Carnegie Mellon / Tepper - 07-25-2021

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July 25, 2021 5:59am ET

Applying: Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Cornell / Johnson, Northwestern / Kellogg, NYU Stern, UCLA Anderson

Intake Year: 2022

Pre-MBA Career: FinTech, Payments, Data Science

Post-MBA Target Industry: Technology Companies: Other

GMAT: 720

GPA: 3.35

Years of Work Experience: 4.0

Location: Manila, Philippines

Notes:

Hey guys really love the work you've done here!

GMAT: 720 (Q49, V40)

Work Experience: have worked 3 jobs -- 1st in analytics at a mobile wallet / payments startup building up their entire analytics and reporting infrastructure, 2nd at a global payments company (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, Amex) handling strategy and business development projects, then 3rd and current job at a data science startup that builds data and artificial intelligence platforms for clients. Also started my own small retail side business during the pandemic.

ECs: president of my college organization, competed in different business case competitions in college, engaged in tutoring / mentoring activities for public school children from grade school to now

Short-term Goal: work in a business operations role at a tech company (specifically FinTech but open to other opportunities)

Long-term Goal: return to my home country (Philippines) to build my own tech company

Why MBA? The tech industry in my home country (Philippines) is nascent / underdeveloped and there's a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurship and innovation. Though I already have some experience working in tech companies here, they've been more on the analytics, corporate strategy, and B2B sales side. During the pandemic, I started a small business (selling and delivering frozen goods) and realized I liked the building, operating, and expanding aspects of business (rather than just strategizing). Now, I want to get an MBA primarily to get experience and exposure in environments where tech is more developed and thriving (geographic preference for NYC and LA / Bay Area) and work in a role more oriented towards consumer-facing product development, operations, and marketing/expansion so that I can build my own company in the future back home.

Target Schools: specifically targeting schools that place better in tech relative to their ranking, as well as more tech oriented MBAs (Stern Tech MBA, Cornell Tech MBA, Kellogg MBAi).

Would love to get your feedback on aspects where I can sharpen my story or other parts of my application!

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Show Comments (4) Last: August 4, 2021

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Might add Haas and Foster to your list of target programs. Showing impact at work, and outside of work, will be important. What was your class rank? (0)

anon60893 Likes Earned: 2 I considered both school, is Haas feasible? It seemed like a reach for me given my stats and goals being similar to a lot of others. In terms of class rank, I graduated in the top 15-20% of my course in management science / industrial engineering (only 1/3 of the batch that started ended up graduating due to retention requirements). GPA could have been higher but struggled at the start due to being put in some advanced placement courses; started with a 2.7 GPA in my 1st year and was getting 3.5-3.7 GPA by graduation. (1)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 Showing an upward trajectory for the GPA is good. Haas may be a reach, but no more than Kellogg. Impact at work, progression, backed up by strong recs, will be key. (0)

alexbr4 Verified User. Likes Earned: 1677 More details on this candidacy in this episode of Wire Taps: https://www.clearadmit.com/2021/08/episode-177-wire-taps/ (0)