Calling all Wharton Applicants -(2015 Intake) Class of 2017

Specific Factors to Help Override a Less-than-Ideal GPA


There are some broad factors that the admissions committee will take into account as reasons that can justify a lower-than-ideal GPA (and hence the admissions committee might not be looking at your lower-than-ideal GPA as a problem at all). These factors can vary from what we at MBA Admit.com call “extreme extenuating circumstances” to “reasonably acceptable explanations.” When trying to override a less-than-ideal GPA in order to gain admission to a top MBA program, it is often helpful if you have one of these extenuating circumstances or reasonably acceptable explanations as to why your GPA was lower. Let’s consider some examples…

Major event that explains the lower-than-ideal GPA: Did you lose a very close relative and your grades suffered for a while? Did your parent lose their job, causing stress on the family and anxiety for you, causing your grades to drop? Major events like these can help explain a lower-than-ideal GPA to the satisfaction of the admissions committee.

Challenging circumstances to overcome: Were you the first in your family to attend college and it took a little adjustment in your first 18 months before your grades reflected your abilities? The committee will often take circumstances like these into consideration.

Working your way through school financially: In many cases such as this, the committee will realize you were juggling work with your academics and may be more understanding if your GPA is slightly lower.

Medical or physical challenge: If you had to overcome some major medical or physical challenge, the admissions committee will sometimes give you leeway on the GPA.

There are, of course, other variations. See a link below for a list and explanation of eight additional “extreme extenuating circumstances” and “reasonably acceptable explanations.”

The take away: a less-than-ideal GPA is not always a deal-killer in MBA admissions. If any of these circumstances above apply to you, or if you had comparably difficult circumstances, then the admissions committee may still consider your GPA – while lower than the matriculating average – to still be acceptable.

For a more comprehensive list of “extreme extenuating circumstances” and “reasonably acceptable explanations,” click https://mbaadmit.com/category/overriding-a-low-gpa/.

Feel free to reach out to us if you would like a free profile evaluation or assistance with the MBA admissions process. We can be reached at info@mbaadmit.com. Our website is https://mbaadmit.com/.

Best wishes,

Dr. Shel and the Team at MBA Admit.com

https://mbaadmit.com/

info@mbaadmit.com

Strategies for Redirecting Attention Away from a Less-than-Ideal GPA

There are many strategies that can be effective for redirecting attention away from a less-than-ideal GPA to successes and achievements that can potentially persuade a business school admissions committee to grant admission to you. Essays are usually key, as are the recommendations. Your GMAT score, an “alternative transcript”, and your work experience can also help offset a lower GPA.

Essays and Recommendations

Your application should sing praises as it highlights the credentials that indicate you are an excellent candidate from all angles. In doing so, you should address your low GPA. But, addressing a low GPA does not mean simply writing a paragraph about it in the “optional” section of the application, which some candidates might choose to do. You can address the matter indirectly by shining a light on your other achievements that convey to the admissions committee that your defining and relevant achievements are your professional successes – not your academic performance. This should be an emphasis of your admissions essays. You should present essay content that demonstrates the deepening and broadening of your professional skills and experiences, reinforcing the idea that you have matured into a highly effective and impactful young professional and that you are no longer defined by your undergraduate performance.

Strive to secure recommendation letters that emphasize this same message. The recommendations should rave about you, stressing how outstanding you are in general, how you are a stand-out compared with peers, and how bright your future is.

GMAT Score and Alternative Transcript

When seeking to override a less-than-ideal GPA in order to gain admission to a top MBA program, ideally your GMAT score should be strong, which will also reinforce the idea that you have strong skills and great potential. To provide evidence of strong skills and the capacity to do MBA-level classwork, some candidates with weak GPAs take business courses after college at a reputable and reasonably prestigious institution, building an “alternative transcript” that provides evidence of their current abilities. Such courses can be taken in person or online.

Work Experience

Having a substantial amount of work experience can help also. With at least three years of experience, you can present essay content that demonstrates the depth and breadth of your professional skills and experiences. You can reinforce the idea that you are no longer defined by your undergraduate experience.

We at MBA Admit.com have helped candidates with GPAs as low as 2.7 get into top business schools such as Stanford, Harvard and Wharton. In most cases, it is ultimately your entire candidacy that matters, so take the time to put together a compelling application.

Would you like a free profile evaluation? Fill out the profile evaluation form on our homepage at https://mbaadmit.com/.

Feel free to reach out to us if you would like assistance in the MBA application process.

