carbohydrate wrote:
I had an extremely low GPA in undergrad, low 2s. Had lots of personal problems and had to work alot odd jobs to get by... at the time I was just happy to finish college!
I went to UCSD and majored in management (I started out in engineering, which contributed to the low GPA and switched when school+work got too much to handle).
I've been out of school now for over 5 years and have had a great run of increasingly higher responsiblity jobs. Currently, I am a sys ops engineer (IT) that is currently up for promotion to senior.
I havent taken the GMAT yet, but I am aiming for 700.
Do I even have a shot at getting into a good MBA program? I am pretty happy with how my work is going, but I am worried about that low GPA.
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Carbohydrate,
Sorry for the tardy reply. I'm on the road with spotty Internet access. It depends what you mean by a "good MBA progam." If you mean top 10, I would say you have no chance unless you crush the GMAT (750 minimum), build a real alternate transcript with A's in pre-MBA and quant type courses at a decent school, and have specific, compelling explanations for the undergrad grades ("personal problems" is not enough by itself; having to work to support yourself starts to be interesting but only gets really compelling if you had to and did pay for most of your education yourself and were working more than 20 hours a week, i.e., closer to full-time).
If some or all of these compensating moves are possible for you then you could still get into any number of good top 15-top 30 schools with a 700 GMAT, clear leadership in and outside or work, and some 'extras' that make your application interesting/unusual. You may want to read
Accepted.com's
advice for low-GPA applicants.
Hope this helps,