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linkiswickeddank
23 Nov 2010, 15:14
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hello Paul,
I have been reading a lot of your reviews to MBA candidates and found them to be very helpful, so I was getting very excited to take my official GMAT and get your feedback on my candidacy as well.
Here are my details:
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Citizenship: US
GMAT: 760 (Q50,93% : V42,95%)
GPA: 2.55 (Chemical Engineering in 2008, USNEWS Top 30 National University, no failures, two D's)
Work Exp:
2 years in the Pharmaceutical/Biotech industry as a Process Engineer (3 if I matriculated in Fall 2011, but I may not do that just yet. More on that later.)
Also, I worked for 20+ hours/week in the IT department of my school in order to help pay for school. This definitely contributed to my GPA (or decontributed, if that were a word...)
Goal for getting an MBA: Management within Pharma/Biotech, eventually become a member of an executive team, or branch out on my own. Also, I really want to learn about business in general, and I am excited about the opportunities afforded to an MBA grad
Extracurriculars: I played volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and flag football with some leagues before they ended during the fall. I will be joining probably one or two of these leagues as a legitimate member when they start up again in the spring.
Additionally, I play scrabble a lot, I build my own computers, and I ride and maintain road and mountain bikes.
Community Service: Not really too much to say on this for now, although I would like to get started in some (one of the main reasons I don't really think I will apply this cycle). I just moved from Boston to DC, and don't have my roots planted here yet, so I would like to get involved with something here. Any input on how important this is would be greatly appreciated.
My GPA: It is low, I know. I plan to talk about it in my application, and my reasons for this are:
Worked 20+ per week during undergrad to help pay for school
Chemical Engineering was very difficult!
The spring of my junior year, my worst GPA-wise by far, I left for ~2.5 weeks to volunteer in San Diego county to help restoration parts of the area hit by the recent wildfires. San Diego is my hometown, where my friends, parents, and whole extended family lives, so I felt compelled to do what I could to help. I thought I would be able to make up the work when I got back, and although I did pass all of my classes, I squeaked by. While it was my worst semester, my GPA would only be ~2.65 if I didn't include that semester, so I wasn't a great student in general.
I do believe that I am a much different person now than I was in undergrad, and my employers will attest to how effective a worker I am, but I think I should put as many years between my application and my GPA as possible!
So, the programs at which I am looking are:
DC Area:
Georgetown
George Washington University
U Maryland, College Park (Smith)
Elsewhere:
UPenn
Northwestern (I am considering taking the LSAT also, in which case Northwestern is looking at a 3 year JD/MBA which I would love to do if I could be in Chicago)
NYU/Columbia
UCLA/USC
Stanford (I have to ask if I even have a shot! Probably not...)
Another program in CA?
Fuqua (would I have a shot?)
The reason I separated the top three from the rest is because I currently live in DC, and if I were to matriculate F2011 or F2012, it would have to be at one of those schools (my wife just started law school), I would probably only go there if I was offered decent money (Georgetown or UMD) or a full ride (GWU). Therefore, do I have a shot at getting merit scholarships from any of these three schools?
However, F2013 or F2014 I am more flexible as my wife will be graduating law school in Spring of 2013, so I can broaden my hypotheticals.
Anyways, any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated, and any advice for improving my application, as I might have a couple of years to develop, would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!
I have been reading a lot of your reviews to MBA candidates and found them to be very helpful, so I was getting very excited to take my official GMAT and get your feedback on my candidacy as well.
Here are my details:
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Citizenship: US
GMAT: 760 (Q50,93% : V42,95%)
GPA: 2.55 (Chemical Engineering in 2008, USNEWS Top 30 National University, no failures, two D's)
Work Exp:
2 years in the Pharmaceutical/Biotech industry as a Process Engineer (3 if I matriculated in Fall 2011, but I may not do that just yet. More on that later.)
Also, I worked for 20+ hours/week in the IT department of my school in order to help pay for school. This definitely contributed to my GPA (or decontributed, if that were a word...)
