Hey EChopeful12,
Thanks for reaching out to me.
[GPA] Your GPA (by itself) in your major is not a deal breaker at all. Based on you GPA alone and at first glance you would be competitive at a top 15.
This is why:
You are going to be compared against your "major" peers during the admissions process. For example, hard science (BS Econ) undergraduate degree GPAs are weighted against other hard science GPAs. On average engineers will have lower GPAs due to the nature of the program and its quantitative rigor. The point is that you graduated with a decent GPA, especially when compared against your applicant pool subset. The mean GPAs that are stated on the Rankings are a rollup of all those that matriculated.
I am not sure where you went to undergrad during your frosh year, but something to keep in mind - some schools and groups of schools (right or wrong) have reputations for grad inflation. The adcom knows that. They compensate for it during the admission decisioning process.
[GMAT] Your GMAT is decent - it is not going to help you, it is not going to hurt you that much. You are basically a member of the 700 club and that is an important barrier to break. The quant score is low of course and that does complicate matters a bit. Basically, the adcom will wonder if you have the intellectual horsepower to withstand the rigors of the core. Since you do have coursework in quant subjects (given your major), you get a slight pass. Also when considering your W/E, you should be using quant/analytics at work. I hope this is the case. If so, then that helps satiate the adcom as well. However, there still will be some doubt in the adcom's mind. You could take the test again - but that might be throwing good money after bad. The safest best is to take an online course in one of the core quant subjects. I do believe that action is needed on your part. Enroll in an course that contains one of the traditional MBA course courses (stats, econ, finance, acct.) Get an A in the course. The "A" matters more than the school name or location.
[W/E - International] In general - for international experience to be significant it has to be something that you can write about at length and appropriately in a b-school essay. So can you articulate how you lead a team in a multi-national or cross border environment? This is what the adcom would want to see if you were writing an essay. A lot of applicants have worked occasionally overseas. What you got out of it and what you can put down on paper is what will set your experience apart from other applicants. That is where I consider the line drawn between good and bad experience. Hitting on these points - in conjunction with your international upbringing - should be enough to satisfy the adcom's desire for some intl experience. Of course, some schools do care more about this aspect than others.
[Extracurricular] You are firing on all cylinders except for your extracurricular activities. Basically a significant portion of your candidacy is MIA during your undergrad. Post-undergrad - you seem to be doing a very good job with your extracurriculars. The important thing about these activities is that you want them to be leadership oriented and align with a personal and if possible - some professional interest.
[Goals - Consulting] It's important to remember that strat consulting will rely heavily on the MBA program's reputation to market you as a legitimate team member to client firms. This being said, it is also going to be important to find an MBA program that sends a lot of their graduates back into MC. That is, top 15 (or even 20) school's located in these major metros will have the alumni presence, critical mass of firms that will get you in the door. I would recommend staying away from some great schools in major markets that do not have this penetration.
One more thing - it will be critically important to address why you are changing careers (is energy consulting a switch from gov? Sounds like it is to me.) If you are looking at a field you view to be related, you need to stress how your current skills fit to your career goals in a different area or specialty.
[School Selection] You should be competitive at the schools you listed - with the exception of Kellogg. I think that Kellogg is worth applying to, but will be stretch. Basically, when you sum up the parts above and compare it to candidates that are competitive at a top 5 or 10 school, you come up slightly short in total. This is probably something that you already guessed. Now, there may be some extenuating circumstance (in your profile) that I am not aware of. But given the information you listed, this is my take.
Of course - if you would like to speak on the phone for approximately and hour or so, please email me at
MBA@amerasiaconsulting.com.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
EChopeful12 wrote:
Hello,
I am looking to apply in round 1 or 2 and was hoping you could review my profile.
My stats:
26 at matriculation with 44 months of full time WE (government mgmt consulting) - just switched companies over the summer for a promotion/more responsibilities
700 GMAT (95% V, 67% Q) - low quant, but since I did well in calculus, statistics, and finances courses, perhaps they may give me a break. Would taking an online course like MBA Math help in this area?
3.3 cumulative GPA (Econ major) from private Top 20 (I think my final 2 years was around 3.2ish but my major was something around 3.0). Transfered from a state university with a 4.0 my freshman year, but I'm not sure if adcoms will take that into consideration.
Didn't get involved with anything during my undergrad unfortunately, but I picked up the slack post-graduation by volunteering to do some college career counseling, volunteering at the Make A Wish Foundation, and I hold a chair position on my local alumni board
I have good reviews from my employers will be able to get solid recs from them as well.
I would like to get into more generalized strategy consulting, hopefully with an energy focus, or even a general management track at an energy firm.
A little bit more about myself...I've lived on three different continents and worked for a summer in Abu Dhabi for a PE firm. Will being "cultured" (for lack of a better word) help potentially?
My list of possible schools includes the following:
Kellogg
Fuqua
Ross
Darden
Haas
I'm on track to be promoted in January and I'm worried that if I apply now, I'm not going to be impressive enough professionally. I've done quite a few things in the past year (business development work, creating marketable solutions for my consulting group, became a task lead (without any subordinates)) so maybe that'll be enough but I have no idea. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!