Hjort wrote:
I am interested in the award packages as well.
I have the following break down
Ultra Elite: Applied:1; Not Accepted
Elite Applied: 3; 2 Accepted, 1 Not Accepted
Transelite: Applied 1; Waitlisted
Near Elite: Applied 1; Accepted
It is interesting that one elite and one transelite waitlisted or did not accept yet another elite provided full tuition.
Keep in mind that my file was very, very unique and that different schools have different people on the admission committee and they all weigh things differently.
For example, I applied to an undergrad summer internship to research at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (which was ranked #11 in the nation) and to the University of Texas Galveston medical center (which was not ranked in the top 30 in the nation). However I was rejected by Galveston but accepted at Southwestern.
In regards to my application packages: Throughout undergrad I worked 24 hours a week with individuals with physical and mental disabilities, participated in 14 hours of community service a week via a few school organizations, and participated in a pre-med course load at the same time. My academic advisors warned me repeatly against doing this and thought I was going to flunk out of college. However I finished with a 3.25/4.0 GPA.
In regards to my work experience, I developed the ability to utilize the Yellow Pages to find leads, cold call these leads, establish appointments, set up and conduct presentations over the phone or in person, and most importantly close sales. For example, I am currently using the Yahoo! Yellow Pages to sell advertising to rural independent and franchise car dealership owners in Oklahoma and Louisiana. A lot of people hate buying cars at dealership and I am pitching to some of the best sales professionals in the nation.
In regards to my sole proprietorships: I sold and marketed weight loss and nutritional supplement products via a website that I created and got listed in a Yahoo! directory and at one time ranked in the top 10 of a few major search engines for certain very common keywords.
I developed the ability to utilize the county records to locate potential yet solid real estate leads that were experiencing problems such as foreclosures, tax arrears, probate, divorce, etcetera.. Afterwards, I had the ability to go to these individuals homes, knock on the door, and to eventually get inside to conduct a presentation and find the best solution to solve their problems.
In regards to the GMAT, I underestimated the difficulty of it and did not fully prepare. Likewise, I scored a 630 and took the test at the last minute (about 3 weeks before the Round 2 deadlines). However I had no doubt in my mind that I could have aced the GMAT if I had to take it again.
Most importantly, I put my marketing and sales skills to the test and wrote some rather unique essays to make up for my not so great GMAT score.
So overall I believe that the schools I was rejected from placed a lot of emphasis on my GMAT score. Yet Michigan looked at my overall package and saw enough potential there to offer me a seat in the 07 class with a full tuition fellowship and loans to cover my education costs.
Maybe this info below may help to explain this all:
"Be Unique
When I work with applicants who are consultants, I ask them not to write about the mundane tasks that everyone does at the analyst level but instead to focus on one or two of their assignments that were unique and interesting. I ask them to go into detail about that work. Tell me exactly what you did and why you think it was important work. Convince me, as an admissions officer, that your experience will be valuable to my students and I'll let you in.
That's the key to getting into top business schools. Convince me in your essays that you have something unique to share with your potential classmates, and I'll ignore your not-so-hot GMAT score and undergraduate GPA. I see it all the time. People with modest GMAT scores but valuable experiences are regularly admitted to top programs."
https://www.mbaapplicant.com/2_essays.htm