Linda,

I have been following your company for awhile now on facebook and twitter -- accepted[dot]com has always been extremely useful during my hectic rush to finalize applications last year. I applied to MIT, Georgetown, University of Maryland and so far have been accepted to Smith. Georgetown releases their decision on March 25 (I applied to the part-time program) but I have not been invited to interview with them yet -- so obviously chances are very slim.
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Stats:
Indian American origin -- born in India, but we immigrated when I was 4.

Undergrad: Boston University, BS Electrical Engineering- Class of 2005, GPA: 2.68/4.0 while enrolled in Air Force ROTC. I was the president of the Indian Club @ BU and the Vice-President of the Arnold Air Society (community service organization in AFROTC). Low GPA because: 1) I didn't know I wanted an MBA back then. 2) Since I knew I had a job lined up with the AF after graduation, I wasn't too ambitious on getting all A's.

GMAT: First score was 550...2nd score was 620 (44Q, 29V, 6.0AWA). Still low.

Professional Experience: 3 years as a commissioned officer in the US Air Force all working in Germany except for being deployed to the Middle East for 6 months fighting in the "War on Terror". While in Germany, I implemented Kaizen to the AF IT system and consolidated 96 call centers to one focal point that I was responsible for -- managed 60 troops at the age of 24 and worked with the UK, Spain, Greece and Italy. 4 star general at the Pentagon visited my work and directed to implement that AF wide. While deployed, I set up the communication system for former Pres. Bush and Dr. Rice's visit to the battlefield along with several 4 star generals.

Now -- I work in construction management and have worked for Top Secret projects and a $330 million data center.

Extracurricular: lots of volunteering -- cleaning up parks/rivers/schools. Volunteering at food pantries and with tutoring children. Active with my undergrad alumni association in my city as a volunteer and an intramural sports athlete.

Aspirations: Long term - start my own international real estate development company (focusing on brownfield redevelopment). Short term: Work with developers or a REIT or in green energy consulting.
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Question 1 - Do I reject Smith in hopes of applying with a better GMAT score next year? I plan on taking prep classes to solidify my chances of getting a 700+ on it. My GPA is something I can't control anymore and my professional experience is something that won't increase too much in a year. However, I am planning on becoming LEED accredited by this summer -- something else I can add to the resume. No offense whatsoever to Smith, but I feel for what I want to do, I may need to attend a more reputable school. Thoughts? The downside is, if I say no to Smith and don't get into any school next year -- I'm basically done as far as an MBA goes since I doubt I can reapply to Smith next yr after saying no to it this year. Or can I?

Question 2 - With everything remaining at the status quo except my GMAT's going up to 700+ and LEED accreditation, what are my chances at Columbia (pretty awesome RE program), NYU, Haas, Georgetown, MIT, Kellogg, Booth -- and INSEAD or LBS for international schools? I am contemplating on hiring a consultant to possibly 'brand' myself better than I have this year -- or maybe my recommendations were awful (my boss did submit all recommendations on the same day the day before he left for his Christmas vacation).

I sincerely appreciate your opinion on these matters. Thank you so much.

nks

Jennifer,

Thank you for your comments -- I have decided to finish up my LEED accreditation by end of April this year. The summer classes at a local state university starts in early May and runs about 6 weeks and will probably take accounting. I'll then take another class (stats) up til august. Those 2 classes will hopefully bolster my GPA -- however, do I take graduate accting/stats classes or undergrad?

I'm also planning on taking a GMAT prep class either via Manhattan or Veritas in early June and finally take my GMAT's in mid/late August. Sept-December is then dedicated to applications working with a consultant like accepted.com.

Intense year -- but I want it bad and hopefully it'll all be worth it come this time next year. Please advise if I should take undergrad or grad classes as a supplemental transcript. Thank you.

Please advise on

Thank you for all your help Jennifer! I'm glad to announce that I was actually accepted to Georgetown's McDonough SB for this fall. I was working on a class up until now, but I obviously withdrew from it to refocus my priorities for preparing for business school. Thank you again!