sourabhsur123 wrote:
Thanks a lot Jon for taking out time and giving such a helpful feedback. I have few questions here-
Hey there,
no problem dude,
Let's get to your answers one by one.
sourabhsur123 wrote:
1. First of all, by "applying to good spread of schools" did you mean that I should include few schools ranked below Tepper? I have planned to include UNC Kenan Flagler as well but as of now not looking to go for schools ranked below it. Will my schools of choice then be too risky?
Well, when I say Top 15, it's not a hard cutoff. As you know the rankings are flexible and debatable. But basically what I mean is that spread yourself out a bit and you will be fine. For example if you applied to both UNC and Tepper plus higher ranked schools, I'd call that a fair strategy for you as your profile is pretty strong.
sourabhsur123 wrote:
2. Secondly, I totally agree that I need to work a lot on structuring my story.In regards to post-mba goals, actually I have been interested in finance since my undergrad days , had taken a couple of courses in finance in my undergrad school as well and did well in them. My interest in it magnified once I got into preparing for CFA ,FRM and other certifications and reading various finance related materials and also my current project has given me a good experience of risk management , thus developing a strong penchant for corporate finance and risk management. My sole reason of deciding for an MBA is to facilitate a smooth transitioning of my career from a pure tech role to a Fin-tech role so that I can pursue my passion of working in the field of finance as well as continue my prior and strong experience in tech. My question is whether portraying my post-mba goal as mentioned back-fire and not go down well with the b-schools ,as I do not have any prior work-ex in finance.
I gotcha dude, but be careful here. Interest in finance is not equivalent to a good strategy. I'll tell you a secret. The large majority of folks who come to us for help start off with the idea of presenting goals of moving into finance. Until we advice them away form it. You know why everyone wants to move into finance? There's one reason: Money. The jobs are just very well paid. Not that I doubt your interest. But I mean you have to look at the things from the Adcoms perspective. You can either be yet another candidate who unrealistically wants to move to PE in competition against lots of big banking dudes with the right background skills and connection, who have proven careers... OR you can be a unique media manager who wants to move up in one of the world's biggest media/product conglomerates. Hmmmmmm. Choice is easy my friend..
Plus, once you get IN, do whatever you want, and do whatever works for you best. But your being interested in something, doesn't make it a good strategy necessarily.
sourabhsur123 wrote:
3. Lastly, I had aced in almost everything academically till my undergrad results. Partly because of health issues and partly because of being careless I scored below average in first 3 sems of my undergrad school , which led to my less than stellar gpa even after getting admitted to undergad school with a scholarship ( Although I had pulled up my socks and performed well in all of my remaining semesters with an upward trend in my gpa every sem). My point is I believe my gpa do not reflect my true potential and I plan to address this in the optional essays. So will it be advisable to do so or will it give a negative impression and attract undue attention to my gpa?
As your GPA is good, and not awful, I'd just let sleeping dogs lie, and work on the rest of my application.
sourabhsur123 wrote:
My apologies for bombarding you with so many questions, but will be really helpful if you could answer a few.
Thanks a lot once again.
Sourabh
No apologies necessary. Happy to help,
JF
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30 May 2015, 09:03
