Dear all,

first of all I want to extend my sincere gratitude for your time in reading my post and providing valuable feedback. I understand that you must have other ways to spend your valuable time so thanks again for helping out a complete stranger.

Without turning this into one of those good-bye messages at the end of a southwest airplane ride, I'll cut right to the chase:

My goal is to get into a top 20 MBA program.

GMAT: 730
GPA: 2.58 from UC Irvine with major in chemistry.
Work experience: 3 years at Genentech as a lab research assistant, 1 year as a business development manager at a small lab reagent company.
Special situation: Professional Science Master's degree in Biotechnology from San Jose State. GPA: 3.55

Obviously, 2.58 undergrad GPA is a big weakness. I was told by MBA admissions consultant Alex Chu to take some math courses from UCLA or Berkeley extension. I plan to do that. My questions are:

Should I take entry level courses, i.e. statistics 101, or should I take the hardest classes offered?
Should I take a classroom course or an online course?
How many courses should I take?
Will my pretty good GPA from San Jose State grad program help instill confidence in adcom?
The program includes some MBA level courses in marketing, accounting. Is that a good thing or bad thing? My friend says it may raise an eyebrow among adcom people who may now see an MBA redundant on top of my Professional Master's.

cheers and thank you again!

Bo