Hey desibabuji,
Thanks for reaching out to me. Thanks for the level of detail in your post.
What I can tell you at this point is your candidacy would be competitive at an EMBA program. I would not attempt to up this GPA. It is what it is. It was 10 years ago. At this point, you are the only person that cares about it because no one else does. This includes EMBA admissions committees.
In your case, what you really need to do is have airtight story as to why you poor graduate performance is not indicative of your current aptitude. If you get a solid GMAT score than that helps your case. Now if you bomb the GMAT, well then I got back on the point I made above. You may need to take one or two classes to help make your case. Again, with respect to your graduate performance, that was a long time ago. You can make the case that you believe it was an opportunity to gain experience in the real work, perhaps an oversight that eventually made you see the value in a different type of education. You always believed that you would return to find, and you are returning to finish, albeit in a slightly more strategic capacity (MBA vs MS).
It does help that your company is going to sponsor your MBA candidacy. It shows that they have your back and that they believe in you enough to drop the big bucks on your development. There should be a question on the application that asks for this btw, some apps will require a letter of sponsorship. Check your local app for details.
If you would like to discuss your candidacy further during a complementary consultation, please email me at
mba@amerasiaconsulting.com.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
desibabuji wrote:
Hi Paul,
I want to apply for the EMBA Program, I think I have a unique situation with my low GPA and a degree that I didnt finish. Here are the details. Sorry for the long post but wanted to give you as much information as possible.
Background: 35, Male, Indian (working and living in the US for past 14 years)
GMAT: Still have to schedule and take the test but targeting and hoping to get around 725-750 (based on practice tests)
Academics:
BE (from India): Major: Electronics Engineering, had 58% from a reputed university .
MS (from USA) : Major : Computer Science.
Did not graduate, it was back on 2000-2001 during the dot com bubble and got an offer from a company that was to hard to resist and refuse. Once started working was very difficult to go back.
GPA was a low 2.67. Was very good for the first few semesters but then because of family emergency/circumstances could not focus, had to leave for India and then when I came back just couldn’t concentrate on the degree.
Work Experience:
Total Experience around 10 years.
Started working at a startup for about a year before it was bought over and then majority of the team eventually let go after the dot com bubble bust.
Started working as a software engineer for a small company and rose to the management role in the next 3-4 years.
Since then have been working in one of the big4 consulting firms, started as a consultant and now I am a Manager. (Left the consulting for about a year to work for a fortune 100 company but then came back to consulting).
I have experience in managing teams ( varying between 2 to 25 resources) across different continents and working with clients across Asia and NA.
So a total of about 6 years is with big 4 and the rest of 4 is "industry" .
Extra Curricular:
• Am PMP certified.
• Certificate from HBS in Management.
• Enrolled in the Stanford Advanced Project Management certification.
• I am a board of director for a local school and lead a couple of committees around strategy and technology enablement in schools.
• Have worked on a couple of start-ups from scratch to becoming a stable revenue generating business.
• Organized and lead "community of practices" around products and services.
I want to do EMBA and my target schools are:
Booth
Haas
Marshall
Kellogg
Fuqua
Anderson
Long Term Goal: Take my career to the next level within the "big 4" into management consulting.
My main questions are:
1. Will my low GPA affect my chances of getting into an EMBA program? I tried going back to my university to check if I can complete my degree or atleast take some courses to increase my GPA and was told that since it's been over 10 years, I will have to re-start everything all over.
2. Will the low GPA and incomplete degree work against me? What can I do to offset the effect?
3. Based on my background and profile, what can I do to ensure getting into one of those programs.
4. My company (might be willing) to sponsor me to attend EMBA, will that improve my chances to get into a program or it does not matter if I am a self-sponsored or a company-sponsored candidate?
I will really appreciate your feedback.