Profile Eval - Former Army Officer, Current Ops Manager

Question

First, what a gem this forum is! I found your  MBA programs as cars  thread very entertaining, and your website is chock full of useful info. Thanks!

Me: 33 at matriculation, half Korean, half white-American
Stats: 2.7 GPA from a no-name Bible College (worked fulltime and paid my own way through school - graduated in 3.5 yrs). BA in Church Ministries. 720 GMAT (full disclosure: I haven't taken it yet, but that's my expected score).
EC: youth pastor in college; helped Iraqi interpreters immigrate to US after deployment; webmaster for an Army alumni association for 3 years (20k members)
WE: 1.5 yrs operations manager for top Supply Chain/Online Retailer, 1 promotion; 6 yrs Infantry officer - top 5% evals, bronze star, worked very closely with Iraqi Army counterparts for 15 months, and was an Infantry platoon leader; 3 yrs Network Engineer (CCNA). Very strong leadership experience overall.
Target Schools:
1) Booth
2) Kellogg
3) CBS
4) Wharton
5) Anderson
6) Haas

I read your post about improving my chances, and I realize my GPA is a hurdle, but I'm so busy at work (60+ hrs) and my family time is already so limited, I strongly loathe the idea of taking classes. How much impact would 1 or 2 classes this summer have on my apps? I know it's borderline ridiculous to ask, but are we talking a 10% bump? 25%? Also, I'd love to hear your thoughts on schools (the 6 above and others).

Thanks!

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Taking 2-3 online extension classes (I believe UCLA offers this, as well as other accredited universities) in a quant class like stats, calculus, algebra, microeconomics, etc. will help. By acing these classes (they only have to be 100-level equivalent classes, or college freshman classes, no need to take hardcore upper level stuff), you will at least give more evidence (along with your high GMAT) that your low GPA wasn't due to lack of brains, but lack of effort. In other words, through these courses and the GMAT collectively, you want to show that you're not a dummy. Work experience, leadership, extracurriculars, etc. allow you to talk about your street smarts, whereas the GPA/GMAT/extra classes reveal your book smarts.

No one really wants to take extension classes. I'm sure no one wants to be doing calculus homework on a Friday night. But it will help.

Beyond that, you will be competitive for all the schools you mentioned. Depending on your confidence level, you may want to be even more ambitious - and apply to HBS or Stanford as well, as they love accomplished military officers (and the religious aspect can also be an aspect so long as you're focusing more on the leadership activities you've been involved in -- skills and experiences that have relevance or carryover into the secular/non-religious contexts as well).

Sorter · Answer

Thanks Alex - I appreciate the insight. A quick followup:

I plan on applying in R1 to Booth, Kellogg, Wharton and CBS (ED), and through the consortium to Anderson and Haas - which is a little later. Given that, which school should I use a consultant for to craft an application? The one I'm most nervous about is Booth because it's my top choice, and also because of the slide presentation.

AlexMBAApply · Answer

What I usually recommend to folks is to sign up for the school that will give you the most coverage (i.e. the school whose essay questions cover the most ground so that you can adapt it to other schools). I don't think you need or should sign up with a consultant for every single school you apply to - you should be looking at consultants as a valuable resource, and not a crutch. To be honest, those who want to sign up for like 5-6 schools scare me a bit because it infers a co-dependency thing, like I am supposed to be a surrogate for their application. I usually recommend folks to sign up 1 school (2 schools at most) at a time; most will feel they only need 1-2 schools (sometimes 3), but no more than that - and if they do need more, it really is only for an essay here or there on an hourly basis.

Any consultant who tries to sell you on a bunch of schools or huge bundled packages upfront are, well, shall we say, more like "sales" organizations than client-oriented businesses. Some folks are more focused on the business of selling for sales' sake, while others are in the business of giving advice and counsel. It's a subtle but hugely important difference, and one that I would hope many applicants can distinguish using their own judgment.

Of the schools, you listed, I'd say that Kellogg typically provides the most coverage since they ask a wide variety of questions (and you can probably cover virtually all consortium essay questions as adaptations of the Kellogg essays). Yes, it's not always "cut and paste" but it's not like you have to write completely brand new from the ground up essays either for each school with a similar essay questions. Your career goals are your career goals - what and why you chose those goals aren't really going to change from one school to the next (with some exceptions, but they don't often come up with most applicants).

Wharton has changed up their essays questions completely last year. They may do so again this year. It's a school whose admissions process is in a state of transition and flux (read: they're reorienting the school, and they're still trying to figure out what that means for the admissions process - which is why so many folks have been waitlisted this year - they know what they want in theory, but when faced with actual applicants, they are unsure how to translate what they want in an applicant in theory into an actual admissions decision). So hard to say with Wharton until the essays come out. Traditionally, Wharton's essays like Kellogg's were the most adaptable because they asked a broad range of pretty straightforward questions that many other schools ask in some shape or form.

Booth has a reputation for asking very odd questions, although I think that is changing. In years' past, they've asked questions like "if you were to choose a school mascot, what would it be?" and other unintentionally comical questions like that (no wonder they attracted some real weirdos a while ago..). Their questions are beginning to be a bit more straightforward, and even their powerpoint slide is really just another way of asking "tell me a bit about yourself" without having to limit yourself to essay prose (but at the same time they're not expecting something completely wacky either).

Sorter · Answer

Alex, what are your thoughts on using MBAMath.com's program to shore up weak GPA - does it add any value to my app? What about coupling this course with a 100-level stats class?

AlexMBAApply · Answer

Either or both will be fine.

Profile Eval - Former Army Officer, Current Ops Manager

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