Hello, I am a recent graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BSBA with a concentration in finance. 3.4 GPA with a strong trend upwards. 650GMAT. Only finance related work experience is as an assistant to a financial advisor for about a year. Also Bloomberg market concept certified and was part of a school project where I provided an investment recommendation to the university’s endowment fund.

I was wondering if I could get some insight on what MSF programs I should target with my resume?

I’m currently looking at Tulane, SMU, Villanova, and LSU. I would love to hear some insight on my odds of being accepted into those programs as well as suggestions for other programs.

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3.4GPA is good. 650 GMAT isn't bad.

1) You will most likely get into LSU and Tulane. Both would bolster your existing network and give you a good alumni base for finding a job your current geography.

2) You will most likely get into Villanova as well, but you will be relying almost entirely on that alumni base for jobs in the Northeast. Nova is a good school (I went), but I would see a significant decline in the number of graduates working outside of the northeast and maybe west coast.

My advice is as follows. Unless you absolutely want to work in say NYC, focus on schools the help your existing network. If you boost your GMAT, Vanderbilt would be the ideal school. Otherwise, Tulane should be your focus. School is respected and has a presence in Texas energy as well as the gulf. You could easily get a job in Houston from Tulane and that would give you the work experience to move elsewhere in 2-4 years (if you want). Outside of Tulane, you have LSU, Georgia State, maybe SMU, Texas A&M, schools like that. You'll place well in the south, but things will be more regional.
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Hi Joesonnier,

From the first glance itself, you have a heavy concentration of finance related activities in your profile which showcases your consistency and clarity regarding the field you want to build your career in. Moreover, your 3.4 GPA further vouches for your strong academic prowess. Moving on, your GMAT score of 650 is pretty competitive, however you need to ensure that you have a good quant score which will act as a testament to your analytical abilities, which is a crucial requirement for a degree in finance.

Talking about your work experience, you have successfully transitioned your passion for finance in the professional set up by working as an assistant to a financial advisor. Though this experience is pretty decent and showcases relevancy in the field you want to pursue your masters in, you would still be facing a lot of competition from applicants who hail from the big 4 finance firms. Thus, you need to get to the granular details of your work experience by showcasing how you went above and beyond in your endeavours. Here, you can draw attention towards the kind of projects you handled, the skills you gained and your major takeaways from the same.

Furthermore, your participation in extracurricular activities to draw attention to your varied skills is equally important as it will showcase a holistically developed profile which is what the schools are looking for. To give you a brief idea of how to go about with this, you can maybe talk about the clubs and associations you were involved in, the teams you led, certifications you undertook and most importantly your volunteering activities. It will basically highlight your soft skills paired with your social skills which can ultimately vouch for the budding leader within you.

Speaking of the schools that you want to target for a MSF program, all come under the competitive category, where your chances of acceptance stands around 60-70%. However, you need to hedge your bets wisely by targeting a good mix of at least 6-8 schools. Here, are some top B-schools that I would suggest you to take a look at from the competitive category:

NUS, Georgetown, University of Illinois, University of Minnesota and Ohio Fisher.

All things considered, you can boost your chances of acceptance, by drawing attention to the stronger aspects of your profile which can be achieved through your application. Your application is basically what differentiates you by highlighting your strengths and overshadowing your weaknesses which in your case is your low GPA. Additionally, it also carries a 30% impact on your admission prospects which is why I would urge you to pay more attention to the same.

Thus, if you are contemplating on how to draft an impactful application, you can check out our All-in-one service which has helped 3500+ applicants secure admits from the top schools. Moreover it is a complete end to end consulting process aimed at providing personalised application suggestions, unlimited edits and expert consultants who would constantly be there to help you throughout your application journey!

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Hope this helped!
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