HarleyQ wrote:
Please evaluate my profile
Second Class Lower undergraduate degree in Computer Science from international school
690 GMAT (Retaking in a month and aiming for 750 +/-10)
Extracurricular: Mentor for underprivileged kids, founded non-profit startup
African, Female, 23
4 yrs exp in media and tech. Most recently product management (graduated super early)
Goals: Continue in tech product management at Google, Amazon etc
I was so sure that I had no chance at a top school that I applied to the following:
Rotman
Sauder
CMU Tepper
Aix-Marseille
I've gotten interview invites from all of them and acceptance from one. Waiting on the others but I'm 90% sure I'm going to get in.
Now, I'm starting to feel like I should have aspired higher. I'm retaking the GMAT in a month and aiming for 750+.
CMU Tepper is my top pick but its not known internationally. Even my boss who studied in the US had a blank stare when I told him I was applying to CMU.
But CMU has great links to tech jobs in the US and I could get a nice scholarship with that 750 GMAT.
With that same GMAT score, I could try for better known schools:
MIT Sloan
UC Berkeley
UCLA
Is it worth it applying to those schools in Round 3? Even if I manage to get in, there would be no scholarship.
Or should I wait for the next Round 1 and forfeit any admit I get from CMU?
Or just suck it up, keep my application fees money and go to CMU (if admitted hopefully with scholarship)
Hey there!
Well, Tepper is a very good school for what you are looking into. Maybe your one boss didn't know it, but really, in IT everybody knows.
You have an interesting dilemna. First of all, as an African female you are definitely in an advantageous situation. Whether you want to wait till next year or not is up to you. There are several ways to play it. 1. Ask Tepper for a deferment 2. Apply R3 with less chances (again this might depend on your GMAT score) 3. Renounce on Tepper and go all out next year.
Whatever you decide to do (and I could advise you more about what you SHOULD do if I know you better) I think that you will ALWAYS have more options becuase of the uniqueness of your profile, and most certainly if you can actually pull that 750!
So my initial thought is: Try and defer or hold off Tepper... Take the GMAT, and then based on what you actually get make your decision (meaning if you have a 750 and it is highly advantageous for you to apply this year, just go for R3. You will have a shot)
In the meanwhile, Good luck!!!!!!!!
And if you need assistance with anything, just drop a line!!!!!
Best,
Jon
close
28 Jan 2016, 01:03
