32 years old looking to get into a top 20 (UCLA/Haas 2011) with a 680 GMAT.

Spent 4 years on active duty in United States Marine Corps:
-Squad Leader in boot camp.
-Meritoriously promoted twice. Promoted to Sergeant by age twenty (average age of Sgt 26-30) and led a platoon of 25 Special Operations Marines in Middle East.
-Awarded Navy Achievement Medal for actions in Middle East and Africa.
-Many other awards and medals.
-Rewrote Marine Corps Doctrine on evacuating American Citizens in war torn countries, and instructed U.S. Embassies throughout the world on the new doctrine.

Attended C.W. Post Long Island University (after Marine Corps)
-3.42 GPA in Finance.
-Half academic/half athletic scholarship.
-Played varsity lacrosse on a nationally ranked team.

Went straight to Bear Stearns NYC out of college (4.5 years there):
-Completed 3 year management training program.
-After first eighteen months at Bear, promoted to trading assistant on Government Trading Desk, assisted in the with institutional order flow and management of the prop book.
-Sent by Bear to Los Angeles office in a position as junior fixed income portfolio manager for a $9billion fixed income portfolio. Managed and traded portfolio on a discretionary basis.

Left Bear and Went to Merrill Lynch with Portfolio Manager (Been there last 2 years):
-Manage fixed income portfolio across all fixed income products on a discretionary basis.
-Present portfolio to potential clients.
-Create quarterly and annual reporting of portfolios and review with clients.

Total of just under 7 years work experience, all securities licenses, Series 6,7,63,65.
Very strong letters of rec. Can my age be a problem even with 4 years in military?

Thanks for your help,
Doug

Hi Doug, and thanks for your inquiry.

I do think that your being in the military will mitigate any concerns about your age; every year there are applicants accepted who are over 30, and what the AdCom is most interested in is what applicants have been doing with their time - have they been progressing professionally, gained experience, etc. Clearly your military service demonstrates a productive time in your life! It also gives you demonstrated leadership and international experience, both of which are appealing to business schools.

From what you've told me you have a strong profile for the top schools, although I do have a few comments/follow up questions:
- what is the breakdown of your 680 GMAT, (percentage verbal and quant). If they're fairly even and fairly close to 80% each, then I don't think you need to be concerned with it at all, especially since you have a solid GPA in a rigorous field. But if one is significantly lower than the other or under approx 70%, you may want to re-take it to pull them up to a more even level.
- You clearly have leadership and a history of success professionally, as well as teamwork skills (demonstrated in the military, at work, and through sports). But are you doing anything outside of work right now? It doesn't have to be formal community service through an organization, but schools do want to see demonstrated commitment to something bigger than yourself or your work; think about that aspect of your profile as well.
- finally, you don't mention your career goals. Be sure that you explain a logical flow to the committee from your past to your present (the MBA) to your future.

Overall, I think you're a strong candidate, but these questions may help you position yourself even better.

Best of luck,

Jessica Shklar
mbaMission

Hi Jessica,

Thanks so much for evaluating my profile. You've given me some great ideas.

My splits are 37 verbal 47 quant.

I currently do volunteer work for the troops who are overseas and I'm in the process of becoming a child mentor in Los Angeles.

Assuming I put together a great application package, and based on my profile, what would you consider reach schools for me and where should my safety net fall?

Thanks for your help,

Doug

Thanks for the follow up Doug.

So it looks like your scores are right around the 80th% each right? By the scale I'm using, your verbal is 81% and your quant 79%? So that's fine. If you thought you could bring it up noticeably then maybe take it again, but really I don't think that GMAT will keep you out.

There are so many factors to consider regarding schools - I don't know if you like a large class or a small, a flexible curriculum or more requirements, urban setting where there may be less community feel or more remote location where the community is very important, etc. So I can't recommend which schools you might like or not. In terms of where you would be competitive though, I think Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Haas are slight stretches (the first two because they're so competitive and Harvard trends younger, and the second two because they are so small, which makes them more competitive, and tend to be more GMAT focused), but I would still suggest you give one or two a try. Schools like Chicago, Kellogg, Wharton, Tuck, MIT, Columbia all seem to be places you'd be quite competitive. On the safer side (with the caveat that even safer schools can be extremely competitive!), look at Ross, Darden, Duke, NYU, Cornell, UT-Austin, UNC-KF, Emory. That's a lot of schools, but should get you started picking a few from each category!

Thanks so much for your help, I now have a better idea of where to apply.

Best of luck!

Jessica