How do you see my profile for a MS RED

[Kapatam]

-LONG POST WARNING-

Hi there Gmates.

I'm new to this forum and this is my first post ever. Please be gentle with me :D.

So this is me:

- I'm a 29 years old, male, Colombian (S.A.) citizen.

- I have an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from a well-recognized university in Colombia -Pontificia Universidad Javeriana- but not so well ranked internationally (349). My GPA wasn't outstanding (3.1/4) but somehow I managed to graduate 17 out of 93 students.

-I also have a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from another well recognized university in Colombia - Unviersidad de los Andes (ranked 274) where I graduated 5th from 35 students with a 3.64/4 GPA.

- I've worked on several areas, but for the most part I spent 2 years as an early entrepreneur (I created a small environmental consulting firm, but sold my part to my partners) and got hooked by my dad's company, a real estate development and construction company, 4 years ago. Today I'm a partner, Project Director and Financial Director (yep... its a small company so we have several responsibilities). We develop multi-familiar residential buildings (10 to 15 stories, more or less 100 apartments per building) and I have acquired a good amount of experience as a project director and financial planner.

-Toefl: 114 IBT
-GMAT: Yet to present (But from the GMATpreps and other resources I'm probably not getting anything above 640 :( ).

- As for my personal statement and Resume, they are probably gonna emphasis on my social responsibility formation (a subject I have always looked into) and relevant experience in Real Estate.

- I'm applying to three MS Real Estate courses: Columbia, MIT and NYU.

What are my chances?

Cheers!

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting and welcome!

You have some strong points to your profile... your grad school GPA was solid; entrepreneurial experience can be a plus; and the experience in real estate developing that you are focused on now certainly is relevant. You'll want to be clear about your goals... why you want the degree, how it will help you etc. The potential GMAT sounds on the lower side- have you done a preparation program of any kind to help you? Also keep in mind it's common to improve from your last practice test score too.

My expertise is really on MBA programs, but I encourage you to seek out the admissions stats, average test scores and class profiles of the real estate programs at the schools you are interested in to really compare yourself to the class.

Good luck on the process!

[Kapatam]

Jennifer,

Thank you very much for your answer! I was beginning to think the post was going to die forgotten.

To answer your first question: no. I've been studying seriously for the last month and a half based on all the MGMAT books. But I'm taking the official in two days and depending on the score, I'll start the MGMAT full course on monday....dreadful.

Second, from what I've checked, Masters in RE tend to have less competition given the amount of people that apply. Apparently, although this is said by Admissions personel from universities, GMAT scores average is 660.

Cheers again!

ps: This week I've decided to apply to Georgetown MSRED and Harvard MDeS RE too.

[mbamissionjenK]

So... how did it go??

And no worries the MGMAT course won't be 'dreadful' if needed, lol!! ;)

fingers crossed for ya, but a full preparation course, or at least a lot of computer practice and full length realistic practice tests helps a LOT where book practice isn't always sufficient, fyi.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[Kapatam]

Hi Jennifer. Thank you so much for keeping track of my "case".

Well... I did horrible. Something went wrong during the verbal part and I suspect it was the sentence correction that always kills me. I scored an appalling 550. BUT, during this weekend I meditated several hours and decided to go for the GRE.

Yesterday I did the official mock exam and scored V152 Q159 without studying any words whatsoever. This gives me a little hope because the score is a bit above what I am required to apply. So I'm presenting the GRE in a week's time, considering that if all goes wrong, I would still have enough time to present it once more in two months.

I have several reasons to consider the GRE a better option than the GMAT, but it is too long and I don't want to bore you.

Again, thanks for staying put.

Cheers!

[mbamissionjenK]

Well good luck on the GRE then!! Sometimes people do better at one vs the other as they do have many differences.