Dr. Shel and the Team at MBA Admit.com

https://mbaadmit.com/

info@mbaadmit.com

FROM Wharton Admissions Blog: Comment on My Experience with the Team Based Discussion by Fridays from the Frontline - Clear Admit Blog

[…] process. And while not one of the featured student bloggers, guest blogger on the Wharton MBA Diaries Eugena Brown, Wharton ’15 has a fascinating post about her Team Based Discussion while […]

FROM Wharton Admissions Blog: Comment on Wharton Leadership Ventures: Five Myths Debunked by Fridays From the Frontline - Clear Admit Blog

[…] lists, Stephanie Pow WG’15 has a post on the Wharton student diaries addressing the Top Five Myths of the Wharton Leadership Venture Debunked. Trey House, INSEAD Class of 2014D has a guest post on the changes he’s gone through in the […]

I wanted to circle back to this comment I made earlier in the application cycle.

Now: Admission trifecta complete.

Wow Thurston! Way to nail those offers - I hope that the timing of them didn't diminish the achievement in any way, and wish you luck making your final decision.

Did you hear back from Wharton today or was it a while ago? A few waitlisters (like me) would be interested to know if any calls have gone out this week.

Anyway, congrats again

By Adam Hoff, Amerasia Consulting Group

When it comes to recommendations, the first thing that any applicant needs to understand is how they work and, therefore, how they should handle them as part of the process.  We sum up this analysis with something we call “The Rule of 10%”: they count for about 10% of a decision, they should be about 10% of your focus during application season, and you should contribute about 10% of the work that goes into their outcome.  Obviously, these are all gross estimates and generalizations, but it shakes out to about right and its easier to use 10% than “a percentage that is a LOT less than you think it is.”  The bottom line is that most applicants assume a much higher level of importance, they spend far more time thinking and worrying about them, and they get far too involved in their production (the biggest issue of all).  Let’s work through all three:

 

1. Letters of Rec Make up About 10% of the Decision.

There are basically two ways to analyze how recommendations work within an admissions decision – one is to think of it from a process standpoint and the other is to consider the “weight” they carry, more or less, and using the former can help us understand why the answer to the latter is “more or less about 10%.”

Within the process, the typical way in which a letter of recommendation is utilized by an admissions officer is as a verification tool.  A reader will sit down to review a file (in much less time than you think, by the way) and typically work through the “one sheet” (name, biographical data, test scores, undergrad, major, GPA, age, etc.) so they can get the basics.  This frames the expectation going in and is why some of these data points become obsessed over.  A low GMAT tells the reader “long shot” (and that’s the best case scenario).  An extreme age makes them extra sensitive to the appropriateness of the degree.  There are a lot of ways the perception can be framed at this very initial stage, and while nobody’s mind is made up yet, there is definitely an influence on the way the file is read.

Next, it’s the application itself (transcripts are usually skipped or skimmed unless there is something to investigate, like a really low GPA next to a monster GMAT score), which is very quick.  The resume brings to life work experience in a snapshot, which is why you must always construct your resume as a sales tool.  Now, the reader has a much better sense of how qualified this applicant is, how well this person has done professionally, and so forth – the reader can probably prognosticate admissions chances with about 60% accuracy at this point.  The essays are where the variance kicks in.  Some who look good on paper will blow it, by either failing to articulate proper reasons for the degree, or writing bland content that they think is what someone wants to read, or for failing to really connect to the school in question.  Others will rise far above the initial impression with “great” essays (that do accomplish the things above).

Once the essays are completed, the reader is about 90% of the way there and more or less has decided.  The only thing left is to check the recommendation letters to make sure that other people – people who know the applicant better – concur with the assessment.  Again, we want to stress that this is about validating an already-formed opinion.  If you were an experienced professional who prided yourself on bringing in a great class of students every year and you know what works and what doesn’t, are you going to cede the power of making the decision to someone writing a letter?  Of course not, so unless it is an extreme case (like Stanford, where far more stated importance is put on letters of recommendation), you can assume that your letters will account for about 10% of the ultimate decision.  Good letters will help affirm a reader’s decision to “admit” (note: this just means you will get an interview invite at this point, but within admissions offices they flag people as admits until they are demoted down to wait list or deny), is basically what it comes down to.

 

2.  You Should Spend About 10% of Your Time on Letters of Rec.

The second Rule of 10% is how much time you should be spending on the letter of recommendation – and 10% might be generous.  This is a letter written by someone else, after all.  How much time should it really take you?  Not much!  Note though that we did not say 0% of your time.  You do need to take some steps to set your recommender up for success rather than failure.

