South Asian Male University Senior crying for help
**Overview:**
I am a 22 year old university senior in a non India country in South Asia, graduating in 2026. I am currently in my 6th semester and has 3.6 GPA. I am planning to major in finance with a minor in economics.
**Grades:** However, my school is pretty notorious for grading, which happens to be the leading business school in the country. I had a pretty rough freshman year, where I scored barely 3.33 and 2.9 as I was working to enhance my family income as I come from e poor household
I havent taken GRE / GMAT but from the LBS website's GMAT, I scored 700.
*for context, London Business School's website has a GMAT mock test kind of exam, which I attempted. In general, I have good test taking strategy, and plan to take GMAT after a year or two and prep fully before attempting the exam (Edit 1:the italic portion)*
**Extracurricular Activities and Leadership:** About ECAs and activities, I have Duke of Edinurgh Gold Award for volunteering. where I tutored underprivileged children. I participated in numerous case competitions and won two of them. I was a finalist in CFA Institute Research Challenge's Local Edition. I was also an active part of Finance club in my university (I was the founding Vice President of Operations Dept in Finance Club)
**Work Experience:** I haven't worked full time yet, but I interned in one winter at a Boutique consulting firm. The next summer, I got another offer to continue for 6 months, where I, along with the team, advised one of the leading financial company in the country. I also prepared a report on fintech in my country for Australian Trade Comission when I was in my Junior year.
I also worked as a Research Assistant under a finance professor in my university. Got two case studies published.
**My background:** Lower Middle class income household, none of the parents attended college. Mom is a highschool dropout, housewife. Dad is highschool graduate, works in manufacturing (not in management post)
**Grade:** 3.6 as of now, expecting 3.9 in next two semester. *Likely will graduate with 3.65 (Edit 2)*
**CGPA trajectory:** *We have 4 years, and 2 semesters in each Year*
**Freshman Year:** 3.33 and 2.9 in freshman year as I was working blue collar job along with my studies to support my family. Major dip in Accounting and Statistics
**Sophomore Year:** 3.8 and 3.7, this time A in another accounting course
**Junior Year:** 3.85 and 3.75
**Senior Year:** Expected 3.9 and 3.9
**Particular Interest:** Finance, Music, Hiking, Running half marathons
**Possible Career Opportunity: Big4, Commercial Banking, FMCG**
**MBA Application Plan: After I gather 5 year full time work experience**
**Target Schools: Chicago Booth, Columbia Business School, NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Varginia Darden, Duke Fuqua, Dartmouth Tuck, UCLA Anderson, Berkeley Haas, LBS, INSEAD**
**Post MBA Goal: Investment Banking**
Now, kindly assess my profile for my target schools, and suggest me where should I work on, and any other suggestion for me in general
**Edit 3: Not planning to apply for deferred MBA as it can be intensely competetitive.**