Hi Mark,
Thanks for your message. It sounds like you’re taking the right approach by planning your MBA strategy early on in the process. I also think it’s great that you’ve targeted an industry that you are interested in and have taken steps towards building a quantitative background since your undergraduate program.
As you move forward, it’s important to first decide what your long-term career goals are after business school. Then you can determine which of the top programs is the best fit based on your objectives and past experiences. Once you’ve come up with a target list, you’ll want to shoot for a GMAT score that is at or above their median score, and make sure that your grades and professional experience are in line with the statistics published on their website.
However, it is equally important to understand what each school’s admissions committee values in a candidate. Most applicants start with strong academic and professional background and a competitive GMAT score. But if you’re targeting a top school you also need an application strategy that allows you to stand out from applicants with strong scores and professional history. To build an effective application you’ll want to identify your “points of difference,” or the things that make you a candidate who is unique in ways that matter to admissions officers.
Given that you have some time before you apply, you’ll also want to identify areas of opportunity that these particular schools might view as weaknesses. It sounds like right now you don’t have a lot of volunteer work on your resume. You’re right to address that, but you’ll want to choose areas of service that you’re passionate about and/or allow you to demonstrate leadership potential.
As you begin to prepare for the application process, you can check out the planning tab on the
MBA Prep School website.
If you have any more questions, or want to get some information about our admissions consulting and application strategy services please PM me.
All Best,
Krista