Goal for getting an MBA: Management within Pharma/Biotech, eventually become a member of an executive team, or branch out on my own. Also, I really want to learn about business in general, and I am excited about the opportunities afforded to an MBA grad
Extracurriculars: I played volleyball, ultimate frisbee, and flag football with some leagues before they ended during the fall. I will be joining probably one or two of these leagues as a legitimate member when they start up again in the spring.
Additionally, I play scrabble a lot, I build my own computers, and I ride and maintain road and mountain bikes.
Community Service: Not really too much to say on this for now, although I would like to get started in some (one of the main reasons I don't really think I will apply this cycle). I just moved from Boston to DC, and don't have my roots planted here yet, so I would like to get involved with something here. Any input on how important this is would be greatly appreciated.
My GPA: It is low, I know. I plan to talk about it in my application, and my reasons for this are:
Worked 20+ per week during undergrad to help pay for school
Chemical Engineering was very difficult!
The spring of my junior year, my worst GPA-wise by far, I left for ~2.5 weeks to volunteer in San Diego county to help restoration parts of the area hit by the recent wildfires. San Diego is my hometown, where my friends, parents, and whole extended family lives, so I felt compelled to do what I could to help. I thought I would be able to make up the work when I got back, and although I did pass all of my classes, I squeaked by. While it was my worst semester, my GPA would only be ~2.65 if I didn't include that semester, so I wasn't a great student in general.
I do believe that I am a much different person now than I was in undergrad, and my employers will attest to how effective a worker I am, but I think I should put as many years between my application and my GPA as possible!
So, the programs at which I am looking are:
DC Area:
Georgetown
George Washington University
U Maryland, College Park (Smith)
Elsewhere:
UPenn
Northwestern (I am considering taking the LSAT also, in which case Northwestern is looking at a 3 year JD/MBA which I would love to do if I could be in Chicago)
NYU/Columbia
UCLA/USC
Stanford (I have to ask if I even have a shot! Probably not...)
Another program in CA?
Fuqua (would I have a shot?)
The reason I separated the top three from the rest is because I currently live in DC, and if I were to matriculate F2011 or F2012, it would have to be at one of those schools (my wife just started law school), I would probably only go there if I was offered decent money (Georgetown or UMD) or a full ride (GWU). Therefore, do I have a shot at getting merit scholarships from any of these three schools?
However, F2013 or F2014 I am more flexible as my wife will be graduating law school in Spring of 2013, so I can broaden my hypotheticals.
Anyways, any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated, and any advice for improving my application, as I might have a couple of years to develop, would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much!
29 Nov 2010, 01:57
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out. Let me tackle a couple of the most critical things staring your down right now.
First, the GPA issue. You are right that getting more years between you and your college experience will help, as the primary considerations will shade toward your work experience and what traits you showed in that context. However, even if you were 35, you would still need to address the attribute of discipline, focus, maturity. Your explanations are perfectly valid, but the big concern is still whether you can come focus and knock out the work in an MBA program. This is even more true when you have a high GMAT score. They think: why couldn't this really smart guy get it together? It doesn't do much good to "explain away" a low GPA, because they've heard it all before. Plus, an MBA student is going to join anywhere from 2 to 10 clubs, hit the recruiting trail, make new friends, learn a new location, etc, etc, etc, all while launching into coursework. So no matter how many irons you had in the fire, they kind of expect that everyone can juggle the work - fair or unfair. So the best thing to do thematically is focus on when the lightbulb came on for you, when you started to kick it into high gear, and then build your narrative around coming into your own as a professional. That's the best way.
Of course, all the thematic work in the world won't change your GPA, which is why you have to smart about the application process on a strategic level. You can probably rule out the super high GPA schools like HBS, Stanford, and Wharton. Feel free to apply, but don't count them in your number of "target programs." Those are pure reach schools. Conversely, you can look at bigger schools with lower average GPAs (Ross, Columbia, Stern, etc.) and aim for those. The biggest thing is to put more irons in the fire. It's inevitable that some admissions officers - weary, cynical, tasked with denying 9 of every 10 students - will see your GPA and they will just check out. We call it an "informal screen." The school may not have a policy where they scrub out the outlier marks, but the individuals will still fall victim to it. It's human nature and it's going to happen, so the goal should be to apply to more schools, so you can account for the handful where you just don't get a full review.
