Request for Profile Review

Question

Hello,

I would appreciate it if you could evaluate my profile and provide feedback. Thank you!

Currently, 26yr old Asian American Male. 27 at Matriculation.

College- 2 yrs at community college (3.8 GPA), then 2 years at UC Riverside (3.15 GPA). Combined GPA ~3.5. GPA fell at UCR due to familial obligations of taking care of a sick relative. Will use optional essay to discuss this.

GMAT: GMAT Prep Test Score of 740 (49Q 41V) Let's assume I will score between 720-740 on the real test.

Work Exp
1.5 yrs- Wealth Advisor at Guardian Life. My team and I specialized in working with business clients on insurance and investment programs, corporate tax planning, and business succession planning. I took this role out of college to really strengthen my soft skills (boardroom presentations, relationship building, communication, etc..). I am a huge believer in working on my professional skills and at the time, my soft skills were lacking in my opinion.

What will be ~3.5 yrs (at matriculation) as a analyst in Product Management at a Top 15 P&C Insurance Company (~$4B in revenue). I love the work I do. This role marries two interests of mine- data analytics and leading cross functional executive level projects within the company. I have plenty of quantitatively-backed examples of the impact I have had. The P&C insurance industry is going through a transformation and it will be heavily disrupted within the next 10-15 years by autonomous vehicles. I aspire to be a leader of a top 5 insurer in the long run and guide the industry through the changing landscape.

Extracurriculars: Vice Chair of a Young Entrepreneurs non-profit organization for 4 years. I was brought in to grow the membership base, and I was able to grow it from ~300 to now over 2,400 members. We provide entrepreneur education and community to grow and collaborate. I also started a volunteer program within this organization and we have volunteered over 3,000 hours at local food banks, beach clean ups, Easter egg hunts, soup kitchens, local libraries, etc..

Organized a basketball team through work. We play in a local men's league. I will somehow incorporate the importance sports (and basketball, specifically) has had in my personal and professional development over the past 18 years.

United Way Rep for 2017. Organized fundraisers and food drives at work. Launched our first Annual Silent Auction which raised more money than any other event.

Short-Term Goal: To work in strategy consulting (MBB, Deloitte, ATK, etc..)

Target Schools: Columbia, MIT, Kellogg, Ross, Fuqua, Darden, Cornell, NYU, UCLA. I will shorten this list but those are the schools I have an interest in.

Admissionado · Answer

The bad news: Your undergrad GPA is going to be a concern among these target schools & will be below their average, especially considering where your undergrad institution falls in terms of rank.

The good news: You'll have a solid GMAT score assuming you do land in the range you're projecting and you have some solid work experience as well as extracurriculars. You're also coming from a unique industry - insurance is not that common among b-school applicants. And the point you make about autonomous cars is really interesting & unique as well. 
My advice would be to scrap consulting for the ST & stick to the insurance industry for the ST & LT. Consulting is a super common goal whereas insurance is not - and the adcom also looks at the ST goal through the lens of "what will best prepare this candidate for his/her LT goal." And in your case, I think they'd see insurance as the most logical ST step. In addition to being the best prep for a LT career in insurance, it's also a much more unique goal than consulting, like I said, and will help you stand out. Someone who can show genuine passion for insurance is going to be a unique candidate - and you've got some really cool stuff you could pull on here when you talk about autonomous cars & how that will disrupt the industry. You are going to want to convey your goals in a way that makes an adcom member who finds insurance super boring thing that what you aspire to do actually sounds super cool.

Given your undergrad & GPA, schools like MIT & Kellogg are still going to really be in the reach category, but assuming some strong essays, a GMAT in the range you predict, and some strong ST & LT career goals I think you have a shot at the others for sure!

LakersFanCali · Answer

Thanks for the reply Jon!

Couple thoughts:

If I could push my GMAT score up to 760 would that help with Kellogg/MIT or do you believe I should focus on the other schools on the list? Any thoughts on which school I have the best shot at?

I get what you are saying with keeping insurance as my ST goal. I actually have (what I think is) a good story about consulting. I have spoken to a few former consultants who are leaders at insurance companies now and talked to them about how consulting positioned them to succeed in insurance. There are a lot of skills I wish the further refine and I believe that consulting is the most efficient route to do so. Adcom also seem to ask about back up goals and that is where I plan to talk about the top post-mba insurance recruiters (ex. Liberty Mutual recruits for their internal strategy team and a LDP). All in all, the insurance industry seems to be utilizing consultants more and more and I want to get a better breadth of experience in insurance consulting prior to going back into insurance.

I appreciate your words of wisdom!

Admissionado · Answer

Hey there! Here are some additional thoughts to keep in mind:

The truth is consulting DOES set you up to do just about anything, and you can find all sorts of ex-consutants in all sorts of leadership roles in all sorts of industries who can point to the skills they leverage from their consulting days. That said, when the adcom is looking at your ST goal, they want to see one that is the VERY best prep for your LT goal. One important thing to keep in mind with consulting is that as a new consultant straight out of b-school you are going to have zero control over which clients or projects you are assigned. So there is an extremely good chance you will be on projects that have nothing to do with insurance. If you envision yourself in a LT role where strategy is a super critical skill set, then you can make an argument that consulting will help you in the ST because you will gain strategy skills no matter what type of client you are assigned to.

And then, like I said, you want to think about things from the adcom's point of view. Will they agree that consulting is the very best first step? A lot will also depend on the details of your LT goal & what you envision accomplishing in that role. That will set you up to articulate your skill gaps, which will then allow you to define the skills you plan to achieve in b-school and in your ST goal.

And - to answer your GMAT question - a 760 would help for sure. That would outweigh the GPA & would allow them to set aside any fears that you're not up for the rigors of b-school. In terms of which schools are the best targets, usually we prefer to get more info about our clients before we give specific direction (since a lot will depend on the specifics of your goals, what you're looking for in terms of culture, etc) but you are definitely in the right range and if you can get a 760 schools like Kellogg & MIT will be more in reach.

Hope that helps!

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