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redski59
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Joined: 29 Apr 2016
Last visit: 13 Dec 2016
Posts: 11
Own Kudos:
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Given Kudos: 2
Concentration: General Management, Entrepreneurship
Schools: Kellogg '19 (I) Duke '19 (I) Ross '19 (S) Darden '19 (S) McDonough '19 (II) Anderson '19 (S) HBS '19 (D)
GMAT 1: 740 Q50 V40
GPA: 3.2
Schools: Kellogg '19 (I) Duke '19 (I) Ross '19 (S) Darden '19 (S) McDonough '19 (II) Anderson '19 (S) HBS '19 (D)
GMAT 1: 740 Q50 V40
Posts: 11
Kudos: 7
Profile Evaluation Request Updated on: 13 Oct 2016, 20:09
Originally posted by redski59 on 09 Jul 2016, 00:38.
Last edited by redski59 on 13 Oct 2016, 20:09, edited 1 time in total.
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StratusDonna
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Stratus Admissions Consultant
Joined: 31 May 2016
Last visit: 29 Apr 2026
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Location: United States
Concentration: Marketing, Organizational Behavior
Schools: Kellogg
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Schools: Kellogg
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Profile Evaluation Request 11 Jul 2016, 09:14
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redski59
Hello,
Hi redski59, Thanks for reaching out to Stratus for a profile review. Glad to give you my thoughts from an adcom perspective. See notes below in blue:

I am planning to apply for programs this Fall. I apologize if this seems long, but please bear with me.

About me:
Asian-American Male, U.S. citizen, 29 years old You will be viewed as a US citizen. You don't say what part of the country you are from- but wherever you are living now is the pool from US you will be considered from. It can help to be from a place less popular- so for example being from Southeast is more unique when applying to Kellogg than Fuqua etc. You can't really control that- but be aware of where you might be a little more appealing from the school perspective. You can see a bit of a proxy for this by looking at where people from school go to work from employment report to get an idea of the sweet spot locations for where relationships are strongest for each school on your list.

Education:
B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at a school currently ranked between #20-25, graduated 2009. 3.2 GPA (I had some terrible grades in my 2nd semester, which I attribute to working the night-shift at my on-campus job that semester)Address the reason for the bad grades in short statement in optional essay- no excuses- just state the facts as you did here and that you learned from the experience. Make sure there is no tone of blame.

I’ve also obtained a Project Management Professional (PMP) credentialGood to have.

GMAT:
710 (Q: 48, V: 38, IR: 5, AWA: 6)Solid, but not off the charts stand out. To give you an idea for the schools you seek- you under index on GPA and are on par or slightly low on GMAT. So we need to find some over indexes below.

Target Schools: Georgetown, UCLA may be best shots of group.
Kellogg, Fuqua, UCLA, Darden, Michigan, Georgetown

MBA Goal:
I would like to work in a general management or business strategy role. My target industries are transportation (airlines, railroads, etc.) or consumer productsMichigan would have good relationships in transportation, Kellogg with consumer products

Work:
6.5 years in litigation support consulting for a Big 4 firm. Started at the Entry-Level Associate level and promoted up to Manager level. However, I have been unemployed since March. We had a major error occur on my watch that almost lost us a major client. I took full responsibility for the error, and was terminated as a result :( This is challenging- you have to spin this as a lesson learned. But also you need to bounce back from this and the longer you are unemployed the bigger the problem. So can you start working somewhere soon again? That would help. You can absolutely use this in essays as lessons learned. I think that failure is such a great teacher and too often people are afraid to fail- but if you tell story right it can be a strength- that you have bounced back from difficulties. But we need you to bounce BACK to employment ASAP!

I’ve tried to reflect on what went wrong. My lesson learned was I tried to do too much and had perceived asking for help as a sign of weakness. It was a matter of time before I would slip-up, and unfortunately it was a bad enough slip-up to ruin my career at that firm.

Extracurriculars:
For the first few years after college, I was a regular volunteer at a soup kitchen and the Ronald McDonald House. I also led a couple community service projects at my firm, one to a hospital to read to children and another to clean up a local park. But after my first promotion, my job changed to 100% travel and with me working 60-80 hours/week, my extracurricular activity has been non-existent. So get back to the extracurriculars NOW and think about how to quantify RESULTS of what you were involved in so far.


I am now trying to pursue an interest in producing documentaries. I’ve started my own production company and already have begun shooting for my first film, which I hope to have completed and released in the Fall. I’m not certain about monetization potential, but I do plan to try to get some value from advertising.OK- this is interesting. UCLA might be a place to look if you want to pursue media....

I’ve also sought to find a new job, but it has been hard to find a position at the same level and with the same responsibilities as I had before. I’m considering whether to focus on strengthening my extracurricular activities and on my documentary production for the next several months, or should I swallow my pride and take a lower-level position just to be employed? Or maybe even try a different line of work altogether? I am somewhat seriously considering a car salesman job, if anything to help strengthen my sales and marketing skills. If the documentary gig has produced some work- you can position it on your resume that you have been working since March on that. This could be a good angle. Let me ask you a question that needs to be asked.... so why when you could do anything did you choose to produce a documentary? When you say your post MBA goal is general management in transportation? That story does not play out very logically so you need to think about that as you present yourself for an MBA. Do you want to produce documentaries? What was it about? WHY? These questions may unlock the secret sauce that is ONLY YOU and this is the kind of challenging we do with our clients to help them think about how they best position themselves for the MBA application process. Right now your quick story does not flow logically so you'd have to address. We'd love to talk more and have you do a free consult- go to StratusPrep.com and you can sign up. You sound like you have learned a great deal so far- remember it is more important how we BOUNCE BACK from difficulties - everyone gets some rain... you need to turn your rain into rainbows! We'd love to help you. Best of luck!

I appreciate any advice or feedback. Thanks!
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