kryzak wrote:
one word, pelihu. Enuf said =)
(to elaborate, he had a 2.9 GPA and a 780 GMAT and got into Darden with scholarship).
I think when looking at pelihu's situation, it actually goes both way.
On one hand, its an example of low GPA getting into a good school (Darden).
On the other hand, it proves that its super hard (close to impossible this year) to overcome that low GPA. I believe (if I rememeber correctly) that he took several extension classes and aced all of them, has a top law degree, insanely superb GMAT, also worked hard on executing his apps. In the end, still didn't get into most of the top schools. Imagine if he just had a 3.2 or something, would almost be a lock to get in at least one of the M7. Fact is most of the M7/top 10 really hate it when your GPA starts with a "2".
Personally, I feel like U.S. schools are quite unfair when it comes to GPA. They care so much about stats and rankings that they would rather take a decent GPA from bad/easy school over a low GPA from good/hard school (all else being the same). In reality, the low GPA guy from the hard school will most likely do very well if he went to the easy school. Its like they're punishing people for going to a good undergrad.
From what I hear, international schools like INSEAD actually care much less about GPA, because intenationals make up a large majority of the student body, and much more diverse than U.S. schools. They look at your academics via GMAT + reputation of your undergrad institution (they have some kind of ranking system) + difficulty of major. The actual GPA is not that important. I think that's a much more fair system.