Can I get into the top Master's or PhD programs despite my middling GPA?

[mg1313]

So I'm thinking about going to grad school, and I'm wondering what tier of school I can expect to get into. I don't know what I'd want to do yet, not even sure if I want to do a Master's or PhD or what field exactly. I know I want to do something quantitative like Econ, Finance, Computational Finance. I also have significant interest in public policy, but it's not something I've done professionally so I don't know where I can put my quantitative skills to use there. Plus I like to make money.

The bad: My GPA is only 3.2. Sort of slacked off in my later years so I don't have very grades in my majors. Didn't cultivate relationships with a lot of my professors, so I really only have one that would give me a good recommendations.

The good: I double-majored in Wharton (concentrations in Finance and Stat) and Math in the college at Penn. I haven't taken the GRE yet, but I expect to have very good and hopefully near perfect scores on that.

So I'm wondering if I have a shot at the top programs in various fields. I don't really have any interest in going into academia, so if I can't get into top 10 to 20 programs, is it even worth doing a grad degree that's not an MBA?

[TheFez]

Hey MG, well... that's a very confusing and busy post!

PhDs are not generally best for folks who "don't really have any interest in going into academia" nor is an Ad Comm likely to be persuaded by applicants who don't know what they want to do.

I think you need to do some soul searching first. Coming from a good school like Wharton / Penn you might look to get into an MBA and make lot's of that money that you like. Right now you are going to have a tough time applying to a top program without an SOP, LORs, and a 3.2 GPA due to slacking.

A top econ program is going to want to see a bunch of good grades in math, and some evidence of being able to do a little independent work.

[wine in coffee cups]

I also have significant interest in public policy, but it's not something I've done professionally so I don't know where I can put my quantitative skills to use there. Plus I like to make money.

So what have you done professionally so far?

Initial suggestion is to consider a master's in statistics.

[mg1313]

So I probably should've mentioned what I've done since college. I worked for about a year at a pension fund consulting company, basically investment management. For the last year and a half, I've been doing marketing research, basically combining marketing and statistics. I can get good recommendations from my managers as well.