MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Jan 2010
Status:Admissions Expert
Affiliations: Founder, Amerasia Consulting Group
Posts: 1081
Given Kudos: 264
Re: Please Evaluate my profile
[#permalink]
24 Jul 2011, 21:41
I think it is good you have a big list because your GPA might cause you some problems, being below 3.0. The GMAT score will help, but in a way it only shines more of a light on the thematic concern, which is that you didn't apply yourself with discipline and maturity and focus. As with many issues in the b-school app, the GPA works on two levels:
1. It impacts the school's average. From that standpoint, you want to apply to a lot of schools (as mentioned above) and you want to focus on bigger schools with a larger "absorption rate." Small schools take a bigger hit from a bad mark, so those are best avoided (as a general rule).
2. It has the thematic concern above. For this, you want to address in the apps themselves by hammering "this is when the light bulb came on for me" and talking about how you DO have those traits in spades in your work experience.
The big thing for you is going to be handling your low GPA. The other thing is finding a way to add personality and passion to your application. Your profile request was very straight forward and you note a relative lack of activities. You are going to have to find some interests or passions or sources of inspiration that give your app a heartbeat, otherwise you are going to sound like hundreds of other candidates ... just with a bad GPA. So I encourage you to go deep and do some soul-searching so that you can be as three-dimensional as possible in your applications.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti