Beijinger wrote:
Lurked around the MBA forums, but lack of experience is starting to point to masters in accounting. Need advice on schools to apply to and possible chances for this Fall. Looking to get into Big 4 audit/tax.
Stats
26 year old white male
State School GPA - 3.68; Accounting Major; Minors - Economics, Chinese, Business
3 semesters as vice president of BAP chapter
Taking GMAT this summer and going for ~700
Post grad: 2 years Mandarin Chinese language courses in Beijing
Currently finishing up a 2 year masters in accounting at the top program? in China. However, it is research focused and taught entirely in Chinese so my GPA has suffered greatly; expecting 2.4 at graduation this summer. I'm the only international student in class with most in the business school dropping out or failing. I'll be the first and only to hold a degree in accounting in China as a foreigner. I know I can pull the language card, but I'm hoping a high GMAT will back me up on the GPA.
Experience
US:
3 years bookkeeping at family company
1 year collections at bank
Beijing:
8 months investment analyst
Currently at boutique law firm in their bankruptcy department
Will stay at law firm after graduation, so I'll have 1-2 years full time work experience going back to the US in Summer 2014.
Target Schools by area (following girlfriend to law school)
1. Bay Area: UC Davis
2. Boston: Boston College, Northeastern
3. NYC: Baruch, Fordham?, Pace?
Will probably end up in the Bay Area, Boston, or NYC, so which programs should I really be focusing on? Also looking for a little international name recognition if I ever end up back in China.
4. LA: USC
5. DC: George Washington
6. North Carolina: UNC, Wake Forest
7. Upstate NY: SUNY Binghamton
May also apply to University of Illinois, Michigan, and Toronto.
I know it's a long list, but not the typical Texas/Utah bound so I would appreciate any advice in top schools for these areas. Also want to know if the Chinese master's GPA will be an automatic ding. I figure schools will either really like it, or really hate it. I'll explain the need for a second master's as the Chinese one was research focused and if anyone asks, the credits probably don't meet the 150 requirement for CPA.
Thanks in advance and I may see some of you gmat clubbers in class next year!
Are you certain you don't have enough experience to make it into an MBA program? Your experience sounds interesting enough to me. Also, I applied to all MAcc programs except for Santa Clara University's MBA program because they have an Emerging Professionals MBA (all the programs are pretty much the same, however) application for people who have even 0-2 years of experience. So if you'd like to pursue an MBA program and still feel you can't make it into programs that require ~5 years of experience, look into SCU.
That being said, if you're set on pursuing accounting, you should strongly consider UC Irvine for the LA area, as its accounting program is stronger than UC Davis's.
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22 May 2013, 01:07
