Hey guys.
Please be as brutally honest with me as possible when it comes to my chances. I recently got accepted to a marginal accounting program(not even close to ranked) and am unsure if I should try and improve my resume to get into a top 100 school(i.e. Iowa, Iowa State, De Paul, Loyola, Minn, Mich State, Missouri, NC State, Kentucky etc) or accept the offer on the table.
Nationality: American
Age: 24
The Good:
700 GMAT(if I retook it I am confident I could bump it up by 20-50 points)
Minority Candidate(Native American)
Graduated from Vanderbilt in 2008
The Bad:
I have spent the last 4 years playing online poker professionally. As a result of this I have 0 job experience. This is really going to hurt me but I feel like I can control the damage by pointing out its strengths. I was able to make a consistent profit that was much higher than the average US salary, I have travelled to 27 countries, lived in 3, and (in my opinion) doing well in poker is reflective of a good work ethic, sharp mind, and discipline.
The Ugly:
My undergraduate GPA was 2.5 and I doubled majored in Philosophy and History. My grades were relatively static the entire time. The grades were mostly my fault. I was mostly lazy/lacking ambition but a medical issue made the problem much worse. This problem thankfully is 100 percent gone.
I am willing to spend the next 1.5 years attempting to improve my resume. i.e. Getting A's in Accounting/Economic courses, volunteering, interning, finding a job, spending loads of time working on my application essays, improving my Gmat etc. (I am also open to the idea of going back to undergraduate and getting a business degree with a much improved GPA) The question though is even if I do all of this, would I have a chance of getting into a decent top 100 program or does my lack of job experience/poor undergraduate GPA doom me?
Thank you very much.