How to make ourselves attractive to the very picky finance adcoms?

[Bayern]

After we have selected the program where we want to apply, how can we show that we are particularly suitable for those programs? What will the finance adcoms look for when they are looking for students, other than the basic backgrounds we all are aware off? They are very selective when they are admitting students... how can we possibly make ourselves stand out to those finance adcoms? Thanks a lot!

[Bayern]

As this thread seems to be heading for a flop, let me try and rephrase my question... I am mainly curious about the fact that the finance adcoms are very selective, and look for students who are particularly a very good fit for them... my question is how do they come to the decision about a particular student being a very good fit for them? Courses taken earlier and the letter of recommendations is unlikely to say much about the fit. That means our SOP and resume plays an important part in giving them an impression. So wha are they looking for in our SOP or resume? If anyone has any knowledge about this matter, please contribute.

[desimba]

Originally Posted by Bayern

As this thread seems to be heading for a flop, let me try and rephrase my question... I am mainly curious about the fact that the finance adcoms are very selective, and look for students who are particularly a very good fit for them... my question is how do they come to the decision about a particular student being a very good fit for them? Courses taken earlier and the letter of recommendations is unlikely to say much about the fit. That means our SOP and resume plays an important part in giving them an impression. So wha are they looking for in our SOP or resume? If anyone has any knowledge about this matter, please contribute.

Yes-while the adcoms are looking for a good fit, there is also something to be said about just simply being super-bright and having a package which will make people go "Wow". What are the things that might cause such reactions in adcoms:
1) Outstanding letters of recommendations- e.g. If a reputed faculty member says, "This is among my top 5 students in the last 20 years of my professional career" (and yes they sometimes do say these things) then that helps tremendously.
2) Another thing which can truly help distinguish people is research experience. Some folks have been in the right spot at the right time during which they have been actively involved in research which may have led to publications as well. That is a sure way of standing out in my mind. When I used to fill out the section on "Publications" that is a part of most application softwares, I used to feel woefully inadequate because I did not have anything to put against it whereas I know some people had things to talk about there.
For the top schools, I would somewhat reduce the importance of fit. The finance programs at say Columbia/ NYU/ Chicago GSB to take specific examples are so large that no matter what you state as your research interest, you will probably have multiple faculty members working in that field. In such cases what becomes most important is simply are you good/ how good are you?

In response to your other question you asked me on PM, I would say that business econ programs are somewhat more competitive than econ programs at schools of similar ranks. There is an element of hypothesizing on my part but I also base it on my experience of having applied to 7 business econ programs in 2006 and getting through only 1 and my experience of having applied to ~ 10-12 econ/ business econ programs in 2008 and a somewhat higher success rate of ~50%. It also makes intuitive sense. BE programs tend to be well funded in relation to econ programs, have fewer teaching requirements, generally enjoy more interaction with the faculty members and usually lead to employment at business schools at the end of the PhD, which happen to be more high paying than econ departments. As a result of that, the competition to get into a top business econ program, let's say Stanford GSB's Economic Analysis & Policy or HBS's Business Econ is very very stiff and I would hazard a guess that somebody who might have been accepted to Stanford's Econ deptt might still be rejected by their BE program at the B-school. I think looking through the profiles thread on the economics forum will be helpful to you as you think about what kinds of people get admitted to these places.

[Bayern]

Thanks a lot desimba... your post helped a lot!