MBA Handicapping: IB Star In Ghana — Low Grades, Great Everything Else. Whadda We Got?

Emmanuel is the head of securities trading for Black Star Brokerage, a leading investment bank in Ghana. He has set his sights on an MBA from Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, or UNC Kenan-Flagler, hoping to leverage his work experience and degree to with a global investment firm such as JP Margan Chase or Morgan Stanley.

Longer-term, Emmanuel believes his MBA and stint at a Morgan-named firm will take him to his ultimate career goal: for what he calls a “supranational institution” like the International Monetary Fund, the International Finance Corporation or the Africa Development Bank in a division that provides debt structuring support for the government and private sector of sub-Saharan countries.

He’s an incredibly impressive young professional. Before his current job, in which he leads a team of seven that has executed trades of more than $5 billion of debt securities, he was head of fixed-income trading for Black Star and before that he worked as a securities analyst for another Ghana-based investment bank, IC Securities.

HANDICAPPING YOUR MBA ODDS: A 2.95 GPA OFFSET BY A 3.75 IN A MASTER’S PROGRAM

But there could well be one hitch to his chances at his target schools: a below-class-average GPA during his undergraduate years. He has a 2.95 GPA from the University of Ghana where he earned a BA in social work and has yet to sit for either the GMAT or the GRE exam. His undergraduate grades are offset by a 3.75 in a master’s program in international accounting and financial management from the University of East Anglia.

In this episode of Fridays With Sandy, HBSGuru.com Founder Sandy Kreisberg assesses his chance of admission and provide some important advice to overcome his undergraduate transcript.

If you would like to participate in a future Fridays With Sandy webinar, you can contact Sandy and Poets&Quants Founder John A. Byrne here.

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H/S/W ADMIT TIPS FOR FINANCIAL GUYS 

2+2 SUPER APPLICANT — CAN HE GET AROUND A LOW GRE

H/S/W TIPS FROM THIS DESAI AT EXXONMOBIL 

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