How can I get into a top tier/ivy school

darksaber91
Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:02:29 +0000

As people above have said, transferring to an upper-tier ivy is out of the question, which leaves the grad school option. Here are the pre-reqs for Berkeley’s MFE program: [Application Requirements, Master of Financial Engineering Program - Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley](Master of Financial Engineering Program | Berkeley Haas). I’m not certain, but you are probably already screwed for the top-tier MFE and MBA programs.


Your GPA is low
You’d need a GMAT well above 700 (doable)
Stellar work experience is basically required (2+ years). Unfortunately, it’s extremely difficult to get the type of work experience they like (Goldman, McKinsey, etc.) without having gone to a top tier undergrad. You certainly will not get it out of SDSU or SJSU.


Any of these things individually would usually be enough to give an applicant a really tough time. Unfortunately, you have to contend with all three.

Remember, you’re competing against people who’ve had school figured out since they were 8 years old and finished calculus in high school.

It would be helpful if you have a particular career in mind. Since 60%+ of MFE’s end up in Ibanking/hedge funds i’m assuming you want to do something with those?