Hello! Sorry for the long post, I know how great your feedback is so I wanted to include as much detail as I could. Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
**Personal**
Male
26 years old
American with Pakistani heritage
**Stats**
GMAT: 710, Q47/V40/IR8/AWA6
I've taken the exam twice and scored a 710 both times. The latest was Q47/V41/IR7/AWA6
Undergrad: Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration/ Majored in Finance with Cum Laude distinction.
3.44 GPA, decent Midwest public university. GPA suffered in freshman year with science heavy classes; I was originally premed and hated it. Switched to Finance and did much better while actually enjoying learning, so upward trajectory. My general education requirements were completed at a community college with a 4.0 GPA and are not factored into the above average. Also, I worked full time while completing my last two years of university.
**Extracurricular**
Not too much in college; I participated in a few events for local non-profit organizations, but most of my time was spent working.
Post graduation, I have been actively volunteering regularly through my current job at a nonprofit mutual health care company; we have a huge presence in the community.
Also, I have been volunteering and have organized charitable events through my place of worship for about a year (I organize a food distribution the first saturday of every month that serves 70-80 families), and also provide tutoring.
I also teach jiu jitsu to kids aged 6-14 and run the kids’ program at my gym.
Finally, a few years ago, I had a bad shoulder injury in the gym and was assigned physical therapy by my doctor. After visiting my local clinic, I hit it off immediately with the owner and lead therapist and we talked about his dream to convert his clinic from a post-op specialization to sports medicine. Since then, I have been doing pro bono consulting for them the last three years. I've helped enhance their community presence by starting two initiatives; the first was to partner with a local nonprofit health organization and assign one therapist a week to provide free therapy services to uninsured members of the community (we do this every Thursday). The second is a “Practice What You Preach” program where we invite health care professionals to come train in our new facility to see the benefits of physical exercise and recovery methods over heavy prescriptions. This has been a tremendous success and caused a huge spike in patient referrals from doctors who have participated in this program.
**Work Experience**
1 year as an economic technician with the state government; first job out of college. Performed economic analysis on employment trends and wage figures in coordination with the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2 years as a financial analyst at big 3 auto company: forecast and analyze tooling, material, and labor costs across several high profile vehicle programs; worked on several high impact cost saving projects, as well as managed our tooling audit team that recovered over $5M of overspend during my tenure (sounds like a lot but our program budgets were colossal).
2 years as a senior financial analyst at large non profit mutual healthcare company: more corporate finance work; responsible for my entire department’s month end financial reporting and account reconciliations. Have implemented several process improvements and automated data entry processes. Managed three projects that have had high visibility and impact throughout the company; currently managing fourth and largest project to consolidate our two invoicing systems. Also sit on board of our protected health information committee which is responsible for upholding HIPAA regulations and client confidentiality throughout the company; received two promotions.
**Goal of MBA**
While I want to stay in healthcare, my goal is to move out of corporate finance and into strategy consulting, with a concentration in healthcare. I think I have a solid base with my professional experiences on the payor side, as well as my volunteer experience on the provider side. I'm hoping that an MBA will help bridge the gap I have in my comprehensive understanding of the industry, and also give me exposure to other players in the industry that I have not yet had (biomedical/pharmaceutical companies), which would allow me to be better equipped for a move into consulting. Long term, after gaining experience in various segments of the industry through consulting, I'd like to come back to the payor side at a Director level (I’ve talked to some of the directors at my current company and this is a common path they take).
**Target Schools**
My absolute dream school is Ross. I’ve done a lot of research on them and have attended about a dozen of their admissions events over the last year and a half, completed a campus tour, visited their leadership center, spoke with a few adcoms, and several current students. I love their commitment to experiential learning and feel like this program fits me like a glove.
Aside from Ross, I am also planning on applying to Fuqua, which I am just as excited about. I've attended several of their events as well, spoke with a few current students and a director at their Health Sector Management program. Both programs have excellent placement in consulting, and healthcare courses that align exactly with what I'm looking for. They both also have a 'learn by doing’ theme, and I would be thrilled with an acceptance to either.
I'm planning on applying R1 for 2019 intake.
If you’ve read this far, I really appreciate it! Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
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