Thegmatman wrote:
Thank you for taking the time out for evaluating my profile. I really appreciate it!
I plan on applying in a year or so! I would like to know what school I would be a good fit for.
Profile:
GMAT: 650 (Q48, V31) I think I could get 680 by the time that I apply
Black/Male/24 years (26 at matriculation)
EDUCATION: Bachelors in Computer Engineering minor Business administration GPA: 3.00/4.00
Patents Owned: 1
LOW GPA:
My 3.00 GPA was due to a serious car accident the summer before my sophomore year in which my best friend and I were T-boned by a semi-truck. I was forced to drink through a straw for 25 days due to my several injuries. I became depressed which resulted in my poor academic performance. Luckily, I was able to focus my time away from sports and realize my passion for business. I consider my GPA recovery to be one of my greatest accomplishments because I proved to myself that I have the grit to overcome adversity.
EXPERIENCE:
I started two startups in college. The first business I competed in several pitch competition for. I won $6000 at a pitch competition at citywide event, place top 3 in South Carolina a won $10,000 in prizes, and place top 40 out of 25,000 globally. For the second business I went from winning the best engineering senior design project to being accepted into a startup incubator (3% acceptance rate). I raised $130,000 at over $1,000,000 valuation through the incubator, investors, and kickstarter. I also built my team to 7 people and have presented to President Jimmy Carter along with Fortune 100 and business executives.
Also shortly after I graduated I was a leader for Georgia's largest startup and helped 500 businesses get started all in one day. I trained, certified and oversaw 20+ consultants for the event. This was all ran through a nonprofit.
Currently I am being contracted by one of arms forces (Army, Navy or Air Force) to lead their product intuitive for 2 major releasing soon. I basically the final say on what features are implemented and make sure the project is on track. I also have a machine learning project that I am developing on the side that I think has real potential.
I also trade stocks in my spare time. This is how I helped pay off my student loans. I have turned $13,000 in $35,000 with probably around 600 trades. I plan to save to $70k to pay for grad school. I am not sure if schools will even care that I can do this at all.
EXTRA CURRICULAR:
I mentor several people and help them with their startups. I have help people successfully raise capital and win pitch competitions.
I also taught a class to teach freshman how to adjust to college and mentored about 40 students over 2 years. This took about 15 hours a week.
LONG TERM GOAL:
Long term I would like start another company with someone I meet in business school and consult college students on startup as a way for me to give back. Then I would like to consult Fortune 500 companies for a few years while teaching 1-2 credit course on entrepreneurship at reputable college as a hobby. I really enjoy helping and teaching but I want to have a formal background on top of everything I have done on my own. I plan on starting a "gifted" high school in 15 or so years. Finally I would like to get into venture capital or at the very least be an angel investor.
I would like to apply to Emory, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Duke & Yale. I can get great LOR, anywhere from a previous associate dean of MBA program at one of those 5 schools to my co-founder and several other mentors. I don’t know how well I fair against competition at these schools. Is my profile even unique? Can you let me know my chances at each? What else should I do to make me look better for the future since I still have time. Also please recommend other schools if you think that I could be a better fit for.
Thanks in advance!!
Hi Thegmatman
Thank you for posting. This thread is actually for evaluations for ISB only, but will provide a quick response to help:
- Your GMAT and GPA are currently the biggest factors standing in your way. True, you have a good explanation for the GPA, but the accident is likely to have affected you for a few months, which would cover the low GPA for 1-2 terms, but not the entire program, unless you can show the effect prolonging. Even then, you will need a higher test score to show schools such as Duke and Yale (that are long shots for you) that you are competitive on the analytical side.
- Other than that, you have really done some great work. The startup experience, presenting to President Carter, scaling, and stock trading all sound good. Schools will value your investment acumen, but based on what you have done, not on what you plan to do.
- Your goals (long term) look good, but the need for an MBA isn't really there, at least based on what you state. You'll need to take these deeper to convince these schools that you want to achieve something you have already not.
- Among your schools, maybe look at Babson, Marshall, and Ross (as a higher-ranked option) and park on Yale and Duke till you get a higher GMAT score.
Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed or to contact us directly for a more detailed discussion.