Hi
Thomas18r!
Thanks for reaching out. You for sure have a less traditional background but I see a lot of strong points! To start, kudos on the GMAT! That's impressive, especially for someone who doesn't have a traditional business background. I also really like that you have strong work ethic, and a creative background -- the creative background especially will be less typical, but can be positioned as an asset to your future classmates. Since you have the benefit of time, I would broadly focus on 4 areas...
1) Academics -- the GMAT helps a lot here, but with your GPA / slow start, and less quantitative major / work, I think you need to continue showing you can handle the quant rigor of an MBA. CORe is one option, but I also think you could strategically pick one or two courses to take and get an A in that to help. If you haven't taken these, or if you did but got poor grades in them, then I would look to take Finance, Accounting, Stats, or Econ.
2) Consulting Prep -- It's definitely not necessary to have unique goals. Consulting is a popular choice for a reason! But you do need to show you are ready to make that switch. I would try to connect with consultants at different firms and set up chats to learn more about their work. I would also think about taking some time to build some core consulting skills like Excel, Project Management, Data Analysis/Visualization, etc. You could do this via online MOOCs even and this would help with Point 1 too.
3) Leadership -- If possible, try to amplify your leadership. Unless you didn't describe it, I didn't see much evidence of this at work or in your extracurriculars. This doesn't have to mean leading people, it can be launching a new idea, leading a process improvement, etc.
4) School networking -- It's not too early to start attending school webinars, etc. and speaking with students / alumni of your target schools. This info will pay off later, and may even give you a chance to connect directly with someone on the admissions committee.
Hope that helps!
Kate
Thomas18r wrote:
I feel I have a pretty non-traditional background (at least when compared to the studs I see on this subreddit) and so I'm not exactly sure how to invest my time in the next 12 months to bolster my application and I would appreciate any feedback/advice.
Why I Want An MBA:
I know this is pretty unoriginal, but my goal is to get into consulting for 3-4 years because I really like how consultants work on a specific project for a few months and then switch assignments. This appeals to me because I don't see myself doing one thing for 20 years and I also would enjoy the travel component. I feel like I'm pretty analytical and so I'd like the challenge of digging into different problems. From there, I would like to found my own creative consulting firm.
Stats:
GMAT: 760 (Q48 V47 IR8) (I studied my @$$ off for this test because I wanted to show that I was ready for the academic rigour of the MBA program and that I really want to get into an MBA program)
CGPA: 9.5/12 (The last 2.5 years my CGPA is perfect and that's because that was when I figured out I wanted to go to bschool and that schools would look at my grades. In Canada, bschools only look at the last 2 years of undergrad, but I know in the US they look at all the years)
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Graduated with High Honours)
Work Experience:
Suiting: 2 years experience fitting men for suits and luxury brand clothing and providing styling consultation.
Visual Merchandiser: 2 years experience designing and creating visual displays in-house for a well established, very large, higher-end store. Present the brand messaging while taking into account sales, trends and promotions.
Professional Actor: 5 years part-time experience acting in educational settings for the 6 local/colleges and councils. Have also starred in various educational videos.
Extracurriculars:
Create art and have an art instagram page. Workout 4X/week (if that counts?). Play chess.
Nationality:
Canadian-born to two immigrant parents escaping war torn Sri Lanka. Both parents are extremely working class and grinders and so I come from humble but proud beginnings and I'm forever grateful to them.
Thoughts?
So yeah, that's my bio so far but I'm planning on applying in the Fall of 2021 so I have 12 months to invest (other than the time spent working full-time) and I'm not exactly sure what to lean into? Do I have a shot at T-15 schools? Should I take hbx core or does my GMAT cover my analytical thinking portion? Should I keep creating art and try to grow my instagram? Should I volunteer somehow in this pandemic? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.