Hello,
First, let me thank you for your time and help; it is greatly appreciated! I am seeking advice and insight into how my current stats lend themself to top b-schools, and suggestions for ways I can improve myself as an applicant in the coming years.
I graduated from a non-flagship state school (think UNC-Wilmington) with a liberal arts degree. I took multiple quant courses (i.e engineering physics, calculus, etc.) and received A’s.
My CGPA: 3.45
with a strong upward trend for four years (had a 3.7+ my last three years. My low GPA is due to my first year of college—in my first semester I received a 2.1, and in my second I did not show up to class and did not withdraw, so I failed every course.
First glad you recovered-- but you will have to address what you learned from this in optional essay to show that this is something you would not do again.Work experience:
Out of college I worked my way into a position as a Territory Manager for a consumer goods company, in which I managed sales for the entire east coast. Within five months of employment my territory was the most profitable in the country. I also identified an opportunity to decrease spending and increase profit, and successfully implemented a nationwide strategic territory realignment. After 10 months I was given the added responsibility of interviewing candidates and training new hires.
Impressive!I recently took an Account Management (sales rep) position with one of the largest global pharmaceutical companies.
EC:
Extremely proud father
Emergency Department Volunteer
Teach a spin class at the local gym
GMAT: hoping to score 700+
I have written one practice test without studying for diagnostic purposes: I received a 610. I have read that with intensive study it is not uncommon to improve scores by around 100 points. I did very well on the verbal section, and terrible on the quant section—around 30th percentile. I think I can boost my score, because I never had any issues learning math, and I feel that I was rusty with a lot of simple mathematics concepts at the time of the test.
- Assuming I do well on the GMAT, how competitive am I?
- Will my GPA hurt me?
1) will schools appreciate the strong upward trend
2) I am planning on taking some quant courses (micro/macro economics, finance, calc 2) to demonstrate my quant abilities. Will this help?
- Will my career help or hurt me as an applicant? 1) I feel that it is understood that gaining entry into pharmaceutical sales is extremely competitive. The income is also high (relatively similar to that of careers that more commonly lead to MBAs). I am hoping that my sales job won’t be viewed negatively.
No one can argue with results and overall B schools will view a high salary as evidence that you can do well professionally- Assuming I receive a high score of 700+ on the GMAT, which tier of b-schools should I be looking at?
I would say the schools you look at would depend on what you want to do post MBA. With the lesser known school and some of the blips in the Gpa along the way-- a 700+ GMAT score would really help. I would also look at some schools a little off the beaten path-- for example a school like Rotman will love your successful work experience and could be a good fit for you-- Also look at US schools in the 10-20 range for best odds. Happy to do a consult if you want to know more about how Stratus can help. https://stratusadmissionscounseling.com/consult/- Do you have any suggestions career or otherwise that you feel could help improve my candidacy?
Thanks!
Posted from my mobile device