Hey Jon,
I'd be pretty glad if you could advise me. I wanted to shoot for some top 10 schools but I'm not sure if my low GPA would be a problem and if so, how could I overcome it.
First of all, let me tell you about my background:
I'm a 29 year old male Computer Engineer from Brazil. I studied in a top private school with a scholarship of 50%. I had to work as a paid intern from 30 to 40 hours a week to pay for the rest.
This surely helped me to have a low GPA of 6.7/10 (which, however, is close to the average among my friends).
I took the GMAT twice. On the first time, I got a 670 (46V 34Q) and on the second time, a couple of months later, I got a 740 (49Q 42V).
When I got my degree in 2010, I started my own business and have been working on it so far. We develop tech products and have recently started a spin off of this company that was awarded two government grants to develop products to help students of poorer classes to have access to higher education.
I want to get an MBA to improve my managing skills and further develop my company, ideally reaching other countries. Another goal is to get in touch with soon to be leaders of corporations around the globe that can help me achieve this.
I work as a volunteer in the low resources public high school I graduated from, teaching programming, electronics and Arduino to young students.
Also, I sing and play the guitar in a 70's and 60's cover Rock band as a hobby, if that matters at all.
So, the question is: will my low GPA be a problem to go for a top 10 school, maybe even top 5?
Moreover, should I explain in the Additional Information sections that even if I should have been more applied, certainly my grades were affected by my internships?
Thank you so much for your help. I'm really insecure about my GPA and I want to know if I'm aiming too high.
Best regards,
Theo