA programs you may have difficulty getting in this year due to your few months of full-time work ex. But that's a personal choice you need to make ($50K plus getting into Darden more easily vs. waiting and attending a top 10 school). With 2+ years of work ex, your chances are probably better. I'm sure you could crack a few top 10 b-schools then.
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Thank you for great insights tmino, +1 for you!

Your reply opens up many interesting questions, and I hope you have time to answer some of them.

First off: No, the scholarship does not give me automated entry at Darden. However, it does provide me with a vastly improved access as Darden has had positive experiences with the previous receivers of the fellowship. Moreover, some of the previous receivers are good friends of mine, which will be of help too. Upon scoring sufficiently high in the GMAT I like my chances of getting in to this program.

Now to the questions. It is correct that I will only have 9 months of full-time job experience at matriculation. However, I have worked/am working two (very good) part-time jobs at Danmarks Nationalbank (20 hours/week). The responsibilities I've had here (as a part-time worker) easily surpasses what many people experience with a year or two in IB (This is according to a friend of mine (currently at HBS) who have worked the same part-time positions as I AND at one of the major IB's in London). But is this completely disregarded by adcoms (i.e. only full-time jobs matters?).

Secondly, will my business school experience significantly improve if I hit the job-market for a couple of years prior to getting my MBA?

Thanks in advance :D
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tmino
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Profile evaluation please 08 Nov 2009, 05:51
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Hi Augustus, I guess it will depend on how well you portray your maturity and experience in your essays. If your responsibilities and achievements are as good (or better) than for someone with 2 years of IB experience then I'd say go for some top schools and give it a try (you have nothing to lose). Worst case you re-apply 1-2 years later with more work ex (if you don't attend Darden).

Try to apply to top schools though which more match your profile if you do so. HBS and Stanford could be good picks. Students there tend to be younger with less work ex. Wharton would probably be hard as students there are older with 5+ years of work ex. Some schools like London Business School require a minimum of 2 years of full-time work ex. You will need to do some research. While you may have had great responsibilities during your part-time jobs, they will not count towards full-time pre-MBA experience.

I guess a main question you still have to ask yourself is what is more valuable to you: The 50K scholarship and attending Darden, or going for a top 10 school. If you rather want to attend a top 10 school, maybe apply to top 10 schools this year, and if it doesn't work out, re-apply next year again along with Darden as your safety. So many hard decisions in life :-)...

In my view, attending a top 5 school will have more value in the future than the 50K scholarship in terms of learning experience, global brand recognition, and especially the alumni network. Just my humble opinion.

Good luck!!!
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Augustus
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Joined: 08 Oct 2009
Last visit: 30 Jul 2010
Posts: 63
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Location: Denmark, Europe
Concentration: General Management, Finance
Schools:Darden Class of 2012
Posts: 63
Kudos: 69
Profile evaluation please 08 Nov 2009, 06:43
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Thanks tmino,

That's excellent input for my decision.

+1 yet again!