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06 Jul 2011, 22:01
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Could someone please evaluate my profile for top 20 MBA programs -
Looking at MIT-Sloan, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown? Back up school - Texas A&M. But would appreciate recommendations of schools that might better suit my profile.
Male, aged 31, New Zealand.
Bachelor of Commerce - Top New Zealand University -
Bachelor of Property [Real Estate] Top New Zealand University
6 years study, Combined GPA 2.5 – Grades best in first year, final two years show improvement, but I am concerned that a C- in an advanced finance paper in final semester will count against me. 4 failing grades on transcript.
GMATPrep = 720 (Quant 43, Verbal 45) - first attempt, without knowledge of subject matter examined. Estimate that I can boost this to 740-760 with 6 weeks of study. Should be able get Quant score up to at
Work experience = 8 yrs working in politics and campaign management. Excellent career progression, leading to a senior position as political advisor to a Cabinet Minister. Experience liaising with senior executives of major firms and government departments.
Established a boutique polling firm, employing 20 staff, managed for 4 years.
International campaign management experience in UK and 3 month sabbatical in US last year, including work on US Senate campaign.
Attempted to start two other businesses while at college – good stories for lesions leant questions.
Extra Curricular: active involvement and leadership in extracurricular groups during college - student Rep on various committees, involvement in student newspaper. Senior roles on the National executive of the New Zealand equivalent of the College Republicans.
I will have excellent letters of recommendation from a senior government minister and chief executive.
Post MBA: Interest in Real Estate Finance or Development.
How do Adcoms view political experience?
I could do a math paper in the next 3 months to build an alternative transcript, however I’m not sure if a single paper will make up for 6 years of Bs and Cs. It would also mean I would be applying in R2, rather than R1.
Thanks for your advice!
Looking at MIT-Sloan, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown? Back up school - Texas A&M. But would appreciate recommendations of schools that might better suit my profile.
Male, aged 31, New Zealand.
Bachelor of Commerce - Top New Zealand University -
Bachelor of Property [Real Estate] Top New Zealand University
6 years study, Combined GPA 2.5 – Grades best in first year, final two years show improvement, but I am concerned that a C- in an advanced finance paper in final semester will count against me. 4 failing grades on transcript.
GMATPrep = 720 (Quant 43, Verbal 45) - first attempt, without knowledge of subject matter examined. Estimate that I can boost this to 740-760 with 6 weeks of study. Should be able get Quant score up to at
Work experience = 8 yrs working in politics and campaign management. Excellent career progression, leading to a senior position as political advisor to a Cabinet Minister. Experience liaising with senior executives of major firms and government departments.
Established a boutique polling firm, employing 20 staff, managed for 4 years.
International campaign management experience in UK and 3 month sabbatical in US last year, including work on US Senate campaign.
Attempted to start two other businesses while at college – good stories for lesions leant questions.
Extra Curricular: active involvement and leadership in extracurricular groups during college - student Rep on various committees, involvement in student newspaper. Senior roles on the National executive of the New Zealand equivalent of the College Republicans.
I will have excellent letters of recommendation from a senior government minister and chief executive.
Post MBA: Interest in Real Estate Finance or Development.
How do Adcoms view political experience?
I could do a math paper in the next 3 months to build an alternative transcript, however I’m not sure if a single paper will make up for 6 years of Bs and Cs. It would also mean I would be applying in R2, rather than R1.
Thanks for your advice!
07 Jul 2011, 10:26
Kudos
Bookmarks
kiwiMBA,
You have a very strong and distinctive profile in many ways (leadership, New Zealand, politics)--all of this helps you stand out and would make top schools interested in you.
As you know, your age and GPA are the 'negatives' you need to overcome. A ~750 GMAT would certainly help the GPA issue, but you should also explain any extenuating circumstances (full-time job, external emergencies/issues, upward trend, etc.) in an optional essay. Your age will be less of a problem with European schools, if you are open to them. If you are focused on the U.S., then Duke and Georgetown are relatively age friendly but I would not describe MIT and Cornell that way (the outer edge of both school's middle 80% in work experience is 84 months, which is about 29 years old, so you would be an outlier by a little, not a lot). Other age friendly U.S. schools are Washington (Foster), Ohio State, Washington (Olin), Texas A&M, Yale, Michigan, Haas, Stern, and Texas. The outer edge of all these schools' middle 80% in work experience is 96 months. Of these, Yale, Ross, Haas, and Stern would be the toughest, but if you execute well, get that good GMAT score (doing the math paper is probably not worthwhile), and contextualize your GPA, you could get into them--primarily because your professional experiences are so strong. We could discuss applying to other higher-ranked programs too.
Adcoms view political experience with great interest since it's distinctive and can reflect leadership. Just don't get ideological or 'controversial' on them
Feel free to send me your CV/resume for a closer look: [email protected].
You have a very strong and distinctive profile in many ways (leadership, New Zealand, politics)--all of this helps you stand out and would make top schools interested in you.
As you know, your age and GPA are the 'negatives' you need to overcome. A ~750 GMAT would certainly help the GPA issue, but you should also explain any extenuating circumstances (full-time job, external emergencies/issues, upward trend, etc.) in an optional essay. Your age will be less of a problem with European schools, if you are open to them. If you are focused on the U.S., then Duke and Georgetown are relatively age friendly but I would not describe MIT and Cornell that way (the outer edge of both school's middle 80% in work experience is 84 months, which is about 29 years old, so you would be an outlier by a little, not a lot). Other age friendly U.S. schools are Washington (Foster), Ohio State, Washington (Olin), Texas A&M, Yale, Michigan, Haas, Stern, and Texas. The outer edge of all these schools' middle 80% in work experience is 96 months. Of these, Yale, Ross, Haas, and Stern would be the toughest, but if you execute well, get that good GMAT score (doing the math paper is probably not worthwhile), and contextualize your GPA, you could get into them--primarily because your professional experiences are so strong. We could discuss applying to other higher-ranked programs too.
Adcoms view political experience with great interest since it's distinctive and can reflect leadership. Just don't get ideological or 'controversial' on them
Feel free to send me your CV/resume for a closer look: [email protected]. 
08 Jul 2011, 15:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
One of the biggest concern in your application is your GPA. Check out this post to know the various ways you can handle a low GPA in your application - https://bizschoolprep.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-handle-low-gpa-in-mba.html .
You should definitely leverage out the diversity factor in your application There are not a lot of candidates from New Zealand or the ones with political experience. Regarding your question, how B schools view political experience, well.. it depends on how you want them to view it as. Your profile has a lot of leadership potential and you should bring that aspect very clearly in your application. Overall, it should be more of a help than a disadvantage in your application.
You already have a 720 GMAT score, which if not stellar is definitely not a weak score. If you feel that you can use the time better in building an alternative transcript rather than retaking GMAT, that's what you should do. If you execute your application well and leverage your strengths appropriately, you have very good chances at Top 20 and in fact, can try a school or two in the top 10!
Good luck.
You should definitely leverage out the diversity factor in your application There are not a lot of candidates from New Zealand or the ones with political experience. Regarding your question, how B schools view political experience, well.. it depends on how you want them to view it as. Your profile has a lot of leadership potential and you should bring that aspect very clearly in your application. Overall, it should be more of a help than a disadvantage in your application.
You already have a 720 GMAT score, which if not stellar is definitely not a weak score. If you feel that you can use the time better in building an alternative transcript rather than retaking GMAT, that's what you should do. If you execute your application well and leverage your strengths appropriately, you have very good chances at Top 20 and in fact, can try a school or two in the top 10!
Good luck.
