2 years out of college, what can I do now to increase my chances of getting into a top program?

[ItsMathematical]

Hi All,

I graduated 2 years ago from a top-50 US school, (Not a great ivy league or anything..) with a bachelors degree in Math. Since then i've been working in management consulting, with a focus on time series modeling and applied statistics in risk management. I can code well in C++, and I am well educated in capital markets and finance.

My fear is that my recommendation letters wont be stellar. I have one math professor from my school where I got the top grade in the class, but besides that I didnt really push myself to do the best in every class even though I got mostly As and B+s in my math classes. I will have great letters from my managers from my current work experience.

I'm wondering what I can do now before I apply to increase my chances of getting into a top program. I see tons of high GPA, GRE, and experienced candidates getting rejected on the trackers so i'm curious what these people are missing.

Thanks!

tldr; What can I do to stand out, beef up my resume, what are schools looking for beyond good grades and abilities?

 

[mhy]

It's just very competitive. The acceptance rates hover around 10%, so it's normal that many highly qualified candidates get rejected.

You should try to get at least one academic recommendation letter, especially because you are only 2 years out of school.

Join SQA, IAFE and go to their events; contact current students/alumni of the programs you are interested in (hint: there are many of them here on QuantNet), and go to campus info sessions / campus visits.