Hi,

I am an applicant looking to apply for admission to Kellogg, Stern, Ross, Booth, Kelley and Fuqua for a full-time MBA this fall. I am planning to apply round 1 to all schools, and want to pursue brand management at a large CPG company with a focus on brand innovation and growth. I have spent the last 5 years working in advertising, as a media planner for brands such as Trojan brand condoms, Kraft Foods, and Burger King. I completed my undergrad at Syracuse University with a degree in Advertising, a program that is widely recognized as one of the top communications schools in the country. I did well in undergrad with a 3.5 GPA, which trends upward toward senior year -- and also worked full time to put myself through school. My concern is that I took only three quant classes during my time there, Finance (A-), Accounting (B), and Statistics for Liberal Arts (C+). I worry that the overall lack of quant classes combined with the C+ in stats will hurt my profile.

Now, I know that one way to counteract this would be to ace my GMAT -- but I'm not a great standardized test taker. I took the test for the first time and got a 480 with minimal prep (really just reviewing basics, not too much work drilling OG problems). Aside from the low score, I'm significantly stronger in verbal (breakdown was 25Q/31V). I plan to take a Manhattan GMAT course and am hoping that with a lot of hard work I can pull out a score somewhere around 620-650. That'll get me in the ballpark, but I'm not confident it will ease the Adcoms fears about my ability to handle quant.

If I can wrap up my GMAT by the end of July, I will still have time to take a 4-week intensive summer class at a local community college. I found a 2000-level Business Statistics course, but am wondering if that's the best option. Would a calculus or econ class be better? Or should I try to redeem my C+ in stats? Since a 2000 level course is an under-grad course, will that even mean anything in the adcom's eyes? It doesn't look like graduate level classes are available to non-degree students. Will taking this course help my profile, and is it worth it?

Thank you in advance for your help, I really appreciate it!