<p>Hello,</p>
<p>If I could have your input on my chances for a masters in accounting that would be great. </p>
<p>I graduated from a large average state school in New England with a 3.2 GPA as an economics major and biochemistry major. I scored a 640 GMAT but I have plans to retake it. While as an undergrad I:</p>
<p>was on the rowing team (awarded coaches award)
interned at a hedge fund-of-funds
traveled to Peru for an alternative spring break
and worked in 2 biochemistry labs</p>
<p>My goal is to go to get accepted to a program like Boston College, USC, or UNC. I am worried about my GPA because it is a little under the average of these schools. Please let me know your thoughts.</p>
<p>I am curious about what your chances are too. I have a 3.0 from UCLA as an econ major and am interested in accounting at USC for masters.</p>
<p>Anyone else comment plz?</p>
<p>From my contact with USC, it didn’t seem like they even cared about anything besides stats. I asked them how important good work experience was, and they said they’d like to see SOME work experience just to see you’re mature, but nothing in particular. It might be different for other schools. It just seems like this is a money-making program for the schools, and graduate specialty ranks aren’t based on entering stats anyways; I’d guess it doesn’t matter as long as you have good GPA and scores.</p>
<p>I know from GMATClub.com that good experience or good stories can help out if you’re below median/average. I would try and re-take the GMAT so you can be a splitter at least though to improve your chances. Also, if you are going to later try for a MBA, you might want to go all out this time and only take it when you’re ready.</p>
<p>The Big 4 recruit students from Golden Gate University (GGU) so I might just go there for half the price of USC. My GPA is only 3.089 so USC might not let me in anyways. I’ll probably apply there anyways and I will apply elsewhere too. I am probably shooting to start a 1 year program in Summer 2012. I don’t even need the GMAT in order to “apply” to GGU. I put the word “apply” in quotes because I think its easy to get into GGU.</p>
<p>Any other programs that Big 4 looks at where one just need to “apply”? lol</p>
<p>Actually most of the schools the Big 4 recruit from are not particularly noteworthy. Accounting has always been a low road to great success for top, hard-working students at second and third-tier schools (John Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Phil Knight, John Grisham, etc.) </p>
<p>Strong alumni networks exist at the big 4 in major cities at very near-by, urban schools. There are a couple reasons for this. One, elite universities have always turned up their noses at accounting as being too “common.” Whatever, that just means no Harvard kid will ever know accounting and I will always have something they don’t. My alma mater was ranked about 40th or so in the country and was by far the highest ranked school represented here at the Big 4 in NYC.</p>
<p>The other reason the big 4 have networks at very local schools is because these schools have always attracted lower-middle class urban students who worked their way through school and therefore come in with superior work experience. Through the decades, alumni networks developed from these schools, making them great and surprising places to gain access to public accounting.</p>
<p>UCLA doesn’t want an accounting major, but their accounting minor might as well be called a major. UCLA has students graduating and ready to sit for the CPA exam.</p>
<p>I guess UCLA falls into the category of a school that turns up their nose at accounting. They stifle the accounting minor to remain as a minor and not develop into a major in itself.</p>
<p>It’s funny to hear you guys talk about working at the Big 4 as a goal. Students at my school had dreams about doing investment banking or the types of things Econ majors normally do, but working at the Big 4 was just something people took for granted as always there if you were willing to put in the sweat-- it wasn’t really a goal in itself so much as a means to some other end.</p>
<p>I’m curious, what is it you’re doing now that makes the Big 4 seem so appealing? They only pay about $55k a year when you start. Seeing as you’re econ majors with good GPAs and GMAT scores, couldn’t you make a lot more than that by getting an MBA?</p>
<p>@croato87 - Getting an MBA and doing what? I don’t really have a career path figured out. What experience would I need before going into an MBA program? What jobs would I be shooting for after finishing the MBA?</p>
<p>I went out last night bar-hopping with a first year associate at Deloitte and he works 60-70 hours a week this time of year. It doesn’t seem all that appealing.</p>
<p>Haha nope it’s not really that appealing. Long hours and not a very fun work environment. The experience is good, but an MBA I think makes more sense. Usually you need about 3 or 4 years experience for an MBA working for a solid company in pretty much any field. After the MBA management consulting is a popular field and usually pays six figures.</p>
<p>So 3-4 years experience in any field? I want clarification. For example, do these jobs count as work experience in “any field”?:</p>
<ol>
<li> Working in the HR department at Macy’s</li>
<li> Being a retail store manager at the Adidas store</li>
<li> Book keeping and administrative work for a small law firm</li>
<li> Being a real estate agent</li>
</ol>
<p>Those jobs would disqualify you from all the top MBA programs. Maybe if you did amazing as a real estate agent and ran your own office, you might get into the lower top 20…maybe.</p>
<p>So what kind of work experience are we talking then? Can you give some examples?</p>
<p>Hey I think those jobs would be just fine to get into an MBA program, just not one of the top ones. The top ones are mostly rich kids with ivy league and investment banking/ consulting backgrounds. If you haven’t been planning to go to one of those programs since you were 5 years old, you really don’t want to go anyway… the jobs that people get coming out of those programs are also investment banking/consulting, and really just involve siphoning money out of the American middle class. You’ll make around six figures coming out of any MBA program and there’s many to choose from.</p>
<p>If you really want to get into any MBA program you want including the top ones, I’ve been told that doing low-pay NGO or military work in a developing country makes you a shoo-in as it indicates wealth, leadership, and worldliness and, most importantly, makes adcoms feel good about themselves.</p>