HI! I need some advice on how to improve my profile. I want to pursue a phd in Finance, but my profile is not nearly as competitive as many that I have seen in this forum. I'm a D1 student-athelte graduating next spring from a top 30 public school. My undergrad GPA isn't nearly as hi as I wanted it to be. The difficult part of being a wrestler is that I have to lose about 8 pounds every week for competition...and staying focused in class is hard to do when extremely dehydrated (that's how just about every wrestler loses weight). I screwed up big time my freshmen year w/ my gpa, but i've been doing alright since then. But here's my profile so far...
Undergrad: overall gpa 3.35, BA Math & BS Econ
GMAT: 720 W5
Math courses: Calc I-III(B+,B-,A), Linear Algebra(A), Differential Equations(A), Probability and Statistics I (A-), Complex analysis (B-), Abstract Algebra I (B-), Number Systems (B+)
Econ courses: Mathematical Economic Analysis (B+), Econometrics (B), Intermediate Micro (A), Interediate Macro (B+)
Other courses: Financial Management (A), few physics courses
Research Experience: none
Teaching: tutor student-athletes in pre-calc, calc 1. also tutor high school students.
Awards: dean's list, scholar-athlete, academic all-american honors, academic all-conference team.
Other notes: I have taken a lot of classes...i'll be graduating with 165 credits. (don't know if that's relavent?)
letter of reference: I know I can get 1 strong one from a math prof, and 2 good ones from a math and econ prof
Classes I will be taking next year: probability and statistics II, real analysis I&II, partial diff eq., forecasting, financial math, financial economics, linear algebra II, and another econ course. After I graduate, I plan on getting a summer internship as an RA. I want to apply to a phd finance program, but as a back up, I will appy to ms statistics program. I am confident that I can do pretty well in the MS program, since I'll be done with wrestling.
I know that I don't have any chance at a top 20 program, but where do you think I should apply? do you think I would have a chance at UC Irvine? will an MS Stats improve my profile? should I be changing anything up in my undergrad classes?
any advice will help me. thanks