Profile evaluation pls..PhD in Business (Strategy or Finance)

[weshouldcatchup]

Hey guys, this is my first post.
It would be great if I can get some views on the likelihood of my chances (or just any kind of advice) at top PhD programs in strategy or finance.
My interests are in corporate governance and corporate finance strategy..

Some Background..
Age: 28
Undergrad: Northeast Asian top tech university / Electrical Engineering / 3.5 out of 4.3
Grad: Northeast Asian top tech university / Management Engineering (Finance) / 3.8 out of 4.3
GMAT: overall 750, verbal 95%, quant 85% (a rather unconventional score for an Asian techie I think..)
TOEFL: 114 out of 120 (does this even matter?)
Work experience: 3 years at rating company doing derivatives modelling, 1.5 years at investment bank equity research (currently employed)
Publication: A paper on corporate governance on an Asia-Pacific finance journal (SSCI, but definitely nowhere near top journal) which was my master's thesis (co-authored with advisor professor and one other classmate)
Other: CFA charterholder, FRM holder
Recommenders: All 3 would be my professors who r my master's thesis defense.

* Got A+ on elementary math (e.g., prob&stats, calculus I & II), but got B's on diff eq, analysis, etc..
* Got A+ on M&A, Int'l Finance, Market Microstructure and other non-quantitative finance courses, but got A-/B+'s on asset pricing, advanced microecon, econometrics, etc..

My two main concerns are 1) my weak undergrad GPA and 2) my weak GMAT quant score.
I was initially planning to apply to top 20 programs in the US and a few in the UK and Insead..
But after surfing the net for a while, I realized that this is a whole different game, way more competitive than anything I have ever been through before..

So 3 questions..
1. Am I more competitive for Finance or Strategy/General Management? (My professor recommends I try finance, but I seriously think my quants are a bit weak...what do you think?)
2. Can I target top schools?
3. Should I quit my IB job and focus on writing a stellar SOP? Does work experience matter much?

Pls be realistic, and harsh......if you need to be

Thanks all in advance!

[rsaylors]

With only the 85th percentile in math you are a much stronger strat guy than finance. That said you'll get into a finance program if you want and if you love finance then you shouldn't do strat just because you'll go from, say, t50 to t20.

I can't speak to job experience in finance; but I can say that, from reading many admissions pages, I get a qualitative feeling that management doesn't care much at all about your work-experience.

[weshouldcatchup]

Thanks for the response! I can say that I am more interested in strategy issues than those of finance. So my applying to strat programs won't be just for ranking issues..Anyway, From what you're saying, I take it that t20 is in the ballpark?What about GPA? Would you say that a low GPA is a fairly good indicator for the likelihood of one being reject? This question i know.. Is silly, but i rarely see people with 3.5 GPAs at these top schools..

[rsaylors]

I can't tell you how ad-coms view GPAs from north-east Asia. I can't tell you that t20 will admit under the 90th percentile in math. But what I can tell you is that you need to create a well-defined (but not overly narrow) research interest and then find faculty that can support that interest.

You can get a list of Ph.D. programs here:
Search for AACSB-Accredited Doctoral Programs in Business

[weshouldcatchup]

Thanks for your advice rsaylors. This is very helpful (and also the other comments you've been making on other threads..)

Just a followup question; I've made a preliminary list of schools to apply, can you pls comment if I'm in the correct range or whether I should broaden my selections? (Theses are either in Strategy or Managerial Economics/strategy etc..)

Group 1 (reach): Fuqua, Sloan, Haas, Wharton, Columbia, Stern, HBS, Stanford

Group 2: Yale, UCLA, Michigan, Cornell, INSEAD, London Business School, CMU

Group 3: UIUC, OSU, Indiana, Texas, UCs (ex LA, Berkeley), UNC, Oxford, Cambridge

The count is already over 20.. Is this reasonable? or do i need to come back down to Earth??
The reason I am asking is because most professors won't be willing to submit 20 recommendations for me..

Thanks in advance!

[rsaylors]

Let's go backward:

The reason I am asking is because most professors won't be willing to submit 20 recommendations for me..

Hum... You may want to get more professors excited about your doing a PhD

The count is already over 20.. Is this reasonable?

20-30 is a good starting number to whittle down to "as many as you can honestly, intensely, investigate AND have strong research-fit faculty"

group 1,2,3

I would widen my range a bit; maybe also look into Georga state, Massachusets:Amherst and Florida State as more safety-level schools.

To be clear: I think you should not count your self out of the top, but apply widely and to schools where you have a strong research fit.