Will My Community College Past Hold Back My Potential MBA Future

Question

Fresh out of high school, at the ripe age of 17, I truly had no inclination as to what direction I wanted to take in life. So - as many confused graduates do - I enrolled in a local Community College, Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) to be precise. I then spent 4 years taking an eclectic lot of classes, while attempting to unearth my "passion", and earning grades ranging from piss poor to outstanding. My overall GPA was just shy of a 3.0, if my memory serves me well.

After 4 years in absolute paradise, I was, miraculously, able to transfer into a somewhat decent university - The University of California, Davis (UCD). I graduated from UC Davis in 2013 after 2 full years with a respectable GPA of 3.61, and am currently considering applying to MBA programs matriculating in the Fall of 2017. This leads me to my question(s):

Will my 4 years at SBCC with a low GPA drag down the mild success I had in earning a 3.61 at a much more respectable university (UCD)?

To be clear:

Will my lowered average GPA (SBCC and UCD combined) drag down my admissions prospects?
Will the 4 years I spent at SBCC be looked down upon, as opposed to the traditional 2? Additionally, what are the thoughts on community college transfers in general?

I appreciate any and all responses - so, thank you in advance. Grazie, grazie mille.

essaysnark · Answer

Hey Beanz33! Great question - and from what you've described, we don't see any big issues here.

For clarification though: Is your 3.61 just from those last 2 years at UCD? Or is that cumulative, including the original ~3.0 from the CC?

California CCs are pretty good quality and it's fine that you used that time to figure yourself out - you were very young, after all! And if you explored a wide range of classes and subjects then a) that shows you were curious and willing to go outside your comfort zone, and b) it can make a lower GPA more understandable (we can't all be experts in everything so it makes sense if grades dipped here and there). The final two years of college tend to hold more weight in bschool admissions and you ended strong. So we see nothing to worry about here. You probably will want to write a (short!) optional essay to explain things to the schools but they'll take this in stride, given the info you've offered here.

Of course, it does depend on what you ended up majoring in... If you didn't end up in anything very quant-intensive then the adcoms will look to that part of your GMAT for proof you can handle the MBA curriculum. Also the GMAT will matter, just as it does for everyone, as another important datapoint; a high GMAT cannot fully offset any challenges with academics but it always helps overall. If you want to share what yours is, and also which bschools you're targeting, then we can try to offer some additional commentary on this from that limited perspective (though to be fair, such assessments are not worth much, since there are so many moving parts to all of this, and the work history and goals and essays and everything else counts for huge amounts too).

Anyway: Don't let this worry you. The schools can appreciate the growing-up process that people go through so no harm done with this more circuitous route through your education!

EssaySnark

essaysnark · Answer

And this reply is relevant to this thread how?

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Beanz33 · Answer

Thank you for that quick response, EssaySnark! To clarify, my 3.61 is strictly from the last 2 years at UCD (not inclusive of my 3.0 at CC). I majored in Economics and am currently a 2015 CFA L2 Candidate and have also passed Level 1 of the CAIA Exams, I find that I typically excel in quantitative-based subject matter. I currently work in asset management for a major wire-house and have progessed up the chain from intern - during college - to Financial Advisor and Associate Partner of my team.

My goal, however, is to eventually end up in the Alernative Investment space - think HF or PE. That being said, I need to transition into IB or Management Consulting, I beleive, in order to be a viable candidate for a mid-market, or higher, PE firm or HF. This leads me to my interest in attending business school.

My 1st choice, as of now, is Columbia - albeit quite a stretch. However, in general, I am currently interested in most of the schools ranked in the top 15 domestically (broad goal is to get into a top 10 program). Fortunately, time is on my side and I plan to begin grooming myself for applications starting immediately. So, again, any and all responses are welcome. Thank you!!

essaysnark · Answer

You've got a lot going for you and we can already seen plenty of positives in what you've shared here. Columbia is a school that tends to be more gunshy on low GPA but if your CGPA is > 3.0 you can be fine even there - and you have strengths in all the stuff that matters. The CFA is additive (we have a few posts  on the CFA  on the EssaySnark blahg - unfortunately they're behind our paywall so apologies for that but linking to them anyway in case anyone is interested - we have plenty available for free too! including  this entire page on applying to Columbia ) and what's most important is this strong career progression that you've demonstrated. IB -> PE can work though as you probably know, some people in i-banking are a little dismissive of that path and why someone would want to flip like that. We're not so keen on pitching the adcoms with management consulting as the entry point to later going after HF or PE; that's a much harder jump to make later on and it will be harder to sell them on (particularly at a school like Columbia where the career goals matter a lot in the application).

Bottom line: The academic history that you've shared with us is not going to keep you out so full speed ahead with the rest of the planning and strategy! You are clearly doing your homework well so that's great. Keep us posted and let us know if we can help along the way.

EssaySnark

Beanz33 · Answer

Thank you for the advice and guidance, EssaySnark. I will delve deeper into the Columbia specifics - utilizing the link you forwarded. If anything else comes up I'll add it here. Thanks again!

Beanz33 · Answer

After re-analyzing my old transcipts from CC as well as UCD I have determined that my cumulative GPA would be approximately a 3.28. I did this weighted by unit, and discluded any credits taken as Pass/No Pass. Keeping in mind that my overall CC GPA was a 3.07 and my overall UCD GPA was a 3.61, will my calculated CGPA allow me to be competetive in the Ivy League arena?

Obviously this is a tiny piece of the application puzzle, but strictly from a CGPA perspective could I even be considered for admissions with this?

Obviously this is a tiny piece of the application puzzle, but strictly from a CGPA perspective could I even be considered for admissions with this?

Will My Community College Past Hold Back My Potential MBA Future

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