Where do I have a realistic chance of getting an admit???

[bitan27487]

Hello Everyone

 

 I am from India and looking to apply to Finance PhD programs in US/Europe in Fall 2014. My GMAT is 740 (Q51, V41). I have done 4 yrs undergraduate engineering in Biotechnology, followed by MBA finance from a public university in India (nothing fancy). Worked for a year in Fixed Income Derivatives Trading. Then changed tracks and presently working as a faculty at a local college (teaching undergraduate economics, corporate finance and investment courses). I have some research experience (mostly 3-4 month dissertations) during engineering at some top places in my country like Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)- no publications though.

I can produce a good SOP and get good LORS from my previous professors. My handicap seems to be the lack of Mathematics courses and not so stellar GPAs. During Engineering there were just two Calculus papers covering partial differentials, ODEs, multiple integrals and one statistics paper equivalent to Stats I. During MBA, Stats I in form statistics for business, was repeated again and there were no other math/stat papers. My Engineering CGPA was 6.73/10 and MBA CGPA was 7.56/10. 

 

I have already covered Calculus from books like Apostol (I and II), Analysis from Rudin, Statistics (Sheldon Ross) and Algebra (Axler and Gallian). I cannot afford to go back to school to get a second grad degree in mathematics.

I want to ask that given these drawbacks what bracket of schools should I target?? 30-50, 50-70, 70+, 100+?? Can a good score GRE Mathematics offset the lack of Mathematics courses??

Thanks and Regards

[iExcelAtMicrosoftPuns]

My magic eight ball says ask again later.

But seriously, you may find that people on this forum are a wealth of knowledge and remarkably helpful. And I think you worded your query in a fair way but perhaps you should do some investigating yourself. If you're not applying this round contact some of the people at universities and ask them how your foreign GPA translates into a graduate program.  

 

[AvariciousBanker]

The MBA is a bit of a minus, but Chicago, Cornell, and Columbia are not out of the question.  Princeton may be a stretch but worth an application.

 

Best of luck.

Edited March 17, 2013 by AvariciousBanker