Profile Evaluation - Fall 2014 application evaluation

[linw1988]

Hello, I am applying for the fall 2014 round of applications. Please let me know what you think.

Age: 24

Undergraduate: 3.40/4.00 at a State University. Double major in Accounting and Chinese, minor in Economics

Work background:
3rd year auditor at a Big 4 Accounting Firm. Certified as CPA. Specialized in the investment management industry, lead senior on various private equity and hedge fund audits. Very knowledgeable in the ins-and-outs of various investment funds.
- in College, spent one summer and interned within the Pentagon and spent one summer as an intern within the International Business Dept at a bank in China.

GMAT:
680 (high quant, lower verbal) - will plan to retake in May.

Career Aspirations:
I really want to go back and get my MBA to be able to work as a private equity analyst. I understand and enjoy what I see and want to come out on the front office side of things.

Extracurricular:
Mentor for my University's career services program.
Participate in various community groups, but not a leading role in those.


My target school is Stern. Some intangibles that may help: my sister will attend Stern undergraduate starting Fall 2014. One recommendation letter will be from firm partner and Stern alumni. I will also apply to Harvard/Wharton as my reach schools and have Ross/Darden as two other schools I have looked it so far.

I know my GMAT score is on the lower end of the Stern 80% range. I do plan to retake the test next month, but as it is right now, what do you believe my chances would be for the schools listed above?

Thanks.

[mili]

Hi!

Thanks for sharing your profile. I would say that in terms of academics, professional experience and extracurricular/community activities, your profile is fairly average. What I mean by that is that it's competitive for many strong programs, but I'm not sure that it is competitive for schools like Harvard or Wharton. Here's why:

Academics: Average GPA + average (and imbalanced) GMAT score. Of course, if you are able to pull that GMAT up, you could make this a "strong" category.

Professional experience: Accounting is a tough field because it often times (as far as I know) offers relatively limited leadership and team opportunities. It sounds like you are in a more dynamic and interesting slice of that field, but you really need to think about whether you've had the depth of professional leadership experience and impact as people coming from other fields. If not, then HBS/Wharton are going to be stretches.

Extracurriculars/Community: I don't see a strong track record of leadership in these areas, so that will be another disadvantage.

Here are my suggestions if you really want to try for a Wharton level program:

- Retake GMAT and aim for a 700+ (80th percentile on each section). Of course, the higher the better :)
- Since you are applying 1.5 years from now, take on some extracurricular and community leadership roles and really focus on making impact in the organizations that you join.
- Take on as much professional leadership/team/business responsibility as you possibly ca, and seek opportunities within your company to move towards private equity (or get some of that training/experience). This way you can show you've taken tangible steps towards your career goal.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
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