<p>I am a senior student majoring in finance for the time being and I am considering applying to fall of 2008 for Master program on either finance or accounting. Here's some of my application profile.</p>
<p>My undergraduate GPA is about 3.75 with a core GPA around 3.85 and I am the top 3% in my class. I am from a decent but not top university in China.</p>
<p>My TOEFL IBT score is 112 out of 120 with a full score on the writing section.</p>
<p>GMAT is 700, 92 percentile, Analytical Writing assessment is 5 out of 6.</p>
<p>I don't have full-time working experiences but do have summer internship and a year for volunteer work in a Children adoption center.</p>
<p>Am I likely to get into a top 50 business graduate program?Please give me some advice ,thanks!</p>
<p>If you hadn't told me that you were going to school in China and hadn't posted your TOFEL score I wouldn't have guessed you weren't from the US. Your typing skills are much better than many people who post on these boards, and that is a good thing.</p>
<p>Though your GPA isn't stellar I would think your foreign "flavor" would appeal to certain business schools. While the volunteer bit is nice, I don't see how you could parlay that into something business schools would see as a leadership role. Pretty much all you are missing is that leadership attribute that generally comes with work experience. </p>
<p>I would suggest either getting work experience or finding a creative way to demonstrate your ability to lead, etiher through your admission essays or other volunteer work. Also, I would target schools the specialize in international business/relations, especially those in the top 20 seeing as your GMAT is excellent.</p>
<p>^^^^^^
What are you talking about? Since when is a 3.75 gpa not "stellar" enough to get you into a top 50 MBA program, lol. You will definatly get into atleast one top 50 program.</p>
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You need 3.6 to get into top 15 schools
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<p>Uh, you hardly "need" a 3.6 to get into a top 15 school. </p>
<p>After all, think of it this way. The average incoming undergraduate GPA at Northwestern Kellogg is a 3.45. At Columbia and Dartmouth, it's only 3.4. At Michigan, it's only a 3.26. I think there is little dispute that these are all easily within the top 50 of B-schools. You can see for yourself in USNews (Premium Edition).</p>
<p>On the other hand, the truth is, GPA and academic qualities is only a minor consideration in terms of getting admitted. Your work experience and personal qualities are far far more important. As a case in point, I know a guy who was finishing his PhD at MIT, and had always received top-notch grades in both undergrad and grad school. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he had never gotten a grade below an A. He had also written several award-winning scientific papers. But when he decided to apply to the MBA program at the MIT Sloan School, he was rejected. Why? Simple. No work experience. That, combined with the fact that he, frankly, is a very quiet and shy person. That's not what the top business schools are looking for. </p>
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Am I likely to get into a top 50 business graduate program?Please give me some advice ,thanks
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<p>Having said what I said above, I would say that it's still fairly likely that you will get into a top 50 MBA program, simply because there is a large dropoff between the very top (i.e. top 15-20) programs and the rest. For example, I don't think it's that hard to get into a program ranked in the low 40's or so, even if you don't have much work experience and your social skills are not that strong. </p>
<p>But the real question is, why would you (the OP) want to? To the OP: I would actually say that you may be better off considering a business PhD program. MBA programs are most useful to people who have work experience and therefore know what they are hoping to learn and what kind of career they are aiming for. If you don't know those things, then much of the value of the MBA will be lost.</p>
<p>First of all,thanks for your nice suggestions and I am really glad to hear opinions from people from all walks of life. And another thing that I need to clarify is that I am not targeting at MBA now as I don't have work experience,which is definitely a deficiency. I am looking for specialized program on finance or accounting, MSF or Macc. I have excellent maths skills, as my quantitative section on GMAT is 99 percentile so I am aiming at some MFE programs as well. So do you think I have a shot for those programs for the top 50 level? BTW,is 700 a good score in American standard? What is AWA of 5 like?Do I need to take the test again to improve my shot? Thanks again</p>