garysheffield wrote:
Guess I'm too curious not to ask:
28 years old now and @ enrollment
from a small town in Mississippi, live in NYC
GMAT - 740
Undergrad, small liberal arts poli-sci major - 2.95
went back to school @ NYU and Columbia - 17 business hours, 3.7
Total GPA - 3.1
College Activities - Vice President of the student government, career achievement award winner for the student government, ran my fraternity, one of 5 undergrads chosen by a faculty committee to charter a chapter of the national leadership fraternity.
Post college - vice-chairman of a philanthropy that delivered 250K of medicine to Iraqi kids and a bunch of computers to africa over the past year.
Very unique travelling experience - met the Dalai Lama in India presented a business plan to the foreign minister of Qatar in his office, and other weird stuff.
professional - used to be a political consultant, came to NYC to work in finance but no jobs after 9/11 for a career switcher. Worked a couple of crap jobs. Now at a small consulting firm performing due dilligence investigations. Got off track professionally but basically back on.
applied 3rd round to - Tuck, Columbia, NYU, Stanford
I want to work in finance, obvious career switcher which I think, along with my grades, is my weakness.
I applied to Stanford because I loved it when I visited, but I don't expect anything there. Would have applied to HBS but missed the deadline bc of the GMAT.
Columbia is my main option and I'm enthusiastic about it.
What do you guys think, specifically re Columbia?
garysheffield,
Assuming you executed well in your apps -- emphasizing leadership/impact, making career progress seem coherent, making most of interesting elements, etc. -- then you should be competitive at NYU, CBS, and Tuck. Primarily because you have strong numbers, strong community, and an interesting background. Stanford is probably out of reach. Big question mark is whether your post 9/11 career looks shaky on the resume and whether you have been able to show progressively building leadership and responsibility. If it looks like your career is incoherent, underachieving, or still moving in a lateral direction, then your odds fall off.
Good luck,