Re: Profile Evaluation: Canadian/M/28/780/4 years WE
[#permalink]
13 Dec 2020, 09:38
Barring your GPA, your profile seems reasonably good for a top MBA program, and given you have a good reason for it, I think there will be ways around it. During my time at Columbia University in NY (about 10Y ago), I remember a student with a similar GPA in my Capital Markets class at the B School. Remember GPA is a proxy for your abilities to successfully complete the program, and given your high GMAT, you somewhat compensate for the poor GPA, but, not to forget, GPA is just one component of the application packet.
To even be considered by a TOP school, apart from a good GPA, you must have majored in a relevant and rigorous field, have a good GMAT, have solid and relevant work experience, have been involved in the community, have a couple interesting extra-curricular activities, and have demonstrated leadership and teamwork skills. Then, in addition to that, you will need at least one big diversity point that will separate you from the other 500 applicants who fit the above criteria.
Now, so far you have talked about your education and work, you also need to think about leadership/teamwork/extra curriculars among other things. If you think your application packet is solid on all the above points (except for the GPA), I suggest signing up for the admission webinars conducted by university, and if possible, attending a few seminars in person, and asking this question in Q&A session. Depending on the university rep's response, you could tailor your essays, even reference the rep's answer to your question, and you could potentially overcome this GPA problem.
Best of luck with your application.
P.S.: Given your post MBA goal of getting into portfolio management at Hedge Funds, you need to consider location. Northeast schools (Columbia, NYU, Penn, and even Yale), and some in California (UCLA, Berkley Haas, Stanford) give you access to the industry better than other top schools (think McCombs at UT Austin). So instead of top 20, focus on schools that give you the location advantage.