Once you have that nice big list, you can just work on crafting a narrative built around your strengths, starting with maturity and discipline.
On the issue of scholarships, it is our experience that GMAT is the primary factor, so it seems within the realm of possibility that you could land a big $ award even with your low GPA ... IF you can grab that admit letter first.
If you pursue 2011 at the local schools, you have more pressure to write perfect applications, even if the programs are lower ranked (maybe even because of that, as they guard against being a backup). Waiting probably gives you the best chance to sort of "pressurize" your application and it certainly expands the list of programs. Unless you are in a hurry for external reasons, I would probably recommend waiting. Of course, you can always apply to the DC schools and then not go, or request a deferment, to maximize your options.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
Thanks for reaching out. Let me tackle a couple of the most critical things staring your down right now.
First, the GPA issue. You are right that getting more years between you and your college experience will help, as the primary considerations will shade toward your work experience and what traits you showed in that context. However, even if you were 35, you would still need to address the attribute of discipline, focus, maturity. Your explanations are perfectly valid, but the big concern is still whether you can come focus and knock out the work in an MBA program. This is even more true when you have a high GMAT score. They think: why couldn't this really smart guy get it together? It doesn't do much good to "explain away" a low GPA, because they've heard it all before. Plus, an MBA student is going to join anywhere from 2 to 10 clubs, hit the recruiting trail, make new friends, learn a new location, etc, etc, etc, all while launching into coursework. So no matter how many irons you had in the fire, they kind of expect that everyone can juggle the work - fair or unfair. So the best thing to do thematically is focus on when the lightbulb came on for you, when you started to kick it into high gear, and then build your narrative around coming into your own as a professional. That's the best way.
Of course, all the thematic work in the world won't change your GPA, which is why you have to smart about the application process on a strategic level. You can probably rule out the super high GPA schools like HBS, Stanford, and Wharton. Feel free to apply, but don't count them in your number of "target programs." Those are pure reach schools. Conversely, you can look at bigger schools with lower average GPAs (Ross, Columbia, Stern, etc.) and aim for those. The biggest thing is to put more irons in the fire. It's inevitable that some admissions officers - weary, cynical, tasked with denying 9 of every 10 students - will see your GPA and they will just check out. We call it an "informal screen." The school may not have a policy where they scrub out the outlier marks, but the individuals will still fall victim to it. It's human nature and it's going to happen, so the goal should be to apply to more schools, so you can account for the handful where you just don't get a full review.
Once you have that nice big list, you can just work on crafting a narrative built around your strengths, starting with maturity and discipline.
On the issue of scholarships, it is our experience that GMAT is the primary factor, so it seems within the realm of possibility that you could land a big $ award even with your low GPA ... IF you can grab that admit letter first.
If you pursue 2011 at the local schools, you have more pressure to write perfect applications, even if the programs are lower ranked (maybe even because of that, as they guard against being a backup). Waiting probably gives you the best chance to sort of "pressurize" your application and it certainly expands the list of programs. Unless you are in a hurry for external reasons, I would probably recommend waiting. Of course, you can always apply to the DC schools and then not go, or request a deferment, to maximize your options.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Paul Lanzillotti
linkiswickeddank
30 Nov 2010, 11:56
Kudos
Bookmarks
Hi Paul,
Thank you so much for all of your advice.
I think I will wait 2,3, or 4 more years before applying. I may try to take a statistics course (something I know but never took a course in during undergrad) and differential equations course (one of my worst grades) at a nearby college to keep myself mathematically keen and show that I can do well in classes, but I will definitely talk about my new found discipline and drive in my applications that I just didn't have when I was 18-21.
Thanks again for your advice, I hope you are still consulting for B-school admissions when I end up applying!
Best,
Andrew
Thank you so much for all of your advice.
I think I will wait 2,3, or 4 more years before applying. I may try to take a statistics course (something I know but never took a course in during undergrad) and differential equations course (one of my worst grades) at a nearby college to keep myself mathematically keen and show that I can do well in classes, but I will definitely talk about my new found discipline and drive in my applications that I just didn't have when I was 18-21.
Thanks again for your advice, I hope you are still consulting for B-school admissions when I end up applying!
Best,
Andrew
