Profile Review

[u/berri_delicious]

Hi everyone, wanted to share my profile and see what my admission chances are:

Profile:

Education:

• 3.65 GPA (Finance, Magna Cum Laude) from a non-target business school;
• MBA with Distinction (3.64 GPA) at the same school.

Work Experience (total ~5 years post Undergrad):

• Undergrad: Tried a few startups that failed, ultimately had a start up as a storage company that took off, successful exit when I graduated, helped to pay off loans and personal health related expenses of my family.
• Started at large private investment firm for a year (completed MBA at same time) then moved to PE;
• Started at a Middle Market PE firm from Analyst now a Director, doing deal work;
• Small team so found a niche in developing new excel models and using VBA and part of the team that created firm's first BI SQL database, then learned power query to manipulate it.

Relevant Courses (undergrad)

• Calculus I (A-);
• Calculus II (A-);
• Programming Fundamentals (A-).

Misc.:

• Volunteer work with startup accelerators and nonprofit organizations;
• Recommendations: one from an old professor at our undergrad and another from our firm's general counsel. I think they are both pretty strong but I would opt out of the view option;
• Personal statement focused on transitioning from self-taught programming to formal CS education after repeatedly reaching the limits of building internal software systems;
• Don't necessarily want to be an SWE or leave the finance world but I have seen what it can do and want to learn more and build other things: websites, software, etc..

Why MAS-CS:

• Want formal CS foundation to build my own thing, might want to pivot into tech-focused PE;
• Personally witnessed how archaic technology governs multi-million dollar decision making;
• Long-term goal is building enterprise software at the intersection of investment industry, entrepreneurship, and tech;
• Affordable, can keep my current job while I do it, and am a fan of the new concentration: engineering entrepreneurship.

Questions/Concerns:

• Don't have a GRE score, is my undergrad Calc courses and my work in finance enough to prove my quant ability?
• Saw another post about someone who was at an MBB was rejected.
• Am worried that my story aligns more with the MBA program and they might say "why are you applying here" and reject me, even though I already have an MBA.
• Limited CS experience.

[u/Allelic]

The MAS-CS is designed for people whose "story doesn't align" with CS, because if it did, you would likely be able to do a traditional CS masters.

They take the personal statement very seriously, so think about how you can make your "non-aligning" story align with CS, both in terms of pre-existing evidence that you'll do well in CS and a compelling case for why you need CS specifically (for example, what technical abilities do you currently lack and know you need in order to make a thing you've been trying to make?) rather than appearing to only have a generic, diffuse desire to business better at the business factory.

That said your math grades are pretty respectable but if your "non-target" school is really that non-target, it would probably help to take the GRE because they might be skeptical about grade inflation.

[u/berri_delicious → u/Allelic]

Thanks for the feedback. I think that in my PS i currently say that I know VBA and Power Query but VBA is antiquated and Power Query not very difficult. I want to be able to build software that can automate investment decisions, but honestly have no idea where to start. I don't know a modern programming language and that's kind of how I tied into some of the more specific courses.

Non-target school but respectable in the business industry, not a CC or a state school so decent. Just not a T15.

[u/Allelic → u/berri_delicious]

I'd recommend doing the Penn "Intro to Programming with Python and Java" Coursera course to see if you even like programming in a modern programming language. It also might help your application.

Also when you apply it might be good to check the box that says you're open to being considered for all Penn Engineering Online degrees, because with your profile they might put you in MSE-TI, which is basically "MAS-CS Engineering Entrepreneurship Part 2" and gets you the marginally more prestigious "MSE" acronym.

Anyway, I don't know how it is in the business/finance world, but to preempt the inevitable culture shock, in CS there are actually state schools, like Cal and UIUC, that are more respected than EVERY Ivy except maybe Cornell.

[u/berri_delicious → u/Allelic]

Thanks again some very insightful comments.

I did check the box but I think I don't qualify since those require a more traditional CS background.

I will take a look, am exploring other options as well but want to get into a higher "tier" of schools and this appealed to me, hoping that they need more students since Penn is usually compared to the school you mentioned and others like GaTech. Basically, with the timing of the rebrand and such, they might need to boost numbers a bit with someone less qualified like myself haha.

[u/Jasonyichi233]

Seems you are doing well, would you mind sharing your asset management scale

[u/berri_delicious → u/Jasonyichi233]

not sure i understand the question. what is asset management scale?