squali83 wrote:
Hi ,
My profile is as follows:
GMAT: 45 Q (78%) 38 V (85%) 690 (91%)
GPA: 2.74 BA Economics and Communication (University of Maryland), I worked full-time (45-55 hours/week while attending full-time)
W/E: Currently I am a financial analyst. I budget for the Department of Defense as a contractor/consultant. I have been there for about 6 months. Before that, through out college I managed restaurants. I ended up opening a location right before I finished school. At this location I oversaw the construction of the building and negotiated all contracts for the store. I also was an active member in the Chamber of Commerce. I organized several charity nights at the restaurant once open. The Budget I was in charge of was $5,000,000.+. I left to return to school, the job required 75 hours of work a week, so there is no way I could have fit school in.
I want my MBA to switch careers and get out of a sector I cannot stand. I would prefer to get into consulting, specifically in the food service industry since I enjoy the business.
I am interested in a top 20 program but feel my GPA will hinder my chances. I am set on applying for this upcoming year. Do you have any recommendations for schools that do not weight so heavily on GPA and more son on W/E and GMAT.
Thanks,
Pat
Pat,
You have an interesting profile (DoD work, entrepreneurship, career goals, nature of community work), which helps you. I frankly don't know of schools known for weighing GPA less than other schools. Adcoms don't plug the GPA into a formula that weights it. It's more of the GPA being a data point indicating ability to handle their program. You can and should mitigate your GPA by (a) explaining your full-time employment burden in college in an essay, (b) acing 2 classes in core B-school skills like stats or accounting to show you have the skills, and/or (c) bumping that GMAT score up if you can. I'm sure there are several top 20 schools that would admit you "as is." See
Accepted.com's
advice for applicants with low GPAs.
Good luck,