Desperately need advice for MSF/MiM

Question

About me:

UT Austin undergrad 3.0 GPA econ and math (low due to personal reasons: Harvey flooded home, bankrupted parents, and destroyed everything I owned. Was in a very unstable situation my last two years of school. ) Graduated 2019 May.

Transferred from nontarget state school as an Honors Finance major: 3.9 GPA

Combined GPA: 3.35 - 3.5 depending on whether you count AP credits.

GMAT: 660 (q41/v40) First try with a week of prep. taken March 16. Taking again on April 16 (if the virus doesn't stop it.)

Professional work experience: Current Full-time Spring analyst at 150 MM emerging PE fund, 3 months. Former Full-time analyst in Corp. Dev. at Houston Tech company with 6 months experience straight out of college.

Current Goal: exit Buy-Side Finance before SHTF and recruit into an investment bank. I have received internship offers at an Austin IB for late summer, and interviews for next fall internship. Also spoken to 2 MDs at Houston IB (CITI & TPH) telling me they can get me hired if I get into next summer (post MSF) analyst class.

Plan before 2020 Market Crash: I had planned to get a full time offer this summer, but all of PE is in an impossibly bad position right now due to leverage. They started firing business development and IR people last week (I do modeling and business dev.) at my firm. I expect to be let go early next week. As such, I have been rushing to learn what I can about MSF and MiM programs.

Targets:
UT Austin (3rd deadline today, 4th on May 1)
Vanderbilt
Duke
SMU
Wake Forest
UT Dallas
UNC Macc
UH MSF

I need insight on: Whether I should submit my application today for UT Austin or wait and retake with higher score. My chances given that I was an undergrad at UT Austin.

Additionally,

Are there other programs I should consider?

RangerDanger123 · Answer

I wanted to add, I applied to Rice Macc as well. My preference is an MSF though.

RangerDanger123 · Answer

And I was just terminated as of 3/23. I will update my resume and essays.

Do you think this will impact admissions chances?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  RangerDanger123 , and welcome to the forum. This third part caught my eye. The manner in which you were  terminated  may indeed have a negative impact on your admissions chances. Are you prepared to discuss the issue with an interviewer (if you were to reach this stage) in a way that would not make it look as if you were just pointing fingers? I mean, you went to a good school, but then disaster struck, for lack of a better way of putting it. Life does happen, as this current coronavirus situation is reminding just about everyone on the planet. At the same time, you do not want to come across as someone with a list of excuses.

Your work experience is somewhat limited, and I am not sure what job you were recently terminated from--analyst at the PE fund? Your GMAT™ score is decent--particularly for a week of self-prep--but the end result will weigh more heavily into an admissions decision than the shortened timeframe in which you achieved it. Finally, your GPA is decent, but not exemplary. The bottom line is that you would be approaching this task from the bottom up, looking at the most recent  class profile  of the UT MSF program. If I were in your shoes and assessing the situation objectively, I would probably take more time, get more relevant work experience under my belt, and prepare for the GMAT™ in earnest to see if I could cross the 700 barrier.

Best of luck to you, whatever you decide to do.

- Andrew

RangerDanger123 · Answer

Thanks for the response Andrew,

I was a Spring Analyst or "A0" which means I would have been offered FT this May (in finance it is customary to intern before a full time offer). I will heed the advice not to come across as whiny, and mention that I have been written LORs by all of my MDs.

More work experience will be impossible right now, finance (or "high-finance") is about to enter hell. I had a call with my CIO (chief investment officer) and he said that getting into Business School is critical right now to avoid being unhireable during recovery. I am however too young for an MBA (told so by UT adcom).

What do you think my chances are at other schools on my list?

Thanks again for your help.

Best,

Nicholas

AndrewN · Answer

Well, Nicholas, with your back against the wall, just give this everything you have got and apply like mad to as many programs as you can from the list you have compiled. See what happens. My guess is that something will come through. Put your best foot forward, spinning even unfortunate events into opportunities. You may not end up at your dream school, but I suspect you would rather be somewhere preparing for the next step in your career than falling into that dreaded unhireable rabbit hole. (I have been there. I hope to never have to lay eyes on such a void again.)

- Andrew

- Andrew

RangerDanger123 · Answer

Thanks for the advice Andrew. Where would you consider to be realistic for me, assuming my second gmat is no better?

I consider UT/Vanderbilt/Duke my target schools.

I appreciate honesty regardless, and will spend the next month filling applications and studying the quant.

AndrewN · Answer

To my eye, Vanderbilt looks like the biggest reach of the bunch, but that is not to discourage you. The numbers there just look a little higher than what you have indicated about your own, and the class size is small. Duke, meanwhile, has a larger class size and numbers that fall more in line with yours, but you have experience with UT, a factor that would likely work for you. I would probably put the latter two programs on equal footing, in terms of admissions probability, but I can only tell so much by your post and what the schools have indicated they look for in successful applicants. As I suggested before, just give it a go and see what develops. You have little to lose.

Good luck.

- Andrew

Good luck.

- Andrew

RangerDanger123 · Answer

Thank you for your advice. I will keep it in mind as I move forward.

Best,

Nick

MSFHQ · Answer

Submit to Uta and talk with the adcoms. You transfered a strong GPA and they should be able to factor that in since you went there. You have some nice work experience as well. GMAT is low, but reality is the posted averages are juiced by international students.

All these MSF programs are struggling because international students have dried up and the economy is strong and kids are going to work.

SMU is a good option. Vandy is a stretch. Reach out to them as your transfer GPA is great and your GMAT isn't horrible.

Posted from my mobile device

RangerDanger123 · Answer

Thank you for your reply. I will certainly reach out to the adcoms as you suggest, and touch base with them on what their programs will look like given the pandemic.

Best,

Nick

MiMEssay · Answer

Hey  RangerDanger123  !

As long as you have a relevant reason behind your transfer of schools and explain it well through your optional essays, there should be no problem. On the other hand, your GPA is fine, not very low so no need to worry about it. 660 GMAT score is slightly low, especially for some schools but if you present it with a strong profile, it can still be managed. Work experience always helps, especially if it is on the finance side ( Private equity, analytics experience would be helpful). If you do not have a huge firm on your resume, you should focus on the quality of the work that you have done. Showcase all the important projects which you took up. Also, I believe that right now is a good time to go for masters because there won’t be a cut-throat competition. If you go this year, you will graduate by the end of next year and things would be fine by then, the job market would be back on track so no need to worry about it. You can apply to almost all your target schools, UT Austin, Vanderbilt, Duke, SMU are some of the good schools which you can focus on. For safer options, you can consider UT Dallas. You can also consider Cornell’s MPS program or Michigan Ross (MIM). Some other good schools which have great Mfin programs are- NYU Stern, USC Marshall and Princeton. You can apply to UT Austin only if you have a good application to cover up for your low GMAT score. Otherwise, you can wait till May, retake the GMAT and focus on improving your application.

Apart from this, I urge you to book a free 20-minute consulting session with us to gain a better understanding of your profile and target schools. Here is the link- 
 https://www.mim-essay.com/book-an-appointment-form/?gcf

Hope this helped!

RangerDanger123 · Answer

Thank you for your feedback. I'll be sure to try the link.

Best,

Nick

Desperately need advice for MSF/MiM

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