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Question

Undergrad GPA: 3.8 with a double-major in Finance and Information Systems

GMAT score: 640 (just took it today)

Work experience: 6 years. In my current company, I started out as a temp and then was hired permanently, then moved to its IT department doing IT support and development (including a massive data conversion project into a new CRM now).

I'm thinking about applying to:

Tepper
Babson (One-Year starting in May)
Sloan
Lally
NC State
(maybe) Stanford

...by R2 for Fall of '08

-am I up to snuff? What can I do (aside from get an 800 GMAT) to improve my chances?

riverripper · Answer

You should ask this to experts in the accepted.com forum. 

My take, assuming you come from a common demogaphic for IT (asian, indian, white...male, dont listen if you are an underrepresented minority and female). No offense but Sloan and Stanford are going to be nearly impossible, unless you have done something amazing outside of work. You fall well below their avg gmat and are even below their 80% gmat range. Your GPA is excellent but your work experience is going to be common to these schools, and you would need to improve your gmat to have even a chance. Also sloan only has two rounds and the second round is supposedly much harder than the first (less than 20% acceptance).

Tepper, has been climbing the GMAT score range too, its more doable but once again your industry is a huge feeder to Tepper...their class is close to 80% engineers and IT people. 

Babson is doable, but why the 1 year vs the two year. Your score is right around their median so its not as big a hurdle as at tepper and they aren't as big with IT people so less competition from people with similar backgrounds.

If it would be possible for you to increase your gmat in a month to close to 700, then seriously consider that. That would still leave you close to 6 weeks to get out applications to schools, which is definitely doable especially if you take some vacation and really work hard on them. 

Post what you posted here in the accepted forum, but with more detail about extra curriculars, details about your work, and your career goals...they can give you alist of schools they think are doable.

faceoffking6160 · Answer

When I visited Babson, the student tour guide recommended I apply for the 1-year program because I already have an undergrad business degree.

riverripper · Answer

Having an undergrad in business has less to do with it than what you want to do post MBA. If you are planning on changing careers then you are going to want a 2 year program because of the internship. The internship isnt important if you want to stay in the same field so then the 1year is a good program.

What are your career goals?

faceoffking6160 · Answer

My career goals is to transition from IT support and development to the development and marketing of innovative consumer products.

riverripper · Answer

Pretty much every alum or student I have talked to discussed how the internship is one of the most valuable parts of a fulltime MBA. Consider what you want to get out of your MBA. If you dont have a marketing background and are planning on changing into it then you really should look closer at 2 year programs.

kryzak · Answer

I second what river said, and you'll probably get the same story from Accepted.com or "MBA Game Plan".

2 year program sounds more useful for you to switch career functions. And a 700 score is almost necessary unless you have unique work experience, have done something extraordinary (Mt. Everest, saved children in Africa, etc...), or are in an underrepresented category. 

Hope that helps!

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