yiz,
You have an outstanding profile and will be competitive at top programs. I would not worry about your AWA. The schools weight the Verbal score much more highly. It's a non-issue. You obviously have great stories to tell so your essays will help you a great deal. Your goals and need for an MBA sound solid, but should be nailed down a bit more in your essays. Identifying yourself as LGBT would enhance your diversity profile and odds of getting admitted. You should definitely aim high -- HBS, CBS, Kellogg, etc. We could discuss other schools. UCLA would be more of a "safety" school for someone with your distinctive profile. Feel free to send me your CV for more focused feedback:
paulsbodine@gmail.com--Paul Bodine, Great Applications for Business School,
www.paulsbodine.com/outcomesyiz wrote:
Hi guys,
Thank you in advance for evaluating my profile. I am a 25 year old Chinese working for the Communist Party's most important publicity arm, which is also China's biggest news organization. More details about me
BA in English Literature from an elite liberal art university in China.
3.41 GPA, GMAT 740 (Q49 V41 IR7 AWA 3.5 the awa is low, made an error in exam)
Some highlights of my 3 years of working experience (4 years at matriculation)
The media are in turmoil. I kind of helped China's most important news organization to better cope with the industrial transformation.
1. Youngest recipient of China's highest-level annual journalism award because, in the first month of my job, I designed a system for my team to monitor breaking events on social media, found two passengers tweeting their bullet train crash, contacted local sources to confirm the collision, and became the first person to report the bullet train crash that sparked national uproar and became the biggest news in China that year. My work also prompted the agency to adopt the use of social media.
2. Founding member of our agency's Twitter account operation office: suggested the agency to open an account on Twitter, assigned to a team operating the official account.
Designed and streamlined the process of publishing news on foreign social media -- editing content to forms more suitable for social media.
Get Twitter to verify the official account though Twitter says no verification request on the web: found the address of Twitter Asian headquarters in news reports, asked our employee in Singapore to pay Twitter a visit and tell them the verification request. They contacted me then and verified our account.
Increased our followers to 700 k in half an year.
3. Help improve the financial coverage of our office. Our office takes charge of 31 domestic local bureaus' foreign language reporting, strong in political and cultural but relatively weak in financial reporting. Make our financial reporting more professional and build strong connections with MNCs. Coached several colleagues stationed nationwide and built a long-term cooperation.
4. Did a pretty good job at reporting a mine accident that killed 83 in Tibet. Only journalist who found the only survivor and documented his collection of the disaster. Nearly got killed because a landslide occurred when I was reporting at the mine.
5. Attending quite a few big events. Interviewed some big names. Media leader at summer Davos.
As a journalist, I am assumed to be critical, able to write, good at asking questions and talking to people.
I think I have a much deeper understanding of the Chinese government than my peers working outside the Communist Party organs.
MBA Goal (short term to long term) Get insider knowledge of the business world. Seek a job in international media giants (management trainee, product design&operation, or marketing, posted in US or Asia). Gain the frontier experiences during the media transformation. Ultimate goal, adopt international best practices with Chinese reality and lead a Chinese news organization that provides independent and international-standard news service.
School of interest: S16 preferably UCLA, Yale, Kellogg, Harvard, Columbia, Hass
What are my chances of getting in?
Two more things,
Would the surprising AWA score hurt my application if my essays are well written? (I am an English major from a top university and a journalist. That score really does not represent my skills.....)
Does the LGBT identify mean diversity and a bigger chance?
Thank you guys.