• First, you should indeed sit down with the person writing your letter and talk to that individual.  Thank them for taking the time, solicit their advice on schools and even whether now is the right time (even if you are just doing it to make them feel valued), buy them a cup of coffee – whatever you do, make it personal and don’t just email them a one-liner asking them to write you a letter of recommendation.
• You should also state clearly what you are asking them to do, which is recommend you.  This is not a performance evaluation.  Ask the person in question whether he or she is comfortable recommending you wholeheartedly to business school.  Avoid anyone who caveats the answer or who seems intent on performing a rigorous exercise just to prove how smart they are.  You want someone who is excited to help your chances by extolling your virtues.
• Finally, you should provide your recommender with some ammunition.  This is admittedly a tricky area, because you neither want to influence the letter too much, nor do you want to overwhelm the recommender with reams of documents that they have to sort through.  Our advice is to give them three items: your resume, a “query letter” that formally asks them for this favor and details some of your key accomplishments and interests (2-3 pages, max), and a sample (if they would like to see one) of a good letter.  From there, your work is done.  Get out of the way and don’t mess with the process.

 

3. You Should Do About 10% of the Work on Your Letters.

This leads us to our third 10% Rule, which is how big your role should be in the production of the letter.  That 10% is already accounted for above – in the prep work to set that person up to succeed.  Any other involvement is not only unethical (some schools will ding you for leaving your fingerprints on the letter), but also counterproductive.  Remember what these are used for: to verify the findings of an experienced admissions professional.  They don’t want to read more essays!  They don’t want to see you embedding more statements about how awesome you are in another part of the application (commonly referred to as “synching the letters”).  All they want is an authentic, positive letter that says, “yes, I vouch that this person is great – if you liked the application, you will like the actual applicant.”

Now, just to make it clear that we’re not in some utopian society where all recommendation letter writers are created equal, let’s discuss quality.  Is there a disparity between a good letter and a great one?  Yes, absolutely.  A great letter is well written, provides specific examples of discussed traits, offers context for its remarks, and – best of all – establishes a baseline from which to assess this one person (“in all my years on Wall Street, during which I have encountered hundreds of MBA candidates, Timmy is the best…”).  However (and this is a key point!), the same disparity does not exist between the value of a great letter versus a good one.  Great letters don’t pull victory from the jaws of defeat and magically make your ding an admit, so the marginal utility of a “great” letter is somewhere between zero and “not much.”  Sure, there are cases of amazing letters playing a big role, but that is unpredictable and rare, meaning you don’t build your application strategy around it.  More to the point, the downside of a manipulated letter is that you can get denied – either on ethical grounds or because the reader simply has no way to validate previous findings (which is their entire objective in reviewing them).

Remember: if the role you play in your own letters of recommendation is greater than 10%, you will not only fail to gain an advantage, you create a great possibility that you will shoot yourself in the foot.  Engaging in this process beyond 10% of the work is basically minimal upside, big downside.

If you can take this tip to heart, you will create less stress for everyone involved and allow the letters of recommendation to serve the very basic function they are intended for.

 

For an overview of Amerasia MBA Admissions Consulting services, please visit https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/mba_admissions_consulting_services/

If you are interested in the MBA Admissions Consulting services offered by Amerasia, please email mba@amerasiaconsulting.com to inquire about setting up a free consultation.

 

FROM Wharton Admissions Blog: Update on Summer Recruitment

With our incoming MBAs arriving on campus in a few weeks, it’s hard to believe that our office is in full recruitment mode for the Class of 2018! We’re excited to hit the road again later this month and we look forward to meeting more of you around various parts…Read More The post Update on Summer Recruitment appeared first on MBA Program.

The MBA Recruiting Process – Insights from Darden ’15 Grad and CEO of RelishMBA

Hello from the RelishMBA team, and congratulations on being admitted to the MBA Class of 2017! My name is Sarah, and I’m a recent Darden School of Business graduate who founded RelishMBA, an online recruiting platform built specifically for the business school recruiting market. As a recent grad who works full-time in the MBA recruitment space, I wanted to share some recruiting advice and tips to help you prepare for arriving on campus at Wharton.

The first thing to be aware of is that MBA recruiting is a long and intense process. Recruiting activities begin quickly once you’re on campus and they take up a huge amount of your time and energy for most of your first year. While virtually all top MBA students have great jobs available to them, finding those jobs can be frustrating and stressful, with relevant information often hard to find and a complex networking process that can be tough to effectively manage. I started RelishMBA to address these problems and make the process more efficient for both students and employers.

