TreetopTom

Hi new friends! First, thank you for taking the time to review my profile and hopefully give me some actionable insights. I appreciate having this new community! Test Scores (GMAT/GRE): GMAT 730. Q47 (61 percentile), V42 (96 percentile). I know that the score is great, but I am worried that my quant score may be a strike against me. Undegrad GPA: 4.0 at Arkansas State University, with a major in Finance and Marketing Analytics. Again, I know that the 4.0 will help me, but my school's pedigree isn't going to knock anyone over. Graduate GPA: No graduate degree. I'm in my senior year of undergrad and hoping to go straight in. Research Experience: I am working on my undergraduate thesis now, on evaluating the impact of FDIC-assisted acquisitions on bank performance. Teaching Experience: As part of my extracurricular involvement, I was essentially a teaching assistant for a handful of classes at Arkansas State designed to help our first year students acclimate to college. It is not very relevant to my field, and most of what I did was managing and mentoring my students, not teaching per se. Work Experience: I spent my junior year as a bank teller. I interned as a bank examiner trainee for the FDIC before my senior year, and I have a job offer from the FDIC, which is currently serving as my back-up plan if this doesn't work out like I want it to. Concentration Applying to: Finance, Banking Number of programs planned to apply to: 10-15. Dream Schools: Columbia, Indiana, Ohio State, North Carolina. Other Questions: I am generally unsure how my application stacks up, and I am not sure what schools I should target. I would ideally like to get an idea of what a reach, target, and safety school range looks like. What made you want to pursue a PhD? I love learning, and even more than that, I love teaching. I love having the chance to mentor younger student and watch them develop and grow, and helping people learn new things is exciting for me. I am also deeply interested in business and banking, and I would love to make a contribution to the field. Questions or concerns you have about your profile? How much does my quant score and lack of graduate/work experience hurt me? What can I do to shore up those sides of my application? Any additional specific questions you may have: No comments, I just appreciate you folks! Any feedback or tips would be tremendously helpful. I am probably not interested in applying to any top-10 programs, but I would like to go somewhere solid and respectable. I am also happy to talk about it more with anyone!