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MIT MFin Rejected and confused

Joined
1/24/12
Messages
4
Points
11
Hi there,

I applied to round 1 for MIT Mfin and was rejected and was quite surprised. I was sure I would have received at least an interview/wait list because:

GMAT score : 740 - 50 Q (didnt do AWA)
UGPA - 3.7, Major GPA in Finance and Info Systems - 3.9
I had excellent LORs - 1 from my previous manager, 1 from the undergrad assoc dean of college (who knew me quite well), and 1 from my landlord who also knows me well and is a senior Private Wealth Manager at MS.
2 years consulting work experience in Risk, IT, and Management at Accenture (top IT/ Management consulting firm) - including promotion during my first performance year.
US Perm Resident, (Boston Resident)

anyway, after rejection i am trying to figure out what to work on for next year. There are a few reasons why i would have gotten rejected and I wanted to get your opinions on what is most important.
1. I have yet to complete Linear Algebra and Stats with Calc course (althot they are both 50% complete and both would have been completed prior to start of program)
2. do the AWA in GMAT/GRE
3. Remove the LOR from my landlord as it is too personal and get another one from a different manager

Note that i did not even receive an interview therefore i figure there must have been a big deal breaker. What do you think it was, based on the info I have provided? Anything else i can provide that may shed more light?

Thanks.
 
Programming experience? 2-3 semesters of Calculus?

Also, as a nice tip: Next time instead of a letter from your landlord try to find a contact in MIT to write a letter from you. Name recognition is a game changer.
 
Programming experience? 2-3 semesters of Calculus?

Also, as a nice tip: Next time instead of a letter from your landlord try to find a contact in MIT to write a letter from you. Name recognition is a game changer.

Ya programming I have covered - 2 semesters in college + some at work. Doubt that was it. Calculus also covered - up to diff eq.

I realized too late that the LOR from landlord probably will not hold as much water. I thought about it the wrong way - Senior manager at private banking from MS - I thought would be nice. He did highlight some of my financial knowledge. Oh well.

I guess my next question is I am considering applying to CMU, Baruch, a few others. But I will have similar short comings. At best i can get a diff LOR, but seeing as how i will not have completed my pre-req math, it will probably look bad. Would applying this year, and getting a rejection, look bad if i reapply next year? Would it be better to just wait until i get all my credentials in order (Also taking CFA level 2 in summer, pretty confident i will pass that)? I know many firms actually get a bad impression of you if you apply and get rejected. Does this also hold true for grad schools?

Personally, I am not really in RUSH for a quant job - I have a good consulting gig at Accenture and all. I would PREFER to start a quant career sooner than later and that is why I would apply just to test the waters - but if a rejection means lower chances of entering next year I would wait.

What are your thoughts?
 
I'm curious. How/why didn't you do the AWA section in the GMAT? Is it ever acceptable to skip a section or leave it blank?
 
Ask them directly... i tend to agree with the conjecture that they simply considered your application incomplete.
 
I'm curious. How/why didn't you do the AWA section in the GMAT? Is it ever acceptable to skip a section or leave it blank?
Not familiar with GMAT, I didn't know if you can skip a section on the test. How would they report the score then? If the test was not completed, they probably won't report it to schools?
EDIT: I google a bit and according to this beatthegmat blog, you will get a 0 on the report if you skip the AWA section.
 
I'm curious. How/why didn't you do the AWA section in the GMAT? Is it ever acceptable to skip a section or leave it blank?

I took the GMAT in college on a whim once and got a 6 on the AWA and 49 on the Q, but my verbal was pretty bad (I forget what but i ended up with a 650 overall). So i retook it and assumed that they would just use the best scores from both tests (sidenote: got 99 percentile on the verbal 2nd time around and didnt study... English is not my 1st language and sometimes I really get screwed cus of that). the GMAT section says the AWA is optional and you may skip (at least it used to when I took it couple of years ago).

I also think the AWA was the really critical missing peice.

I did ask directly but unfortunately got the standard "we do not do post decision interviews" response. This was actually quite a turn off for me because it was clear the person i was corresponding with, whom I had actually met in person and talked via email on multiple occasions, did not even bother to read my email. Oh well.
 
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