The summer is a great time to get started with recruiting processes (while you don’t have to worry about school, student clubs, social life, and the dozens of other activities that fill up your time during first year). Luckily, there are a few things you can do to prepare before school starts in August: Relax. Explore. Prepare.

Relax – business school is a big change from the working world; take a bit of time off. You deserve it and you’ll need the break!

Explore – In your time relaxing, begin checking out what industries and companies recruit MBAs. This is something RelishMBA helps with. Sign-up at RelishMBA.com to begin exploring employer’s company pages on MBA Careers specific for your school (“day in the life” alumni testimonials, on-campus presence, key points of contact, etc.).

Prepare – And lastly, get your resume ready. Below are some tips from my experience.
It’s also important to remember that once you’re on campus, you’ll be networking with recruiters and alumni frequently – and RelishMBA will help you here too, through relationship management tools that make it easy to stay on top of your networking game. Have any questions? Reach out anytime at recruit@relishmba.com.

Resume Tips:

1) Writing your resume is your first Marketing assignment

Your resume is essentially a one-page advertisement designed to sell your brand to employers. But as your first year marketing class will tell you, marketing is about a lot more than just a fancy design and a few well-placed buzzwords. Think about your audience (i.e. who will be reading your resume? Finance recruiters? Consultants? Marketers? Others?) and how you are positioning yourself with that audience (i.e. what work experiences would be most relevant or interesting to the recruiters reading your resume?).

For example, if you’re headed up to Wall Street, focus on the more quantitatively rigorous parts of your work experience, and try to make sure that your resume as a whole reflects an interest in and passion for finance and its associated disciplines. Future consultants will want to highlight problem-solving and analytical thinking. Marketers could talk about leading cross-functional teams or point out examples of especially effective communication.

And if you are not sure what you want to do, don’t sweat it – there are lots of you out there, and it’s no big deal for the next few weeks or months. But regardless of your eventual industry or function targets, remember: your resume is not just a chronicle of your past work achievements; it is an advertisement designed to effectively sell you and your brand to recruiters.

2) Be concise but specific

This is one of the more difficult parts of honing your resume: providing specific examples of relevant work accomplishments in a way that a recruiter can easily digest in a few seconds. Try starting each bullet point with a strong action word. Instead of saying something like “Helped to more than double sales during tenure in catchment area,” try something like “Launched blogger outreach program that increased web traffic by 72% and increased sales by 120%”.

These sorts of hard numbers are really helpful, especially since many recruiters will spend only a few seconds looking at your resume and those numbers stand out on the page. So it’s also important to be sure that your bullet points can be read and processed easily. And if you don’t have a lot of specific numbers to add to your resume, it’s still important to be specific about your accomplishments and to pick your words wisely.

3) Add some flair

You should be careful with how much flair you add to your resume, but it’s a good idea to think of ways to set yourself apart from the competition. The “Personal” section at the bottom of your resume, where you list hobbies, activities, and interests, is an easy place to hook a recruiter (or break the ice in an interview). Only mention things that are truly a part of your life, but still consider your audience and which of your hobbies or experiences might be of interest to the recruiters reading your resumes. Once you reach campus, you’ll hear plenty of stories about students who were able to land first or even second-round interviews largely on the basis of what seem like minor resume items.

Other ways to add flair:

-Were you kind of a big deal in college? It’s worthwhile to mention any particularly important or impressive extracurriculars from your undergrad days (particularly leadership roles), and including club affiliations and other school-specific positions can be a good idea once you get onto campus

-Recruiters are looking to hire real people, not business robots. Make sure your resume – the accomplishments you choose to mention, the structure and content of the Personal section – reflects your personality.

4) Don’t be careless

This is the part where we tell you that a few people every year submit resumes with misspelled words or mismatched fonts or other significant but easily avoidable mistakes, and that you could be one of those people if you’re not careful, and you think “I’d never be that much of an idiot,” and then you send your resume to McKinsey or Google with your name spelled wrong at the top. Don’t be that person.
Seriously, just get a friend to read it. Several friends. Have a resume-reading party. But don’t spell your name wrong.

Have any questions? Reach out anytime at recruit@relishmba.com

Sincerely,
RelishMBA Team

FROM Wharton Admissions Blog: 2015-16 Application is Live!

For all candidates looking to join the Wharton MBA Class of 2018, the application is now live on our website! Last year we streamlined the process and we’re pleased to be sticking with this format moving into this application cycle. Be sure to refer to the application requirements and deadlines…Read More The post 2015-16 Application is Live! appeared first on MBA Program.