Profile Evaluation

Question

Hi,

i just found this forum and read some profile evaluations. Now i would love to get my own profile evaluated. I got some strong and some weak points and im not sure how this all adds up.

I´m a german male, 30 years old.

I finished highschool with a 1.4 GPA (Scale 1 to 6 with 1 is the best). This was seventh place that year out of ~120 (roundabout). 
I started studying math and history at a german university but left school without graduation after 3 years (honostly, i was pretty lazy and that was the main reason that i failed. No real excuses).

During those 3 years i started playing online poker and managed to become pretty good. So i played for a living for 3 more years. I didnt became rich but i earned enough to live those 3 years and finance my undergrad.

I started my undergrad at the age of 26 at an average german university (Major business and tourism) while working at a smaller branch of a FTSE100 european tour operator in the purchasing department (50% job). I graduated with a 2.2 GPA (scale 1 to 5 with 1 is the best). This is upper middle field but not Top10%. 
After graduation i stayed at the tour operator as a full time job but switched to product management. I got excellent references from everyone so far (including the COO) and got promoted a month ago (After one year full time). At the moment i´m managing the start of a new brand for the company on my own and there is a very high chance that this will develop into a teamlead position within a year as the brand grows bigger.

During my time in the purchasing departement i worked on a all day base with hotels and businesspartners in spain and the united arab emirates (But thats sadly the only international experience i got so far).

My first GMAT attemp was almost unprepared and i scored 700 (verbal better than quant, 8IR, 4 AWA). At the moment im preparing for a second try. I target 750 and im very confident that i will be able to archive it.

I teached middle- and high-school students in math for multiple years and i got elected by my undergrad class to represent it towards the faculty which i did for 3 years.

I want to apply for 2017 as i want to stay in the current position at the moment. I know i could get into good german business schools but im considering a MBA in the US to get some real international experience. Do you see a chance for me to get admitted to a good school and how could i improve my profile during the next year until i need to start to apply?

Thanks in advance.

machtharry · Answer

I forgot to mention some things.

I want to stay in the tourism industry after the MBA. I see three options:

1) Get up into the middle/higher management of a big tour operator. 
2) Switch into tourism consulting
3) Open up a start-up within the industry myself

The reason i want to do a MBA (or a MSc if i stay in germany) is to get experience for myself and to improve my career chances within the industry. Most likely i want to settle back to germany after the MBA.

Admissionado · Answer

Hey dude! Very good to hear from you. Soo overall, there are two main things you need to focus on: 1. Your GMAT 2. Your Story. Your GMAT you know about, but let me just say that the difference between a 700 and a 750 is Colossal!

So get that 750 (even if a 700 is already good), because it can mean the difference in a tier of schools or between scholarship and no scholarship. From the terms of your work experience, to be honest it's not all that strong. And no poker doesn't count as work either. So what that means is that in Top 10 schools you are gonna be a long shot. They will have a lot of applicants younger than you with better stronger work experience and higher grades too. Not to get you dejected though! Because your GMAT you already have is pretty great and if you can get that 750 then yay! Other than that I should mention in passing that Cornell has the US's most famous hospitality school. So it might be a good option when looking into US schools. For the second part, you will need some work - what you want to do, why... why you were satisfied with just poker for so long, and why you started studying so late. Explaining all this will be KEY to a successful application. I hope this helps, Best, JF

machtharry · Answer

Thank you very much for your answer! It helped a lot. And to be honost - its more or less positive news. I´ve been aware of my weaknesses so im not surprised that i wont be able to get into the top schools. To summerize what you said: I will have a shot at schools were im over the GMAT average by a good margin and if im able to explain the poker thing. I´m pretty sure i´m able to do that. I did a bit of research today to figured out some schools that might be an option and i realised that canadian b-schools generally seem to fit better than US b-schools. And Canada is an option as well (especially as im not a fan of hot weather :-D

). For example the University of Alberta isnt in the top10 or 20 but its still ranked in the top100 worldwide according to the FT Ranking. Thats not that far behind Mannheim (my german option) and the average GMAT score is relativly low with 628. If i manage to get the 750 im aiming for i would be more than a houndret points above that. Seems like the good margin i need or even more than that. Additionally the tuition is quite a bit lower than in most US-Schools which isnt a bad thing too. So i guess i will focus on my GMAT the next few months and afterwards aim towards that direction. Not counting out US schools yet but keeping an eye on Canada as well for now. A hospitality school isnt really an option. I think i need a stronger theoretical background in Business but im fine regarding my knowledge about the tourism industry but still thanks for the idea!

VeritasPrepDozie · Answer

Thanks for sharing your profile. You have a non-traditional profile which means you really will need to connect the dots on your story for admissions. This will be the biggest question mark on your application. If we assume you can hit that 750 it will give you some leeway with other aspects of your so hitting that number should help you out. I think top 10 will be challenging but I would focus on programs in the US like Cornell or USC/UCLA that will help you reach your career goals

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