I posted a brief profile of myself in an old thread, here it is but I've updated it:
Quote:
26 year old male (will be 27 when I apply in Fall 2014). I was previously an engineer and just got hired on as an Associate at a PE firm.
Prior to College
-I've been doing volunteer work since around 12 years old, when I started participating in an org to get a skatepark built, which succeeded when I was I believe 19 or 20. I worked with the city engineer and one other person to design what was actually built. I was active with this org the entire time.
-I did a variety of volunteer work, from being an assistant to a Village Board member to helping the local historical society relocate a log cabin and volunteering at a local dance held for people with mental disabilities
College Information
-Graduated from an average public university with a BS Civil Engineering and Economics in 2010
-3.0 GPA
-For a time was in the honors college and for the first 1-2 semesters was on the dean's honor roll
-Participated in a few non-political orgs but, aside from a regional engineering competition we did well in, not really to any meaningful extent
-Politically I was very active:
We founded our own student anti-war organization that gained popularity extremely fast, I was pivotal in this
We organized a student contingent to a city-wide march that was bigger than the whole rest of the march
Staged one of the largest rallies in the university's history, at which I spoke
Held ongoing smaller events such as film showings and speakers
Via a different student org, were able to influence our city to establish a sister-city relationship with a South-American city and organized trips to the city
Worked closely with other student and non-student orgs to build coalitions around certain issues
After College Employment
-Worked in a call center, which required FINRA licensing (obtained Series 6 and 63)
-Worked in technical support for a small local software company, at which I was the best employee and obtained all certifications possible in the given software
-Worked for the past almost two years as a mechanical engineer at a small (~20 person) manufacturing firm:
Not in a leadership position but I had been very proactive in working on resolving business problems and taking initiative
Had been placed as project lead on a few projects, and attempted to get more leadership roles
Worked on improving our products to reduce manfacturing cost by 50%, which I believe would have significantly improved our business prospects
Hoped to have a significant impact on top-line growth of the business
-Just started at a small private equity firm. It's myself and the two partners of the firm currently, and they're getting me involved in literally everything that they do. It's not unrealistic to think I could get promoted from Associate to VP/Principal before matriculating.
After College Other Stuff
-Passed the CFA Level 1 exam
-I participated in an investment banking/private equity case competition, and made it to the finals.
-I took one high-level graduate finance course (received an A) and got a 750 on the GMAT, which these combined with passing level 1 of CFA will hopefully offset my ugrad GPA.
-I'm a board director for a city-wide organization that has just under $1m in assets. We're a fundraising organization with 50 member organizations, some of which are prominent.
-I'm the chair of the event committee for the same organization. Under my leadership we planned an event this week that surpassed our attendance/donation expectations. I'm now working with a prominent city institution on another, larger event that should be a smash.
Anyways, with my non-profit work and securing this Associate position at a PE firm, I was wondering what the prospects are of making the jump up to a higher level school. I feel like Columbia/Booth/Stern are realistically in my grasp but want to determine if it's possible for me to make the jump to H/S/W status and, if so, what kinds of things I would need to do to get to that point. I feel like it might be possible now with these developments but I don't know for sure.
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06 Mar 2014, 07:32
