Atypical profile

I hope this message finds you well. I was just wondering if you could do a quick assessment of my potential candidacy for a top US MBA program. Specifically, I am targeting HBS and Booth. Please find a quick summary of my story below.

I am a 27 y/o Canadian male. My cumulative GPA is dismal (approx 2.0), but in my last 10 credits I have a GPA of approx 3.7 from a top two university in Canada. The reason for the huge discrepency between my grades is that my mom developed a life-threatening illness while I was in the beginning stages of undergrad (thankfully she is ok). At that time, however, I became the sole income in my household and foolishly tried to balance working a menial full-time job and school. Needless to say, school suffered badly. During this time, I was actually inspired to start my own company. After gaining some market traction, I successfully applied for a government-sponsored entrepreneurial loan in order to expand our operations. At the time, I was the youngest person in Canada to ever receive government-funding in excess of $100k for a new venture. We used that money to open an office in Asia, as well as start a second, complimentary venture. At this time, I truly grew up and decided to put my education on hold (because I was going to be the first person to graduate university in my family, I think that I put unnecessary pressure on myself to stay enrolled throughout our family's ordeal). After a couple of years of strong growth, we ended up selling both companies to investors.

After the sale of both companies in December of 2009, I took a few months off to travel and re-enrolled in school to complete my undergrad. In March of 2010 I became restless as I waited for school to start, and I decided to apply for a consulting job for the summer. I knew that their application periods were done, but I felt that it was worth sending out a few emails. I ended up receiving a 6-week offer from one of the top 2 managament consultancies, and then through my performance, I was extended an additional 14 weeks and offered a full-time position. As it stands, I am the only off-cycle intern ever brought in by this firm in North America, and I was offered the job after only the first interview. Given that I have a humanities background, I decided to forego the offer of employment and pursue my MBA instead.

Aside from my formal work experience, I have also been one of the founders in a non-profit, and I currently manage a network of 7 homework clubs for students in high-risk areas of my city.

Essentially, I am curious about your opinions on my background, and whether my CGPA will preclude me from admission into a top MBA program. I am currently studying for my GMAT, and I have been consistently scoring in the 760-770 range. My college registrar already knows my situation, and has offered to write a letter on my behalf justifying my previous grades.

Thank you for your time.

Cheers

Stretch: Booth, Kellogg, Sloan, Columbia, Tuck, Haas (pick 2)
Sweet spot: Ross, Duke, Darden, NYU, UCLA, Cornell, Yale (pick 3-4)
Safety: outside the top 16 (pick 0-1).

Yes, your situation is more unusual than other applicants, but that isn't necessarily a selling point (it helps because there's less of a chance of blending in, but it can be a liability because it causes concern about whether you can fit in with what they're looking for). What adcoms care about in this day and age is employability, and in your case it's going to be an issue, since you've mostly worked for yourself, and by applying to full-time b-schools it sends mixed signals about your success: because if you had some amazing success as an entrepreneur, you wouldn't be applying to b-school in the first case (you would be using your funds to start another venture and you would be *hiring* MBAs, not becoming one).

To be honest, you need to focus on your work experience, not on getting more credentials. That opportunity with the consulting firm may have passed, but you need to get some solid work experience to complement what you did before with your own business.

Also, your GPA will be an issue - yes you had some personal circumstances, but the reality is, others have had similar kinds of challenges and still managed to maintain respectable grades. In short, there really is no excuse especially when you're up against folks who have had strong profiles *and* who may have also faced difficult circumstances.

Yes, you've had a more unusual story to tell, but at the same time you have to go into the process accepting the reality that adcoms will still prefer the cookie cutter mgmt consultant with strong numbers simply because they are a known quantity (lots of people like them) - it's the risk averse choice for the adcoms and in this economic environment, there is a flight to safety (they are less willing to take a chance on applicants). So that's where you stand with the above schools, and where schools like H/S/W are going to be long shots simply because you're up against more than enough blue chip applicants who they would much rather take (and even within that group of cookie cutter blue chip applicants - it's still hard for them to get in!). That's why you should focus on other schools where you at least have more of a chance like Booth, Kellogg, etc as stretches and other schools in the top 16 as sweet spots.