JonAdmissionado wrote:
Hey there,
Great to hear from you!
So the short of it is that you have a great profile, with one major weakness - your GPA.
And you have already done the best you can to deal with that - by getting that GMAT. So go you.
I think the major thing to work on is on getting out the story of your work experience. It seems good, but it's neither a privileged industry nor a privileged firm. So you will need to do anything you to show how exceptional you are, and how you have done these amazing things, and been a strong leader... etc...
Otherwise, competing on a national level and the hospital fundraising is fantastic. Both of them are real strong heavy weight activities, and this WILL help you a whole bunch.
Finally, the main thing to take great care with is your story - i.e. your goals. An industry change is for sure possible - but which one? To where? and how to justify it?
Entrepreneurship is not an "industry" it's just an approach to an industry. And banking as far as I can see makes little sense.
From the little you have written here though consulting could work (either specialized in construction, or just regular), or also healthcare, given your hospital experience. There may be other things as well, of course!
I hope these notes get you off to a good start,
Best,
Jon
Jon,
Thanks for your response. I guess I need to really take a look at what I want to accomplish with business school, as I still don't know what I want to do after I finish (this has got to be seen as a negative by Adcoms).
If my startup does well, I would want to continue developing it after getting an MBA, but if not, consulting is probably the field that makes the most sense. I said banking because I've traveled for work before and it wasn't my favorite thing in the world (nor did my fiancée particularly enjoy me being out of town 75% of the time when we were dating).
VeritasPrepDozie wrote:
Really nice profile here with a diverse set of strengths. I really like in particular your GMAT score and your ECs especially the athletics. Your GPA is the major negative in your profile but this should not keep you out of the top 20 if you are able to keep your story and personalize it to the strengths of your target programs. If you plan to go down the entrepreneur path really make sure you iron out the details and a back up plan. Need to convince the school of the viability of your concept
Thanks. Both of these responses have given me a much better idea of how I need to present my post-MBA path when writing essays and in interviews with Adcoms.
As a separate question, I took the GMAT without studying. I did the 2 practice tests included with the GMAT 2 weeks before the actual exam, but did no studying apart from that.
I feel that with a bit of studying, I could easily score 770 or higher. I got a 49 Quant score, but missed some easy questions because I had forgotten some high school math concepts. I also scored higher on Verbal on both practice tests than I did on the actual test (44 and 43 vs. 41 on the actual test).
In light of my poor GPA, is it worth it to retake the GMAT? If I somehow did worse the second time around, I would just cancel the score and not report it.
Thanks again!
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Updated on: 25 Oct 2016, 15:01
